TV Show Review: Angie Tribeca - Season 1

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Laughs held together by decent mysteries

Cons: Weak pilot, character development thin

The Bottom Line:

Mysteries excuse

For hilarious humor

That does mostly work

Delightfully Silly Cop Show Spoof

I keep saying I am not taking on any new TV shows, and then I keep breaking that promise.  Heck, I had no interest in watching Angie Tribeca until something right before the marathon that TBS had back in January made me decide to give it a try.  I’m glad I did because I wound up enjoying season 1.

Angie Tribeca (Rashid Jones) is a detective with the LAPD who prefers to work alone.  As the series opens, however, she’s been assigned a new partner, Jay Geils (Hayes MacArthur).  And it just might prove to be a good thing as the two of them must solve cases like a murdered baker, a murdered ventriloquist, and an illegal pet ferret ring.

While you may not figure it out from their caseload, this is a comedy pure a simple.  Oh, there is a mystery, but that is just an excuse for the laughs.  Furthermore, this falls into the spoof camp with many absurd jokes.  If anything can be taken literally, the characters will.  There are so many sight gags as well as verbal humor, and I laughed so many times over the course of these episodes.

Naturally, this kind of humor is aimed at someone very specific.  Personally, I watched the pilot and felt baffled by the show.  It just wasn’t working for me.  But since I had all ten episodes of the show on my DVR already, I decided to give the next episode a chance.  As I watched that one, I was laughing so hard, and I was hooked.  I blew through the rest of the episodes, and I’m glad that season two starts up in a couple of weeks.  This show is a delightful riot.  Granted, not every joke works.  For example, there is a rookie cop who throws up at every crime scene.  Not really that funny.  However, there is a fellow detectives DJ Tanner (Deon Cole) and his partner.  His partner just happens to be a dog, but no one seems to realize that.  The results are wonderful.

The mysteries aren’t half bad either.  Yes, they are just an excuse for the laughs, but they usually hold together fairly well, and considering how seriously I take my mysteries, even my comedic mysteries, that’s saying something.

The characters don’t fare quite as well.  Any attempts at character development comes across as forced, probably because they are usually played for laughs.  This isn’t a knock on the actors, who are hilarious in their various roles.  It’s just not in the nature of the show, and a weakness worth noting only in passing.  You’ll be laughing too hard to care.

Season one consisted to 10 episodes, and they are preserved here in their native wide screen and full surround.  There are several behind the scenes features that show just how much work goes into making a show like this from the writing to the acting and directing and even the stunts.  Plus there's a behind the scenes look at each episode.

The first season of Angie Tribeca proves once again why I seldom judge a show by the pilot episode.  If you enjoy wacky humor, you need to give this show a chance.

Season 1 Episodes:

1. Pilot

2. The Wedding Planner Did It

3. The Famous Ventriloquist Did It

4. The Thumb Affair

5. Commissioner Bigfish

6. Ferret Royale

7. Tribeca’s Day Off

8. Murder in the First Class

9. Inside Man

10. The One with the Bomb