There’s a new sheriff in Edgewater, the rural Northern California town constantly plagued by wildfires in the hit CBS series Fire Country. At least for now.
Mickey Fox (Morena Baccarin), the estranged step-sister of fire chief Sharon Leone (Diane Farr), is taking center stage in Sheriff Country as Edgewater’s interim sheriff after her predecessor was arrested for being a dirty cop. Mickey has already made two appearances on Fire Country, establishing her connection to the Leones and endearing fans to follow her on her own adventures.
“[Executive producers] Tony Phelan and Joan Rater have created such a likable, complicated, and interesting character. She’s somebody I want to be friends with,” Baccarin tells The Daily Beast’s Obsessed ahead of Sheriff Country‘s Oct. 17 premiere. “I’m also a little bit afraid of her. She’s got a sense of humor. She drinks beer. She’s surrounded by male deputies and mostly male policemen, and she’s able to hold her own.”
Getting people to buy in with Mickey is just part of the battle for Sheriff Country. The flagship series is entering its fourth season of balancing Leone family drama, station politics, and massive firefights. Sheriff will attempt to do the same with Mickey and her family, her quest to officially be elected sheriff, and action-packed cases that lead to car chases and shootouts. Sheriff is also taking a different approach to Edgewater than its predecessor by making the people the sheriff department is policing a more integral part of the show’s DNA. Mickey is crucial to that equation.
“Mickey is really connected to the town. When we’ve had murder cases and robberies, and in each of those stories, she’s familiar with either the person deceased or the person who did the crime,” Baccarin explains. “She’s able to get into their head and their thinking to solve the case. That’s a really big difference. You’re getting the nuance and the connection to the town. She’s got an in that makes it really fun for the audience.”
The personal connection to Edgewater is what makes Mickey an exceptional candidate for sheriff, but she still needs to prove that to the powers that be and fully believe it herself if she wants a chance of winning the impending election.
“When she first got [the job], she didn’t know she deserved it or if she wanted it. As she starts to do the job and the work, she realizes that she has a soft spot for the people in her town,” Baccarin continues. “She knows how to lead and to do her job better than [her deputy] Boone does. People will see that you can still be human and have faults, blind spots, and vulnerabilities, and still be a person in charge.”
Mickey’s intimate knowledge of Edgewater and the people she grew up with is a two-way street, though. It gives her an insider’s take when following an investigation, but it also means the town knows her secrets and weaknesses. It exposes Mickey when her recovering addict daughter Skye (Amanda Acuri) finds herself in a heap of legal trouble in the premiere episode, forcing Mickey to choose between being a cop and being a supportive mom.
“I think if you ask Mickey, she’s done her best. She has tried everything she can, but she knows that she’s dropped the ball at times. Doing the job that she does, it’s impossible to be a very present parent. She blames herself for her daughter getting into drugs,” Baccarin reveals. “Skye is her weakness. Mickey knows how to take care of the town and take care of everybody. But it’s hard to take care of your own kid, especially when your focus is on a much larger scale. A lot of Mickey and Skye’s growing together is going to be figuring out that balance and that relationship.”
Skye isn’t Mickey’s only complicated relationship. She’s also mending fences with her weed farmer dad, Wes (Earl W. Brown). He’s only a few years out of prison after being arrested for drug dealing when Mickey was a kid. He says he’s going legit, but his outlaw tendencies still cause a lot of friction with his cop daughter.
“He’s recently come back into her life, and she needs his help with her kid. That is such a great opening for them to be able to have a relationship again, and for her to be able to find forgiveness for him,” Baccarin explains. “He is great with Skye, and he actually wants to have a relationship with her and Mickey. He’s getting older, and this is the chance she has to put it back together.”
Asking a former drug dealer to help keep tabs on your recovering addict daughter may sound counterintuitive. Still, Wes soon becomes the glue that holds the Fox family together, even if he and Mickey will continue to fight about how he does it. Mickey may not completely agree with his methods, but she can see that he’s a huge help to Skye during this stressful time.
“Skye can relate to him more than she can to her mom. Having a mom as a sheriff is not fun. It’s that classic thing where I can speak to her as a cop, but I can’t exactly connect with her as my child. There’s a wall that’s been put up there, and Mickey is having a hard time getting through,” the actress continues. “Wes, being who he is, and what he’s been through, is someone Skye can trust and feel like he’s actually listening to her. He’s got so much experience. Skye trusts his judgement more in some ways, and probably the way he goes about it. He’s not just telling her what to do. He’s letting her learn from her mistakes. That grandparent wisdom is impossible to recreate.”
Exploring Edgewater through Mickey’s perspective and balancing that with her complicated home life is what intrigues Baccarin the most about the character, and what she hopes makes viewers want to stick around for the journey.
“She knows the town and knows everybody. She went to high school with everybody and knows the owners of the car dealership and the ice cream shop. She likes them. She grew up with them. She was a product of the town, meaning she was pretty much an orphan and the town brought her up,” she says. “She feels a lot of gratitude for the people in the town, so she’s approaching her job through that lens. I was excited to see the relationships that she forms and how she goes about her job, solving crimes and mysteries with that in mind. I also love how complicated her personal life is. She has to put it aside, and she can’t really deal with it until it explodes.”
While all of that may seem really heavy, Baccarin wants Fire Country fans and all potential new viewers to know that Sheriff Country also knows how to have a good time.
“The relationships in the sheriff’s office are so fun. We have so much fun in those lighter moments. That’s really important to have a release valve from the pressure. The crimes really range from funny to really dark and intense,” Baccarin teases. “I’m excited for people to meet all our characters and the townspeople. There’s a lot of crazy stuff. We blow up cars, and there’s a lot of fun action things, but I think ultimately what people will connect with are the characters.”
Sheriff Country premieres Friday, Oct. 17 at 9 pm ET on CBS, before moving to its normal timeslot of Fridays at 8 pm ET beginning Oct. 24. Episodes are available to stream the next day on Paramount+.
