The premise in a nutshell: whereas everybody else sees Oliver as a normal police dog, his handler sees him as Odagiri Joe dressed in a German Shepherd costume and behaving like a middle-aged guy, rather than a dog.
Crazy and hilarious? Yeah, you bet! ^____^
Huge congrats to Odagiri Joe in his triple role as actor, director and screenwriter! This "Oliver na Inu, (Gosh!!) Konoyarou" is exquisitely creative (starting with the usual "This drama is a work of fiction" warning, aptly modified as "This drama is a *great* work of fiction", LOL), without *ever* feeling pretentiously artsy.
The cast did an excellent job, with honorable mentions for Odagiri himself, Ikematsu Sosuke and Aso Kumiko (great actress AND screenwriter herself, BTW).
The production value is pretty high, and the jazzy OST simply fabulous (EGO-WRAPPIN'!...'nuff said! ^___-)
So why don't I give this a "perfect 10" rating?
Well, one of the (many!) reasons that made me choose Asian dramas over Western TV series is that with dramas, 99% of the time, you get to watch a complete series made of a finite number of episodes, with a beginning, a story development and a (more or less proper) ending, rather than the usual Western approach of "well, let's leave things hanging at the end of the first season; if it's very successful you'll get many more seasons and we'll ruin everything good we had previously done by the end of the second one; if it's unpopular, you'll never see how it ends; pray that it's only averagely successful so that you'll get a second season with some kind of ending".
Unfortunately, this dorama is left unfinished as is; I have no idea of the production circumstances or whether a second season or a SP is in the making or at least planned. Fingers crossed!