Michael Ordoña Guest spotĪ weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on - and what they’re watchingĪs Kenneth Parcell, the unerringly optimistic, TV-loving NBC page of “30 Rock,” Jack McBrayer brought a childlike affection for the medium to Tina Fey’s lacerating backstage satire. That, and a palpable love of canines (Tatum co-directed) that doesn’t require them to be perfect to understand them. Such small resonances separate “Dog” from standard fare. Confrontations often don’t go as anticipated, either: After two human Army-vets emerge victorious from a tangle in a homeless encampment, one says that five years ago that could have been him. There is ugliness in the given circumstances it doesn’t shy from- the dog is trained to attack people who look like Arabs, after all. It turns out to be about second chances, including the chance to change for the better. Rather, there’s a low-key ring of truth to it. But “Dog” (Prime Video) admirably refuses to become either absurd or maudlin. The trailer promises hijinks and it stars Channing Tatum, after all.

It’s not what you’d expect from a comic drama about a hustling Army Ranger trying to work his way back into active duty by ferrying a decommissioned combat dog to her handler’s funeral. But “Feds” is inescapably a vehicle for the larger-than-life, honey-voiced Nash-Betts, who gets to say things like “I’m the razzle, he’s the dazzle” and “Get ready to watch your girl save the day” but can also put a lot of spin on a simple “Hello.” - Robert Lloyd (Indeed, Simone’s fellow “probie,” played by Kevin Zegers, had previously been the star of a TV series called “Vampire Cop.”) Other members of the colorful ensemble get a lot to do - the show is as much about their personal business as their professional, including a little queer romance for the star. The crimes and killings notwithstanding, the show is essentially a comedy, a playtime romp in which actors running around with guns drawn always look like actors running around with guns drawn. Here it’s the undeniable Niecy Nash-Betts as Simone Clark, a guidance counselor turned probationary FBI agent, but conveniently attached to a new unit of “out of the box thinkers” - where, as the farthest out of the box, she is immediately crucial to cracking cases. A spinoff of Nathan Fillion’s “The Rookie,” the spiky, sparkly, likably goofy “The Rookie: Feds” (ABC, streaming on Hulu) repeats the parent show’s premise of a person in mid-life starting from the bottom in law enforcement.

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