Why ‘Sheriff Country’ & ‘Fire Country’ Are On Hiatus for 10 Weeks & When They’ll Return with New Episodes
The Sheriff Country Season 1 fall finale did not disappoint. It brought drama, heartbreak, romance, and so much more.
The start of the hour saw Mickey working to ease tensions after a father escaped his father-in-law’s compound with his son.
That sparked the father-in-law’s anger, but it also led to social services becoming involved to protect the father and son.
However, as the FBI stupidly stepped in, things took a turn for the worse, and now we’re heading into the winter break with plenty of questions and fears.
Showrunner Matt Lopez chatted with TV Fanatic exclusively about that major episode. We had the time to turn cliches on their heads and consider where certain characters will go after the truths come out.
Check out our interview below!
I’ve loved Sheriff Country from the beginning, and something that stood out was how you’d bring what seemed to be a trope or cliche for cop dramas and then turn it on its head.
At what point in the development did you know you wanted to and had to do that?
Very early on, actually. One of the inspirations for Sheriff Country, and where we’ve gone in Season 1, is westerns. Films like High Noon inspired me, and I was inspired by the iconic figure of the small-town sheriff, who, let’s face it, is always a man. So the first subversion is right there.
Taking that quintessential, iconic American trope of the sheriff and making it a 21st-century woman whose first instinct is to de-escalate — not just to carry a peacemaker, but actually to be a peacemaker — it all started there.
We will see for Mickey that it’s a constant tension. Her instinct is to make peace, but sometimes, you have to be prepared for war, which we see in our midseason finale. We deliver really satisfying crime stories, but we’re not overly concerned about them.
In Sheriff Country, we’re more concerned with human nature and human conflict in families and individuals, what leads them to commit crimes, and what leads them to make good and bad choices.
We’re much more concerned with that rather than taking a hair fiber and putting it under a microscope. I love that stuff, but other shows do that so well, and we need to be different.
The fact that Mickey is a cop in a small town where she knows everyone is both an avenue and an engine for exploring those kinds of more personal stories.
It’s asking someone what they think, what they saw, and what they felt, and that’s a big part of the show’s success.
I love that we do have Mickey and Cassidy, who have known everyone, and then Boone, who doesn’t, so he has to work the cases as a traditional cop. When did you know you needed to have these two different sides of the coin?
There was a moment early in the writer’s room where I asked Tony, Joan, and Max, the creators of the show, about the pilot episode, which was written before I came on as showrunner.
Boone didn’t have much backstory, and I asked them if he came from Edgewater, but they didn’t know. So, I asked them to let me run with that he’s not.
If you look at all the great television duos and partnerships — the gold standard for me is Mulder and Scully from The X-Files — they’re so different, and their world views are so different.
There is overlap, and there’s a bedrock of mutual respect and admiration, and even romantic affection, but their world views are so different.
On the one hand, it makes them want to kill each other. But on the other hand, it’s what makes them so formidable. We see that in Episode 3, where Mickey ends up being wrong, and I love that.
We’re a show where the main character can be wrong, and I love having Morena [Baccarin] be willing to be wrong, to screw up, and have blind spots.
Boone’s got his own blind spots, but they’re different from Mickey’s blind spots, and I think that’s what makes them so watchable.
In Sheriff Country Season 1 Episode 9, we finally get to see something of Mickey and Boone’s connection before she became sheriff. Why did you wait so long to give us that moment in the car?
Well, coming out of the gate, they obviously had this massive source of conflict, which was Skye, Mickey’s daughter, being implicated in murder. Mickey could not be involved in that investigation in any way, so it fell to her No. 2; it fell to Boone.
That put a lot of tension on their relationship. No matter how many times he told her that he was doing what she would do — and he was right — it was still Mickey’s daughter, so that was very tense.
Then we saw them get past it and start to take baby steps in their relationship, and what happens?
He puts in his resignation, and he’s got this wife down in Oakland. It forces both of them to reckon with whether their partnership can be restored to what it once was.
They are both very prideful people, and there were moments along the way when Boone wished he hadn’t submitted the resignation and Mickey wished she hadn’t accepted it. They’re not going to tell the other one that, and that’s part of what we love about them.
Now, through [Sheriff Country Season 1] Episodes 7, 8, and 9, we’re really starting to see them find their footing and get back to the dynamic duo that they used to be.
On the other side of our midseason finale — if they can survive this crucible — they have a chance to emerge even stronger and reach a new level in their comradeship and their partnership.
We have retired deputies and current deputies who consult with us, and they say those bonds forged with your partner in many ways can exceed the intimacy that you have with your spouse.
It’s not physical, but going through these intense situations together forges a bond. Mickey and Boone have that, and we love it, and we can now see where those storm clouds are a little further back in the rearview mirror.
Their charm and sense of humor are Matt and Morena on the car ride. Where they’re bantering and teasing each other about their own messed-up love lives, that very much taps into their off-set chemistry, so it’s fun to see.
Speaking of spouses — and I should say ex-spouses — we have Travis and Mickey and this push for a reconciliation. But, he’s just been shot! What is Mickey thinking and feeling right now?
He kisses her. He confesses that he still loves her, and he says, ‘I’m here to fight for you.’ They both give a beautiful performance. In that moment, she is knocked back on her heels. She’s like, ‘Whoa, am I falling in love with my ex-husband again?’
But you’re right. In the closing frames of our midseason finale, Travis is shot. The episode on the other side is filled with so much great action, but, like any great action movie, it’s only exciting if you care.
It’s a tremendous episode. It’s our most action-packed episode, by far. We deliver the goods, like it’s straight-up Die Hard vibes.
But Travis’s life hangs in the balance. To some extent, all their lives hang in the balance. They are under siege. They’re undermanned, and they’re outgunned. How can they survive the night?
The implications, especially the emotional ones, will last the rest of the season.
After Travis’s speech, I am rooting for them! But before I run out of time, I want to discuss Cassidy. My heart broke for her as she gave such an understandable speech about hope. Now, she’s showing signs that it is time to find out the truth. What is going through her mind?
That turns into an emotional story that’s very satisfying, and a really gripping mystery.
Some episodes are coming up on the other side of [the break] where we delve into, and she really starts to look into, the story of what happened to her sister. She left for a party one night and never came home. What happened? It’s a great edge-of-your-seat mystery.
She doesn’t want to pull that string. As long as you don’t know for sure, there’s a shred of hope. Maybe she moved to Ohio and got married. Maybe she decided she didn’t want to be part of this family anymore.
It’s exciting, and Hank is a character who’s highly competitive.
We met in Sheriff Country Season 1 Episode 8, and he continues in Episode 9, and we’re going to see more of him. He and Cassidy have a fun relationship of their own. They’re rivals, and he busts her chops mercilessly.
Mickey, Boone, and others in Cassidy’s life could have told her she needed to look into this, and it may not have had the same effect.
Sometimes, it’s the people you’re least likely to hear it from who somehow get through to you. He breaks through to her at the end of the episode. She’s got the file in her hand, and she’s gonna start figuring out what happened.
Congratulations on the early Season 2 renewal. Where are you with planning that?
We’re down the stretch. We’re shooting Episode 17 right now, and then we have Episodes 18, 19, and 20 to take us through the middle of February. I was joking about it, but I’ll do it.
We’ll wrap Sheriff Country Season 1 Episode 20 on Friday and open the writer’s room for Sheriff Country Season 2 on Monday.
We have some markers. We have some cliffhangers in our season finale, some of which we know where they’re going and some that we need to figure out, but there’s a lot of exciting story to tell for Season 2.
I’m so gratified by the way audiences have responded to the show. It’s virtually unheard of, but our audience for each episode has grown. It’s going to plateau at some point, but I’m so gratified by how people are dialling in.
Don’t say that. Game of Thrones kept growing, and Will Trent is doing it. You can do it, too. You’ve got this!
I appreciate you saying that.
This interview was edited for clarity and length.
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