SHERIFF COUNTRY (Fridays, 8:00-9:00 PM) stars Morena Baccarin as straight-shooting sheriff Mickey Fox,
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“It was a bit harrowing when people kept saying to me, ‘this might be a spin-off, but it just depends on whether or not they like you. So just, you know, do your best, and hopefully… you’ll get your own show,’” says Morena Baccarin of thoughts while guest starring on Fire Country.
Baccarin needn’t have worried. She easily secured her spot as the lead of the new series Sheriff Country.
In the show, Baccarin plays law enforcement officer Mickey Fox who investigates criminal activity while patrolling the streets of small-town Edgewater as she contends with her ex-con father and a mysterious incident involving her wayward daughter.
In addition to Baccarin, Sheriff Country stars Matt Lauria, W. Earl Brown, Michele Weaver, and Christopher Gorham. Created by Fire Country’s Max Thieriot, Tony Phelan, and Joan Rater, serve as showrunners with executive producer Matt Lopez. Thierot is also an executive producer on the series.
“What really inspired me to create Fire Country was this opportunity to tell a story rooted in the community that I grew up in, and to shine a light on the real-life heroes who put everything on the line to protect their neighbors,” explains Thierot, adding, “From the beginning, the show has always been about more than just the action, though. It’s about resilience, redemption, the human spirit, and getting to see how audiences have connected with these characters,”
Expanding the world with the creation of Sheriff Country, Thierot says has been, “Pretty dang exciting for me.”
Thierot admits that there are aspects of Fire Country that he incorporated in this new series. “I think family, the community, the small town, kind of grounding it in this place where everybody knows everyone, and everything is that much more personal. That’s one of the big core elements. [And, another is] that both shows take place in Edgewater, so it’s really about building out a better sense of the things that go on [there].”
Phelan expands on this, saying, “That’s hopefully one of the things that makes this a different kind of police procedural — is that [the characters] are dealing with people that [they] know when [they] roll up on a lot of situations. And that doesn’t mean that the stakes aren’t as high, but it does, I think, affect how you police. And, this also gives us an opportunity to show more of Edgewater, and who lives there, and the kind of things that they’re grappling with. And there’s something great about setting a show, not in a big urban setting, but instead in this small town. It’s exciting, it leads to different stories.”
Baccarin says that, “For the fans of Fire Country, it’s exciting to see the family grow and to see how Mickey is so ever frustrated with her family.”
That family includes Mickey’s ex-husband and her daughter Skye.
Gorham, who plays Travis, Mickey’s ex, says, “One of my favorite things about the beginning of this first season is really digging and learning more about Travis and Mickey’s relationship, and what happened with them, because when we meet them, they’ve been divorced for about five years, and they’re doing their best to co-parent their daughter. It makes for great drama.”
In response to this, Baccarin says Mickey is actually dealing with a lot in that, “She’s most comfortable in her office, where she knows that she’s competent, and she knows how to handle the situations and solve the problems. [But], she’s got this relationship with her daughter that’s incredibly complicated. Her father is literally growing illegal weed, and she’s a sheriff, and she’s got her ex-husband, who is doing some things that she does not agree with. It’s all a very high-pressure situation.”
She concludes that, “The show really is about taking somebody who is very black and white and putting them in really awkward and gray situations, and [it] makes for combustion.”
Thierot says that in crafting Sheriff Country in a world crowded with content, he feels, “In my eyes, the goal is always to create the best television show possible, right? To have the best, most compelling characters, and do the best that we can with what we have, and I think if the product is great, people will find it, and I think this show really is that.”
‘Sheriff Country’ premieres on Friday, October 17th at 9/8c on CBS, and is available for streaming on Paramount+