I think we can all agree that TV shows are incalculably improved with the addition of a furry four-legged friend. (Or, in the case of Parks and Recreation, a furry three-legged friend.) Normally, that role is taken by a cat or, my favorite, a dog.
But 2021 saw an interesting trend in television. Instead of dogs and cats, the new furry pet is goats. Goats first came to my attention in the 2015 film The Witch, which featured a goat – known as Black Philip – who was an obvious stand-in for the devil. But when the devil is that adorable, he quickly becomes a hero in your house.
Season 3 of Sex Education introduced an adorable animal of its own, as Aimee (Aimee Lou Wood) and her boyfriend Steve (Chris Jenks) got a “commitment goat.” What starts out as something akin to an engagement ring becomes Aimee’s emotional support goat as she is still dealing with the fall-out from a sexual assault in Season 2. When she and Steve eventually break up, Aimee gets custody of the goat – whom she cleverly named Goat. Goat was inadvertently caught up in some human drama at one point when Dex (Lino Facioli) ended up naked on campus. He ran into Aimee taking Goat for a pee, and grabbed Goat to use her as a nudity shield. Goat also got into her own naughty shenanigans when she ate the vintage porno magazines belonging to sex therapist Dr. Jean Milburn (Gillian Anderson). Goat has good taste.
The first season of Shadow and Bone also featured a goat, named Milo. Milo was initially seen being cuddled by the dastardly Kaz Brekker (Freddy Carter), but quickly becomes an emotional support animal to Jesper (Kit Young), who is stressed out and has a short attention span on the journey across the Shadow Fold. Once Jesper holds Milo, he becomes calm and focused, and even manages to save his travel mates from a monster attack.
The recent season of Dexter: New Blood unexpectedly features a goat, though in a much smaller role. Dexter’s (Michael C. Hall) goat doesn’t do much, and he is only in a few scenes, mostly as background fodder. Dexter uses him, saying that he is injured in order to get a few doses of ketamine, which he uses instead to immobilize his victims. The goat even has an adorable name: Vincent Van Goat. Dexter is not exactly known for having pets, and it isn’t clear what the goat’s business is with Dexter. Is he a pet? There for milk? A cover so that Dexter seems more like a normal guy instead of someone hiding from his bloodthirsty past?
So far, 2022 is only a few weeks old, and while I haven’t seen any fluffy little goats roaming around the small screen, a goat sort of made an appearance in the first half of the final season of Ozark. Ruth (Julia Garner) steals her dead boyfriend’s ashes back from his family and uses a cookie jar shaped like a vaguely demonic goat to house his ashes. A real goat would have been more fun, but the inanimate goat jar has more screen time than Vincent Van Goat does, so that’s got to count for something.
I don’t know what it is about goats that suddenly have them gracing the small screen. But more furry little creatures on TV is always a good thing.