"Angie Tribeca" is a half hour law enforcement spoof that wasn't so much created as copied from two classic 80's series, namely "Police Squad!" and "Sledge Hammer!" The former is well known as the launch pad for "The Naked Gun" film series. The other is an off kilter satire of "Dirty Harry" with political overtones that starred David Rasche.
While "Angie Tribeca" claims to lampoon the modern CSI style procedural, the show adheres more to the 80's buddy cop formula. The pilot story is similar to the aforementioned "Sledge Hammer!" in which Angie Tribeca is a lone wolf investigator forced to take on a partner after the Mayor falls victim to extortion. (Another similarity to "Sledge Hammer!" is the season one finale of "Tribeca" featuring a cliffhanger about diffusing a bomb.) Rashida Jones portrays the eponymous title character, but there isn't much character there. Angie Tribeca exists as a mere stick figure and is devoid of personality. Had someone like Mariska Hargitay played the part, then the residual baggage from her previous straight roles would have carried over in the same manner that made Leslie Nielsen such a delight. As is, Jones is left stranded in sea of relentless sight gags and madcap wordplay. The scripts are a nonstop salvo of jokes without individual points of view so it doesn't matter which of the cardboard characters says them. "Sledge Hammer!" featured an unhinged title character surrounded by straight arrows in a very real world, making the series easier to sustain.
"Angie Tribeca" tries for the hyper-kinetic joke machine style perfected by Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker which in itself was like a Mel Brooks' movie on steroids. The batting average was always solid. Unfortunately, the writing for this show is inexpert and derivative. The show blitzkriegs through tired and familiar vaudevillian verbal riffs as well as antiquated visuals such as hoary old chalk outline gags.
Most distressing is how much material is lifted from other sources. The "say " routine from "Police Squad!" where the other person repeats everything after "say " has been ripped off here. A sequence from "Sledge Hammer!" with increasingly messy foods being eaten during an interrogation was also appropriated. Ice cream trucks and Native Americans converging on a crime scene is a direct lift from "Naked Gun 2 ½." The overt product placement gags are straight out of "Wayne's World." This series performs more lifts than a plastic surgeon.
A few reviews have claimed "Angie Tribeca" is an homage to "Police Squad!" and "Sledge Hammer!" But by offering a wobbly retread of those earlier classic shows, this wearisome new series just illustrates how hard it was to pull off those old shows in the first place.
While "Angie Tribeca" claims to lampoon the modern CSI style procedural, the show adheres more to the 80's buddy cop formula. The pilot story is similar to the aforementioned "Sledge Hammer!" in which Angie Tribeca is a lone wolf investigator forced to take on a partner after the Mayor falls victim to extortion. (Another similarity to "Sledge Hammer!" is the season one finale of "Tribeca" featuring a cliffhanger about diffusing a bomb.) Rashida Jones portrays the eponymous title character, but there isn't much character there. Angie Tribeca exists as a mere stick figure and is devoid of personality. Had someone like Mariska Hargitay played the part, then the residual baggage from her previous straight roles would have carried over in the same manner that made Leslie Nielsen such a delight. As is, Jones is left stranded in sea of relentless sight gags and madcap wordplay. The scripts are a nonstop salvo of jokes without individual points of view so it doesn't matter which of the cardboard characters says them. "Sledge Hammer!" featured an unhinged title character surrounded by straight arrows in a very real world, making the series easier to sustain.
"Angie Tribeca" tries for the hyper-kinetic joke machine style perfected by Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker which in itself was like a Mel Brooks' movie on steroids. The batting average was always solid. Unfortunately, the writing for this show is inexpert and derivative. The show blitzkriegs through tired and familiar vaudevillian verbal riffs as well as antiquated visuals such as hoary old chalk outline gags.
Most distressing is how much material is lifted from other sources. The "say " routine from "Police Squad!" where the other person repeats everything after "say " has been ripped off here. A sequence from "Sledge Hammer!" with increasingly messy foods being eaten during an interrogation was also appropriated. Ice cream trucks and Native Americans converging on a crime scene is a direct lift from "Naked Gun 2 ½." The overt product placement gags are straight out of "Wayne's World." This series performs more lifts than a plastic surgeon.
A few reviews have claimed "Angie Tribeca" is an homage to "Police Squad!" and "Sledge Hammer!" But by offering a wobbly retread of those earlier classic shows, this wearisome new series just illustrates how hard it was to pull off those old shows in the first place.
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