Angie Tribeca

Remember those movies like "Top Secret" and "Airplane", where you actually had to pause sometimes to catch all the jokes that were thrown at you from the screen? Well, "Angie Tribeca" is a proud follower of this tradition.

This show is a little like the American version of "A touch of cloth", which aired in 2012 in Britain and made fun of British police procedural series. "Angie Tribeca" here, correspondingly, is an absurd parody of the stereotypical American detective shows, and is probably a bit lighter in the mood than "A touch of cloth".

Rashida Jones plays a detective who represents every possible cliché: she's a tough cookie, a lone-wolf, who hates team-work yet somehow develops feelings for her newly assigned manly hot-headed partner, she talks exclusively with phrases out of typical cop shows, and strangers compliment her on her appearance saying it's a pity she wastes it working as a detective. Together Tribeca and her partner keep their city safe, dealing with very silly cases in a lot of very silly ways.

The cast don't shine with charisma, but they are reasonably pleasant to look at, especially Rashida Jones, whose features are not just beautiful in the usual sense, but also lively and interesting, which is a very good thing for a comedy. And of course there's the dazzling smile some of you might remember from "Parks and Recreation". As for the others, they perfectly fulfil their main task, - which is to parody the stereotypical characters from cop shows.

If you've seen at least one show like "Bones" or "Castle" or "CSI" or "Law and Order" or - you name it! - give "Angie Tribeca" a try.

P.S. A piece of advice: if you watch it, don't be lazy. This isn't one of those shows you can watch while cleaning the house, throwing a glance at the TV now and then. Catch every frame, look at every street sign, because jokes are hiding everywhere.

I thought this series was a drama until I watched the commercials again. Rashida Jones plays a Los Angeles police detective. At first, I took her seriously. This series is spoofing and parody of crime dramas. That's one of the reasons I enjoy it so much. I'm tired of crime dramas that become redundant. Angie TriBeCa is an entertaining show with Jere Burns as her boss. There are familiar faces too like Kerry Kinney, James Franco, and others as well. Dean Cole is funny as her partner. They solve murders, ferret smuggling, and other crimes. It's a show that gives plenty of laughs and mocks the crime dramas. Nancy Walls and her husband Steve Carrell are executive producers too.

After a satire of tough female role and blatant product placement in just five minutes, it's clear that Angie Tribeca doesn't follow normal procedural rule, or any coherent rule for that matter. However, it does follow in the footstep of Naked Gun, while this is nice since the slapstick comedy hasn't had any addition for a while, there are some lingering crude moments that might just be too unsavory for the comedy to properly work.

This is a psychical comedy in heart, mocking the cop shows in an unapologetic fashion. Honestly, it's rather expected that a parody of CSI and the likes would appear. Angie Tribeca has some good moments, it's nice to see this kind of brash humor once in a while. The nifty parts offer funny approach and commentary of the typical more serious shows, a few surprising guest stars like Lisa Kudrow or Alfred Molina is oddly appreciated.

The main problem is the jokes used are heavy-handed and repetitive. This might be fine if said jokes hit the mark, something like the bits with the dog might be fun to watch, but if it fails then audience is left with one or two long minutes of seeing the same joke ham-fisted over and over again. Most of the humor comes from physical, played in the exaggerated manner to draw any interest or attention, but also inconsistently thrown out there.

Angie Tribeca mainly has a few ideas of humor and shoots them wildly and eccentrically. When it hits, it could be highly entertaining, but if it doesn't audience is left with graceless drunken exhibition of slapstick, but the all-in attitude might just work in their favor.

The first huge mistake was taking this show out of the police station and making it a mobile unit, with several new and poor characters.

Their next mistake was letting Geils go. The show wasn't the same without him.

Their final mistake was replacing the writers with new ones in season 4 (I am assuming, from its lack of humor and painfully awkward scenes sometimes).

Watch seasons 1-3 and skip 4.

I like parody. Like pizza, even when parody is mediocre, it is still good enough to consume. I did not have high hopes for this show.

But, I was pleasantly surprised. There was a nice mix of word-play, physical humor and total absurdity. Sure, it seems as if it was derived from David Rasche's SledgeHammer series, down to the superior officer who yells all the time. And, a lot of the gags seems to come directly from the Police Squad series. Making fun of cop shows will give you some overlap.

The character of Angie is funny enough. The running gags of the police dog and the vomiting rookie give you some laugh out loud moments. My recommendation: Watch them in order.