The full trailer for Sheriff Country is here, and it promises exciting action and heart-tugging family drama in equal measure.
The Fire Country spinoff – which premieres Oct. 17 on CBS – follows Mickey Fox (Morena Baccarin), interim sheriff of Edgewater. The trailer sets up what the show is all about — Mickey is a good cop who works hard to serve the community she’s lived in her whole life (she’s the stepsister of fellow Edgewater native fire chief Sharon Leone [Diane Farr] on Fire Country). She has problems at home, though; her daughter, Skye (Amanda Arcuri), is a drug addict who’s fallen in with a bad crowd.
To help her take care of Skye, she asks her father, outlaw cannabis grower Wes (W. Earl Brown), to move in with her. He might be trouble, but he’s still a good influence. And their own relationship needs work, too. There are people in town who don’t want her to be sheriff permanently — including inside of her own department — but she’s determined to prove them wrong by showing how her knowledge of and love for Edgewater make her perfect for the job.
Parade talked to co-creators Tony Phelan and Joan Rater about what to expect from Sheriff Country, which shows a different side of Edgewater than Fire Country fans are used to seeing — and a different type of cop show than viewers usually get.
“Fire Country, it’s about wildland firefighting, and we wanted to show the town,” Phelan says. “We wanted to meet the people in the town. And the exciting thing about this show, as opposed to other law enforcement shows, is because it’s set in a small town, Mickey knows pretty much everybody that she’s rolling up on. So her job is very much about de-escalation. It’s very much about, ‘What do I do so that I don’t have to arrest somebody here?’ “
“We also wanted to tell the story of somebody who had a messy life, but you never worried she was not good at her job,” Rater adds. “I do think [community-minded police officers] are heroes, and I do think they do really hard jobs and with integrity. And that’s what we wanted to show you. Somebody who you never worried she was going to go to the dark side, but you saw her with really complex situations that she has to deal with.”
Phelan and Rater — who created the show with Fire Country co-creator and star Max Thieriot — are excited for people to get to know Sheriff Country’s new characters, as well as see how familiar faces from Fire Country cross over.
“We have so many opportunities for crossovers that we’re taking advantage of,” Rater says. “I think it’ll be a fun little surprise for fans to see Manny [from Fire Country, played by Kevin Alejandro] pop up in an episode, and vice versa over at Fire.”
Sheriff Country has its own cast of interesting characters, including Boone (Matt Lauria), Mickey’s closest colleague on the force; Travis (Christopher Gorham), Mickey’s ex-husband with whom she does not see eye-to-eye on how to deal with Skye; Cassidy (Michele Weaver), a deputy who worships Mickey but is secretly dating Travis; and Gina (Caroline Rhea), Mickey’s eccentric assistant.
“I think that we’re going to love the family at home, but also the family in the station,” Phelan says. “Boone and Cassidy and Gina are just great characters, and we got very lucky with our casting. We’re really excited for people to fall in love with these characters and want to see what’s going to happen with them, because, as in Fire, there are soap elements that affect the way they do their jobs.”
The creators are also excited for fans to see a different type of storytelling than Fire Country is able to do. “The other big difference between Sheriff and Fire is that Sheriff is dealing with mysteries,” Phelan says. “It’s dealing with crimes that we’re encountering and putting the pieces together to figure out what’s actually going on. It’s a whole different story engine than we have on Fire, and that’s been a lot of fun to do.”
Sheriff Country premieres on CBS on Friday, Oct. 17 at 9/8c, after the Season 4 premiere of Fire Country at 8/7c. Starting Oct. 24, Fire Country will air at its regular time Fridays at 9/8c and Sheriff Country will air Fridays at 8/7c. New episodes will be available to stream on Paramount+.
