Mercer Island’s own and UW alum Joel McHale returns to television in Animal Control, a new single-camera workplace comedy that premiered on FOX Entertainment on February 16th. The show follows a group of animal control workers whose lives are complicated by the fact that animals are simple, but humans are not. McHale stars as Frank, a former cop who got fired for trying to expose corruption in his department. He now works as an opinionated and eccentric animal control officer who has a superhuman ability to understand animals but struggles to understand humans.
The show is filmed in Vancouver, B.C., but its setting is Seattle. Although not surprising in the least bit, this decision has disappointed many in Seattle’s acting community and film/television production crews, who would prefer the show to be both set and filmed in Seattle. Before the decision was made to set the show in Seattle, pre-production plans originally had the show set in Chicago. McHale advocated for Seattle as the setting because British Columbia’s terrain looks nothing like Chicago. Puget Sound area residents can expect several references to Seattle locations scattered throughout the season.
Animal Control has also faced criticism from PETA for its use of animals. PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Welfare, Debbie Metzler, released a statement calling Animal Control “a sickening soup of animal exploitation” and advocating for CGI-generated animals to be used on television shows and movies.
Reviews have been mixed, with critics generally finding the show more positive than negative. Audience reviews have been slightly more critical, with a score of just 42% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, with only one episode aired so far, the show still has time to win over audiences.
The show is FOX Entertainment’s first wholly-owned live-action comedy and is executive-produced by Bob Fisher, Rob Greenberg, Dan Sterling, Tad Quill, and McHale.
Animal Control airs on Q13 FOX Thursdays at 9pm.
