A highly-rated new comedy series, Animal Control, may be the perfect replacement for the incredibly popular Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The critically acclaimed and award-winning comedy series, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, premiered in 2013 and ran for eight seasons. Created by Dan Goor and Michael Schur for FOX, the hit sitcom followed a group of NYPD detectives through complete chaos. It starred Andy Samberg, Stephanie Beatriz, Terry Crews, the late Andre Braugher, and more.
The series was praised for its effective use of workplace humor and the way it parodied life within law enforcement. Fox launched a new comedy series in 2023 that achieved the same praise for the same reasons, but the Joel McHale-led sitcom focuses on an even wilder section of law enforcement. Animal Control, which returns for season 3 next year, delivered a lot of fun to audiences in its first two seasons, and has the Rotten Tomatoes numbers to back it up.
Animal Control: A Wild Ride in the World of Animal Control
In Animal Control, actor Joel McHale plays the educated and eccentric control officer Frank Shaw, who leads a complicated group of animal control workers in Seattle, Washington. This was Fox's first fully-owned live action comedy, and one that would hopefully stay in their possession, given that Brooklyn Nine-Nine ended its run with NBC, so they pushed for multiple seasons of chaos right away. The first premiered in February 2023 to massive praise for its lighthearted and hilarious comedic chops, and the second season in 2024 continued to garner attention and laughs.
Comparing Animal Control to Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Audience reviews for Animal Control were mostly positive, currently standing at 63% from hundreds of audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. This doesn't hold a torch to Brooklyn Nine-Nine's impressive 88% popcornmeter average throughout the 10-season run, but the talk about Fox's new sitcom was enough to warrant sequel seasons. The top 10 critics that have reviewed the series on Rotten Tomatoes shared an average score of 80%, and the influence of popular sitcoms like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which recently saw newfound success as it climbed Netflix's charts, is abundantly obvious.
How Animal Control Differs
Animal Control is a single-camera-focused sitcom television series from FOX and stars Joel McHale as a local animal control team member. All of them coming from diverse backgrounds, the misfit crew will navigate their relationships and the various challenges brought by different animals as they try to work together to become a fully functional department.
The Future of Animal Control
Fox renewed Animal Control for a third season ahead of the second season's premiere, and the creative team behind the episodic sitcom got back into production this past summer. The story is set to continue in 2025, and while not much is known about the full scope of season 3, and there are no confirmed plot details, it is certain that the showrunners will continue building off of previous dynamics and their electric cast of ragtag animal control officers.
A 2025 release date is not confirmed, but we can safely assume that the release of Season 3 will line up with the previous two seasons and premiere early next year, between January and March. The series can be streamed on Hulu and other services now.
Is Animal Control the New Brooklyn Nine-Nine?
Joel McHale is confirmed to return alongside the rest of the main cast, including Michael Rowland, Vella Lovell, Ravi Patel, Grace Palmer, and Gerry Dee. If you are a fan of the office nonsense that occurred in Brooklyn's 99th precinct, or the cheap humor that flooded the expeditions of Jake Peralta and Amy Santiago, and more fan-favorite characters in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, then you should check out Animal Control, as Fox looks to compete with iconic comedies of the past. Despite not being nearly as popular or acclaimed, it has the potential to fill the hole in Brooklyn Nine-Nine fans' hearts.
