“Forever and a Dog:” My Review of “Turner and Hooch: the TV Series,” Episode One

I’m so excited that Disney Plus has produced a new TV series, “Turner and Hooch,” based on the 1989 film with the same title starring Tom Hanks (see my recent review of it here: https://juliasdogblog.com/2021/07/11/a-clean-freak-reluctantly-takes-in-a-massive-drooling-dog/). In this new series, Josh Peck plays Tom Hanks’ characters’ son, Scott Turner Jr. They are both clean freaks reluctantly saddled with a huge slobbering French Mastiff, both dogs named Hooch. 

Scott Jr., a Deputy U.S. Marshall hoping to become a Captain, lives alone as this first episode begins. But he sees his dreams seemingly get derailed when, on a surprise visit from his sister, she presents him with Hooch. She reveals to Scott that before their dad died, he said he wanted him to have the dog, along with a letter that he had written to him.

Hilarity ensues when Scott leaves to call his Mom for thirty seconds, and comes back to find much of his home and property destroyed. Of course, he doesn’t want to keep Hooch, but he feels like he has no choice because his sisters would, as they put it, “shoot him or worse” if Scott took him to the pound.

Along the way, Scott learns that this originally unwanted addition to his life is smart and trained and can actually help advance his career rather than derail it. On his first case with Hooch, Scott discovers that dogs can sense fear, nervousness, sadness, or even loneliness in humans. I love the scene where Hooch, sensing Scott’s loneliness, tries to climb in bed with him! How sweet is that? In this episode, Scott also meets a potential love interest, Erica, who is a canine explosives detection trainer.

I was quite happy when I found out that one of my favorite actors from my childhood, Josh Peck (from “Drake and Josh” and “Max Keeble’s Big Move”) was not only getting a new show, but one that was a continuation of one of my favorite movies, “Turner and Hooch.” I love the casting choice, because he looks like he could be Tom Hanks’ son. I couldn’t help but smile when Scott was in pursuit of a suspect, but he got distracted and lost him because Hooch wouldn’t stop kissing him. 

My favorite part of this first episode is when Scott finally sits down with Hooch and reads the letter his father wrote to him. As Scott reads the letter out loud, tears start filling his eyes as he reads, “Everything good in my life started with a dog.” That line really touches my heart. How about yours?

Each episode of this series is titled, quite appropriately, with a cliche or a pun about dogs, and the title of my blog above, “Forever and a Dog” (a play on “forever and a day” I assume) is the title of this first episode. And it sure fits.

I’m really looking forward to more episodes of the series to see where the storylines go from here. I can tell already that Josh Peck is trying to emulate Tom Hanks’ character from the movie, while putting his own spin on his character in the show. I hope they keep the comedy, drama, and adorable titles coming. I think that the cliffhanger at the end will surprise you like it did to me. I hope this series lasts “Forever and a Dog!”