Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Animal Control’ Season 2 On Fox, Where Joel McHale Leads A Funny Crew Of Animal Control Officers

Animal Control‘s creators, Rob Greenberg and Bob Fisher, never set out to reinvent the workplace comedy. They knew that filling the show with a strong ensemble of off-center characters that act like a “found family”, and giving everyone character-driven punch lines and funny moments, will be a winning formula. They accomplished that in the show’s first season, and it continues during the second.

ANIMAL CONTROL SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An animal control truck drives through downtown Seattle. Frank (Joel McHale) wistfully talks to his partner Shred (Michael Rowland) about how it’s mating season, including “a lot of Dumpster humping. Love is in the air.”

The Gist: Shred, who is not a probationary animal control officer, knows he’s now an equal to Frank. So when Shred laments about missing his opportunity with their boss, Emily (Vella Lovell), who is now dating the super-nice Rick Doyle (Kevin Bigley), and Frank wants to kick him out of the truck, Shred says he can’t do that anymore.

Frank and Shred, as well as Ravi (Amit Patel) and Victoria (Grace Palmer), are called to a bowling alley to coral a bunch of racoons who have gotten into the bar’s liquor supply. One is actually humping a bowling ball, which justifies to Ravi why he owns his own ball. Before they got the call about the raccoons, Ravi was planning a babymoon for him and his pregnant wife; he justifies it by saying he needs a vacation, even though he’s not carrying the baby.

Back at the office, after Victoria and Ravi brag that they saw an Arkansas license plate, putting them in the office lead, a long-haired DJ-type walks in and hands Victoria divorce papers. Everyone is shocked that the carefree single Victoria is married, but she explains that she did it to get a green card. Emily thinks that, as an essential worker, her green card can be sponsored by the department, but she finds out from a city clerk that animal control is the only department considered inessential, which sends her spiraling. Bettany (Krystal Smith), the precinct’s new receptionist, vows to “take care of” that clerk, over Emily’s entreaties to not do anything harsh.

Shred is so down about the Emily thing that the usually-snarky Frank proposes that they can do what Shred wants, which Shred immediately calls “Shred’s Day.” It involves going to a kids’ trampoline park and having waffles. At the waffle house, Frank sees Yazmin (Sarah Chalke), a waitress that he dated for awhile until she completely ghosted him. She wants to explain herself, so they set a time for a date. But she gets cold feet again when he talks about dating again.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Animal Control is a classic workplace comedy in the vein of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Office, Parks And Recreation, etc.

Our Take: The core ensemble of Animal Control, led by McHale, continues to be strong in Season 2. McHale isn’t treading new ground with Frank Shaw; he’s the same misanthrope-with-a-heart that he played for so many years (and will play again) on Community. But the character works well with this group, and with Chalke’s character Yazmin, we see that some of that misanthropy is a bit of an act, which will always be a good source of funny lines and situations.

Of course, there is always the added fun of the animal gags, and the one in the bowling alley was funny. But the rest of the episode was relatively animal free, aside from a dog Emily found outside the office that eventually got reunited with its family; that’s just fine with us, because the show has never been about the CGI animal gags and more about the relationships between the people in the precinct and the world around it.

What we like about how the second season starts is that the storylines aren’t any kind of big character swings; they’re just continuing the stories that were established in Season 1. The Emily/Shred/Jack triangle is especially interesting to watch, even if it’s a will-they-won’t-they plot that’s straight out of Workplace Comedy 101. It works because Shred is such an innocent and Emily is a boss who means well and just wants the precinct to do a good job under her watch. Are we necessarily rooting for them to get together? No; their pairing isn’t a Jim-Pam-style inevitability. But it’s fun to see two similarly-minded characters slowly figure out that they’re each other’s person.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Frank, about to bail out of the truck because of Shred’s lovelorn complaining, gets back in when Shred spots a Vermont plate, which puts them in the lead in the precinct competition.

Sleeper Star: We hope Sarah Chalke comes back as Yazmin; her character seems to be more people-averse than Frank is, which is saying something.

Most Pilot-y Line: Victoria bemoans having to learn facts about the U.S. to take the citizenship test; Ravi gives her a thick book to use to study, and she flips through it and says, “Oh wait, you guys won World War II?” She’s doomed…

Our Call: STREAM IT. Animal Control has a strong ensemble, and characters that are inherently funny without the need to spew gags. That is very evident in the second season, even after you get past the very funny view of drunken raccoons.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.