''Animal Control'' is an American
sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...
that premiered on February 16, 2023 on
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
. ''Animal Control'' is produced by Roughhouse Productions, Middletown News, Wow a Fox and
Fox Entertainment Studios.
Premise
A group of
Animal Control workers in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
begin to see their lives complicated by humans and not so much by animals.
Cast
*
Joel McHale as Frank Shaw, a disillusioned and emotionally-distant Senior Animal Control Officer. His bad attitude stems from once being a cop but was sacked after finding evidence of corruption among his force. He frequently belittles his new partner Shred and acts like a total jerk to the rest of his precinct.
*
Vella Lovell
Vella Lovell (born September 13, 1985) is an American actress, known for playing Heather Davis in The CW comedy-drama series ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'' as well as providing the voice of Mermista in ''She-Ra and the Princesses of Power'', Khadija in ' ...
as Emily Price, the good-natured Human Resources director at the A.C. precinct. She often tries to improve her career and get a more well-paying job, but is constantly stone-walled by Commissioner Dudge and the others do not want her to leave on account of how easy it is to take advantage of her.
* Michael Rowland as Fred "Shred·" Taylor, Frank's new partner. An idealistic amateur Animal Control officer and a former professional snowboarder. His unbound idealism causes him to deflect the negativity that his precinct often dishes out, but just barely.
*
Ravi V. Patel as Amit Patel, one of the Animal Control officers of Frank's precinct. He has two daughters who are mostly used for the jokes revolving around his family life.
*
Grace Palmer
Grace Mana Morrell Palmer (born 9 November 1994) is a New Zealand actress, best known for her role as Lucy Rickman on the prime-time soap opera ''Shortland Street''.
Early life
Palmer was born in Tai Tapu, New Zealand to parents Tony Palmer an ...
as Victoria Sands, a street-smart Animal Control officer from New Zealand and Amit's partner. She is often seen helping Amit come out of his shell in order to do his job. Next to Frank, she takes her job seriously.
*
Gerry Dee
Gerry Dee (born Gerard Francis-John Donoghue;[Profile](_blank)
, oct.ca; accessed February ...
as Commissioner Templeton Dudge, the mean-spirited commissioner of the Seattle Animal Control Officers. He would gladly go out of his way to taunt and harass Frank's precinct due to their less-than-stellar record of handling animals. More often than not, the precinct would gladly give the abuse back.
* Kelli Ogmundson as Dolores Stubb, the self-righteous receptionist of Frank's precinct. She has a tendency to meddle with the officers' affairs for prideful reasons. As a result, she is disliked by the officers, who take every opportunity to drag her through the coals.
* Alvina August as Dr. Summers, the attractive veterinarian in Frank's precinct. She is often targeted as a lust object by the officers, which is a recurring joke in the show.
Episodes
Production
In July 2022, it was announced Fox had given a straight-to-series order to ''Animal Control'' from
Bob Fisher,
Rob Greenberg
Rob Greenberg is an American writer.
Credits
Writing Television
*''The Moodys'' (written by)
*''Spellbound'' (2004/I) (TV) (writer)
*''Harry's Girl'' (2003) (TV) (writer)
*''Spellbound'' (2003) (TV) (writer)
*''Bad Haircut'' (2001) (TV) (write ...
,
Dan Sterling
Dan Sterling is an American screenwriter and television producer who has worked on many successful television shows, including ''King of the Hill'', '' Kitchen Confidential'', ''The Daily Show'', ''South Park'', ''The Sarah Silverman Program'' and ...
and
Fox Entertainment
Fox Entertainment is an American production company owned by Fox Corporation. The company was formed in 2019 after The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of 21st Century Fox. The programming is created for the Fox Broadcasting Company, MyNetwork ...
, marking Fox Entertainment Studios' first fully owned live-action comedy. In October of that year,
Joel McHale joined the series as the lead and executive producer.
Vella Lovell
Vella Lovell (born September 13, 1985) is an American actress, known for playing Heather Davis in The CW comedy-drama series ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'' as well as providing the voice of Mermista in ''She-Ra and the Princesses of Power'', Khadija in ' ...
and
Ravi Patel joined the cast later that same month. Most portions of ''Animal Control'' are lensed in and around
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
, the most populous city in British Columbia, and were filmed in the Vancouver area from October 31, 2022 to January 25, 2023.
Reception
Critical response
The
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
reported a 60% approval rating with an average rating of 6/10, based on 10 critic reviews.
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 68 out of 100 based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
PETA response
The show has been criticized by
PETA for using live animals on the set rather than
CGI,
VFX
Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of
a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production.
The integration of live-action footage and other live-action foota ...
or other technology.
Ratings
References
External links
*
*
{{Fox Network Shows (current and upcoming)
2020s American sitcoms
2023 American television series debuts
Fox Broadcasting Company original programming
English-language television shows
Television series about animals
Television series by Fox Entertainment