Glenn Howerton Unleashes His Inner Maniac in ‘Sirens’
Can’t say I’m shocked—but Glenn Howerton’s latest detour into full-blown mayhem really takes the cake. In the new dark comedy series Sirens, Howerton swaps Philadelphia’s greasy spoon for a crime-riddled Chicago underbelly, playing Detective Brad Sinclair, a self-professed “raving lunatic” whose moral compass spins like a busted vinyl. He told The Hollywood Reporter on May 5 that there’s a perverse joy in letting loose “all the maniacal impulses I usually keep under lock and key,” and if you’ve ever watched him as Dennis Reynolds, you know he’s not joking.
Sirens isn’t your run-of-the-mill police procedural. Created by veteran showrunner Katie Corrigan (True Detective: Side Hustle), it thrusts Sinclair into occult crime scenes, psycho guerrilla art cults and the occasional spontaneous brawl—because “apparently, chaos pays well,” Howerton deadpanned in an exclusive with Variety on May 7. Critics are already taking notes. Variety raved about his “electric unpredictability,” while Deadline applauded his ability to pivot from suave to snarling in under a second.
Howerton admits he’s drawn to parts that let him “vomit on the hero playbook,” a confession he dropped in a sit-down interview with Entertainment Weekly. He credits Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker audition as his north star—“if you can’t scare yourself, you’re not doing it right.” Yet don’t mistake Sinclair for a simple psycho clown: beneath the cackles and blood-splattered bowties lurks an actor seriously flexing his range. The ???? New York Post’s entertainment desk even notes that Howerton demanded more character backstory before signing on, insisting “real trauma trumps half-baked villainy every time.”
Amid the hype, Howerton remains characteristically sardonic. He jokes that his longtime Always Sunny co-stars “still think I peaked in 2005,” a salty barb he delivered during his May 3 chat with The Scottish Sun. But if Sirens proves anything, it’s that he’s far from boxed into one-note cynicism. He’s embracing the lunacy—literally—and giving his audience the twisted funhouse they never knew they needed.
Whether Sirens burns out like a one-season fireworks show or cements Howerton’s legacy as TV’s premier madman, you can bet he’ll be back for more. So tune in, brace for the inevitable cringe-fest, and remember: in Hollywood, it’s never enough to just play nice.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Entertainment Weekly, The Scottish Sun
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
