Animal Control Review: Season 5 Brings Back the Bite

This new batch of episodes picks up with the local animal control crew still juggling the strangest job in the civic budget. Leading them is Frank Shaw (Joel McHale), an opinionated, eccentric officer who never went to college yet remains the most well-read person in any room he walks into. Before this life, Frank was a cop who tried to expose corruption inside his own department - a move that got him fired and left him cynical, curmudgeonly, and permanently allergic to authority.

What Frank lacks in people skills, he more than makes up for with animals. He's blessed with an almost superhuman ability to understand them, which is handy when your job is chasing them out of places they absolutely should not be. Around him, the team keeps the operation from collapsing: Vella Lovell's Emily Price, Michael Rowland's Fred "Shred" Taylor, Ravi Patel's Amit Patel, and Grace Palmer's Victoria Sands. Season 5 leans into what the show does well - the idea that animals are simple, but humans are anything but.

Here's the thing about Animal Control at this stage of its life: it knows exactly what it is, and there's something genuinely comforting about that. Season 5 arrives with the confidence of a show that has figured out its own rhythm. The premise remains deceptively simple - a municipal crew, a rotating parade of wildlife, and a workplace comedy engine purring underneath.

McHale is the anchor, and he's clearly having fun. Frank could easily be a one-note grouch, but the writing keeps reminding us there's a bruised idealist under all that sarcasm. The man got fired for trying to do the right thing, and that backstory quietly colors every eye-roll. He's the most well-read guy in the room and the least likely to admit he cares about anyone in it. It's a great comedic tension, and McHale plays it with the loose, lived-in charm of someone who's been doing this long enough to make it look effortless.

The ensemble is where the season really earns its keep. Lovell, Rowland, Patel, and Palmer each get moments to shine, and the show understands that Frank works best when he's bouncing off people who refuse to take his nonsense seriously. The dynamic keeps things buoyant even when a given episode's animal-of-the-week gag runs a little thin. And yes, the animals remain the MVP. There's a running joke baked into the show's DNA - the creatures are easy to read, the people never are - and Season 5 milks it without wearing it out.

Is it groundbreaking? No. Is it trying to be? Absolutely not. This is comfort-food television: thirty-ish minutes of workplace banter, a few solid laughs, and a lead performance that carries the whole thing on its shoulders. The comedy plays it safe more often than it swings for the fences, and there are stretches where you can feel the formula creaking. But the formula works, and after four seasons, the show has earned the right to coast on its own strengths.

What's most impressive is how the series has aged. Plenty of comedies in their fifth year start recycling themselves, but Animal Control still finds fresh angles on the same basic joke - that the job would be great if it weren't for the humans. Frank's past as a whistleblower keeps giving the character just enough weight to prevent the whole thing from floating away.

Pros

• Joel McHale's Frank remains a genuinely funny, surprisingly layered lead
• The ensemble cast clicks, with each member getting room to breathe
• The animals-are-simple, humans-are-not premise still lands
• Easy, low-stakes viewing that knows its lane

Cons

• The workplace-comedy formula can feel familiar by Season 5
• Some episodes lean too hard on the animal-of-the-week structure
• It rarely pushes beyond its comfort zone

Animal Control Season 5 is the TV equivalent of a well-trained dog: dependable, charming, and happy to see you. It won't win any awards for reinvention, but with McHale in top form and a cast that clearly enjoys each other's company, this is easy, agreeable comedy that does exactly what it says on the tin. If you're already a fan, saddle up. If you're new, the kennel door is open - just don't expect the humans to behave.