chilly0101-907-497944
Sad, untalented rip-off of The Naked Gun. Surely Rashida Jones and Jere Burns could have found something, anything, better to do than this. Jere's full range of acting in this mess is to yell at the top of his voice and to keep his iconic eyebrows firmly planted about one millimeter below his hairline. Rashida is clearly just in it for the payday as her acting is as wooden and forced as an understudy in a community playhouse theater. The "jokes" (and I use that term advisedly) were old, stale, and hackneyed half way through the pilot episode and do not get better. Do yourself a favor and watch some paint dry. It's funnier and the time goes by more quickly. This thing is a hot mess.
dee.reid
"Angie Tribeca" is a show that I first heard about sometime late last year, and earlier this year I picked up the first-season DVD on a blind buy and after watching it, I find that the show is indeed quite funny and has a quick wit about it - but its humor is certainly not for everyone. But what else do you expect from series creators Steve Carell and his wife Nancy Walls Carell?Perhaps what initially sparked my interest in "Angie Tribeca" was the fact that it was going to star the delightfully quirky and brilliant Rashida Jones, who, like the show, has a quick wit about her and is a joy to watch anything she's in. (On a personal note, I have to admit that I've had a long-time crush on her, ever since I first saw her a few years ago as Ann Perkins on the now-defunct "Parks and Recreation," as well as in the 2012 romantic comedy "Celeste & Jesse Forever.")The same comic talents and sharp wit that served Jones so well on "Parks and Recreation" is put to excellent use once again on "Angie Tribeca," the latest bold-faced parody of police procedural cop TV shows and movies, like "Police Squad!" and its "Naked Gun" big-screen counterparts, but seems to take particular delight in mocking more modern TV shows like "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and, especially, "CSI: Miami."In "Angie Tribeca," Jones plays the titular Angie Tribeca, the dedicated lead detective in the Los Angeles Police Department's "Really Heinous Crimes Unit" (RHCU). She's a brilliant, no-nonsense detective, and Jones is a joy to watch as her character chews up scenery with confidence and deadpan delivery. In the first episode, she's partnered up with Jay Geils (Hayes MacArthur, "J. Geils," get it?) and the two at first don't like each other, but over time they gradually develop a mutual respect.The other actors playing Tribeca's hilariously incompetent co-workers are acutely aware of the ridiculousness of the whole premise and simply run with it with characteristic straight-faced commitment. There's their hard-nosed superior, Lieutenant Pritikin "Chet" Atkins (Jere Burns), fellow detective Daniel "DJ" Tanner (Deon Coles) and his K9 partner Hoffman, and medical examiner Dr. Monica Scholls (Andree Vermeulen, as "Dr. Scholls," get it?). And Alfred Molina shows up - un-credited, for some reason - in each episode as Dr. Edelweiss, the brilliant chief medical examiner, and who usually shows up with some kind of humorous gag going on. (Just so you know, all the characters on "Angie Tribeca" have ridiculous names that are puns, in-jokes, or references to other characters past and present in pop culture.)The humor in "Angie Tribeca" isn't for everyone, obviously. Some may find it stupid and juvenile (which is the whole point), and may prefer something that edges closer to satire than out-right parody. I fall into the former, since I did not know going in that "Angie Tribeca" was a straight parody, rather than a police comedy. And usually this brand of comedy and humor does not appeal to me BECAUSE it's so stupid and juvenile, but I took a chance, anyway, and opened myself up to it. And you know what? This show is pretty gosh-darn funny, if you give it the chance.And "Angie Tribeca" is littered with cameos from Hollywood celebrities/comedy all stars past and present, like Gary Cole ("Office Space"), comedian Jeff Dunham, James Franco, Keegan-Michael Key (of "Key and Peele"), David Koechner, Lisa Kudrow ("Friends"), Bill Murray, Adam Scott (from "Parks and Recreation"), Gene Simmons (of K.I.S.S.), Slash (former lead guitarist for Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver), Amy Smart, Danny Trejo, and even - yes, even! - Rashida Jones's real-life parents Quincy Jones and Peggy Lipton appear as Angie's parents in this series, too."Angie Tribeca" has apparently just concluded its second season, with a third season ordered for next year. Let's see if Steve and Nancy Carell, and the darling Rashida Jones, can keep it going up until then.8/10
