Shooting the Sheriff
Sheriff Country star Christopher Gorham opens up about his role on the new US crime drama, the tricky character dynamics at the heart of the small-town story and why he’s happy to be making “throwback” television.
As a 20-episode series airing weekly on a US broadcast network, Sheriff Country harks back to a time before streamers and limited series took over television – and that’s just the way Christopher Gorham likes it.
“It’s a throwback to how TV used to be. Maybe it’s because I’m old, but I prefer it,” the actor tells DQ. “I’ve done a couple of Netflix shows, and there’s a novelty to being able to watch a whole thing in a weekend. But the problem with that is then you’re done and you have to wait two years to see more episodes of these characters you’ve grown to love. So that’s something I really appreciate about what we’re doing on Sheriff Country.”
That the show is a spin-off from fellow CBS drama Fire Country means there is also a built-in audience ready to come to Sheriff Country, which debuted in the US last month and is now airing on Fridays in a two-hour block with its sister series. It is produced by CBS Studios and Jerry Bruckheimer Television, with Paramount Global Content Distribution handling sales.
“The fans who love Fire Country will find our show feeling familiar,” Gorham says. “It’s set in the same town. They’ll see some familiar faces, because we have lots of crossovers with the Fire Country cast. They’re seeing a new part of Edgewater than what they’re used to, which is also fun. Then for new viewers coming in, you don’t have to have watched Fire Country to enjoy Sheriff Country. You can come in cold and love it.”
Sheriff Country stars Homeland’s Morena Baccarin as straight-shooting sheriff Mickey Fox, the stepsister of Cal Fire’s division chief Sharon Leone (Dianne Farr of Fire Country). She investigates criminal activity while patrolling the streets of the fictional small Californian town of Edgewater, where she must contend with her ex-con father Wes (W Earl Brown), an off-the-grid marijuana grower, and a mysterious incident involving her wayward daughter.
Gorham (Covert Affairs, The Lincoln Lawyer) stars as Travis, a lawyer in Edgewater and Mickey’s ex-husband – one of the show’s few leads that aren’t based in the sheriff’s office. Others include Boone (Matt Lauria) and Cassidy (Michele Weaver).
“Really, the show is the journey of this woman in Edgewater, who grew up in Edgewater on the wrong side of the tracks and has grown up to become sheriff, having been raised by an outlaw, and it’s her full life,” Gorham says. “It’s her home life and her work life, sometimes working together, sometimes really not.”
Mickey and Travis are in a complicated situation as the show begins, with Travis dating one of Mickey’s employees. “That’s obviously really close to home for her, and incredibly uncomfortable, so that’s where Travis starts,” he continues. “But I can report, without giving anything away, that Travis and Mickey, they’re tied together. They’ve been together since they were in high school. They were married for 20 years. This is one of those relationships that, regardless of their relationship status, these are two people who will always love and care for each other and be there for each other.”
An idea first mooted in December 2023, Sheriff Country was confirmed by CBS in May 2024 for the 2025/26 broadcast season, with Fire Country now in its fourth season. Gorham joined the show after auditioning for the role of Travis on the same day he also auditioned for fellow CBS series Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, a sequel to comedy Young Sheldon that follows the title characters (played by Montana Jordan and Emily Osment) as they raise their young family in Texas. Naturally, Gorham also landed a spot on that series, playing recurring character Scott.
But before joining Sheriff Country, “I’d never even heard of Fire Country, much less watched it.” So when he read the script, he went back to watch some of the original series and learn more about the world he was soon to become a part of.
“By the time I was doing a virtual callback with [creators] Joan Rater, Tony Phelan and Max Thieriot, I was really invested and was really hoping that this was going to work out. Of course, I admired Morena’s work and all of the things she’s done, and she was already attached. I knew Earl was already attached. So the chance to work with those guys was very attractive. I’m really glad it worked out.”
Once he landed the role, Gorham got into conversations about Travis and what the show’s creators had planned for him. Then it was his job to “build someone who seems like a real person.” That meant imagining how he might behave when Travis gets caught dating one of his ex-wife’s employees, and then trying to layer some history and connection into the dynamic between Travis and Mickey.
“Then when we shot that scene for the pilot, when I’m working with Morena, it just all clicked in together,” he says. “She and I had an instant chemistry that comes across, and we had an ease with each other that lends itself, I hope, to the audience really seeing that these two have a long history and that these two care for each other.
“We also have some good fights,” he adds. “I’m so excited for some of the fights we filmed to find their way out into the world. I’ve been married for a long time, and a lot of married couples will really hear themselves in the fights these two characters have.”
Though it’s a cop show, with a mystery in every episode, Gorham believes the “big, beating heart” of Sheriff Country is the town and the families that reside there, with Mickey at the centre and being pulled from side to side. “It’s a warm, welcoming tone that at times gets serious and at times scary, but there are always moments of levity,” he says. “Everybody in the cast is really funny just in life, and so you know that humour comes through with these characters. And we get Caroline Rhea as a recurring character [Gina], and she’s always hilarious. There’s a nice balance that I hope is going to make it not just a ‘must see’ but a ‘want to see’ week to week.”
With the show airing on Fridays alongside fellow freshman crime drama Boston Blue, Gorham says Sheriff Country stands apart for its focus on small-town policing, as Mickey faces the challenge of protecting a community where everyone knows everybody else. “Sometimes it makes solving the crime easier because you know the people involved, but sometimes it really makes it much more complicated,” he says. “The first four episodes, for sure, deal with that, because the crime hits real close to home.”
As for Travis, “we get to see him in court a little bit. He’s got his own shingle in town, so he does all kinds of things, but he comes out of defence, so he’s essentially a defence attorney. The Sheriff’s Office don’t all love Travis.”
Filming took place in Toronto, to which Gorham and his family moved in order to avoid frequent flights home in between filming. However, the relocation means he won’t be able to appear in Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage as much as he might have hoped, with the comedy shooting on the Warner Bros lot in LA.
“I’ve already gone over and done one, and it’s just a matter of working out the schedules,” he says. “I love working on that show. Much like the Sheriff Country writers and cast, everybody’s just so talented and welcoming. The episode I just filmed, for instance, they rehearse Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, they pre-shoot Mondays and then do the live audience taping on Tuesdays, but I wasn’t able to get out of here until Friday so I missed the first two days of rehearsal.
“I took the first flight out Friday morning, went straight from LAX to Warner Bros and right into the Friday run-through. I brought everybody maple syrup as an apology for being late. But they were just great about it. Then we got it all up on its feet, and everyone was very helpful and it went really well. I look forward to going back.”
Gorham has also recently spent time in Korea, filming scenes in Seoul for Hulu and Disney+ Korean spy drama Tempest. He plays Ethan, an assassin, in a series that features a number of US actors.
“Working on Tempest was wonderful,” he says. “The only challenge when the offer came through was, at that point, they weren’t working with [US actors union] SAG-AFTRA. And at that time, I was on the national board for SAG-AFTRA. The amazing thing is I was able to connect them with the union, with the help of [co-star] Alicia Hannah Kim, who worked as a producer on that show, and we were able to unionise it for all the American actors, which allowed everybody to go over and do it. I was very proud of being able to make that happen so that we could be a part of this massive Korean drama.”
The rise of AI and its role in the creative industries played a big part in the 2023 actors and writers strikes in the US. Now with the first AI “actress” Tilly Norwood making headlines, Gorham admits he is “just incredibly sceptical” of everything coming out of Silicon Valley.
“Do we really want computers doing all the fun stuff and all the creative stuff in our life? If I’m going to have a computer do something, I’d rather the computer take care of all the boring things I have to do. When the AI can do my laundry and do the dishes, then I’ll get excited about it,” says the actor, who is now an LA board member of SAG-AFTRA.
“But I wish people wouldn’t call this thing an ‘AI actress,’” he adds. “If anything, it’s a computer-generated character. I hope we won’t lose sight of what I think is one of the most important things about what I do for a living – our power to tell each other our stories. A vital part of the human existence is telling each other our stories and feeling seen up on the screen, on your TV screen, on your phone or on a stage, and feeling validated and feeling connected as a community, not just virtually connected on social media. I find it very unsatisfying.”
Like that? Watch this! Suggested by AI, selected by DQ
Fire Country: A young convict volunteers to assist California firefighters in his hometown as part of a redemption programme, battling wildfires and his troubled past while repairing strained family ties.
Longmire: In rural Wyoming, sheriff Walt Longmire rebuilds his life and career after his wife’s death, facing murder investigations, political rivalry and deep family wounds within a tight-knit frontier community.
Justified: US Marshal Raylan Givens enforces his brand of justice in rural Kentucky, facing off with criminals – and family – while navigating the blurry line between law and vengeance.
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tagged in: CBS, CBS Studios, Christopher Gorham, Jerry Bruckheimer Television, Morena Baccarin, Paramount Global Content Distribution, Sheriff Country