Sheriff Country’s Christopher Gorham shares an inside look at the first season
When Fire Country premiered in 2022, the fire fighter procedural set in small-town California quickly gathered devoted fans. Covert Affairs star Christopher Gorham may not have been one of them at the time, but when he was approached with its spinoff, Sheriff Country, he delved deep into series creator Max Theriot’s intense world of California’s densest wildfire zones. “I became a fan,” he says. “They write characters and relationships that are believable. As an audience member, you can relate to the things that they’re going through.”
In Sheriff Country, which was introduced to viewers through a backdoor pilot in the second season of Fire Country, Homeland’s Morena Baccarin portrays Edgewater County’s new sheriff, Mickey Fox, whose professional life quickly gets muddied by her daughter Skye (Amanda Arcuri) being accused of murdering her boyfriend. Trying to help Skye in both a lawyer and father capacity is Mickey’s ex-husband Travis Fraley, played by Gorham. “What happens in those first few episodes, it changes these people, and they behave differently moving forward,” he says. “As an audience member, I think folks will find it a very satisfying story to watch, because I think the effects of what happens in those first few episodes carry through.”
While the drama of a murder charge certainly adds propulsion to any story, it was the relationships between characters that drew Gorham to the project. His character is an Edgewater County boy, born and bred. “Unlike most people in that town, he grew up quite wealthy. Most of the town doesn’t really like the Fraleys, but Travis has been able to escape that because I think he’s genuinely a nice guy,” says Gorham. We quickly find out that amicable-enough exes Travis and Mickey fell in love in high school, had a child and were married for 20 years. But by the time we meet them, the couple has been divorced for about five years, and the reason for their breakup is still a mystery to be solved. “That relationship, for me, is key, because Mickey and Travis have known each other so long and they’ve loved each other for so long. No matter what their relationship status is, those two people are always going to love and care for one another,” says Gorham. “And sometimes that gets complicated.”
Like, for example, when Travis starts a relationship with one of Mickey’s colleagues. “You find out in the first episode that Travis has started dating one of Mickey’s deputies, Cassidy (Michele Weaver), and they haven’t told Mickey yet. They’ve been meaning to, but they just haven’t found the right time,” Gorham says with a chuckle. “Then — naturally, because it makes for great TV — Mickey finds out at the absolute worst time, so they have to come clean and that causes problems.” Complicated as it may be, Gorham holds out hope for this still budding romance. “We’re about halfway done filming the season right now, and there are just so many great relationship moments,” he says. “The journey that Travis and Cassidy are on, is so good. You just root for both of them.”
Equally enjoyable for the actor, whose work often leans into comedy, are the verbal disputes between Travis and Mickey. “Honestly, Morena and I have just some really good fights, and I really look forward to them because they’re so well written,” he says. “I’ve been married for over 25 years, and I get these scripts, I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s how that fight goes.’ I think couples — married and divorced — will really relate to the conversations they have.” Their first joint storyline also taps into the challenges of co-parenting, in this case under extreme duress. “It’s hard being a parent,” says Gorham. “As a dad, Travis feels like he messed up. Somewhere along the line, he did something wrong. He was the one who left the marriage. He’s not a deadbeat dad by any stretch of the imagination, but he did leave the relationship, and I think he feels a lot of guilt about that.”
Then, of course, there is weekly crime to solve. “Somebody doesn’t die every week, but people do get killed,” says Gorham. “Using the example of Humboldt County, California, this is a place that started off with a bunch of Vietnam vets starting a nudist colony and growing weed just as a hobby and turned into this region where there’s real danger involved, there’s real weaponry, and people do disappear. It can get real scary. It makes for good drama.”
Mix in that familiar small-town vibe and now things start to feel really personal. “Everybody knows each other and that requires a different kind of policing. You won’t treat them the same way if they’re your neighbour, your cousin, or the guy you used to date in high school,” he says. “I think it’s a kind of law enforcement that people are yearning for right now, where it’s not just faceless people punishing other people, it’s people trying to make things better. The goal is to make the community safer. I love how we go about doing that week after week.”
Sheriff Country airs Friday, December 5, on Global & CBS