Here’s the good news: this show is much better than what TBS originally marketed. The bad news is it’s still a tiresome watch.
In an attempt to parody the atrocities that are CBS procedurals (the CSIs, the NCIS franchise, Criminal Minds, etc.) along with the unfortunate misfire of HBO’s “True Detective,” TBS made “Angie Tribeca.”
“Tribeca” looks as if it were a TNT series that got pushed over as a part of Turner Broadcasting’s rebranding. The show confused viewers, and critics responded so negatively that they felt the need to explain that it indeed is a comedy series. The marketing team of “Tribeca” needs to turn in their badges. This was a colossal train wreck from start to finish.
TBS started running ads explaining what the show was about only a couple days before the premiere. With nothing else ready to go in the rebranding, TBS decided to air all the episodes of the first season in a 25-hour “commercial-free” marathon (no ads ran during the show itself, but there was a two minute gap in between episodes for sponsors to run something) with a celebration with the cast and crew of “Tribeca” and sneak previews of other shows coming out this year, shows that looked much better than “Tribeca.”
“Angie Tribeca” is exactly what it looks like, a parody show in the vein of movies like “The Naked Gun,” “Get Smart” and “Airplane.” It features nonstop jokes, screwball and over-the-top humor. A lot of them are unfortunate misses, but when they hit, it’s hilarious.
Coming from Steve and Nancy Carell, the show features Rashida Jones as Angie Tribeca, a tough no-nonsense officer for the Los Angeles Police Department. She’s paired up with Jay Geils (Hayes MacArthur) after Tribeca’s last partner disappeared and ended up dead. Their boss Chet Atkins (Jere Burns) gives them new assignments every episode, most of which are murder cases whose perpetrators viewers can detect right away. The expert examiners, Dr. Monica Scholls (Andree Vermeulen) and Dr. Edelweiss (Alfred Molina), try to help with the cases. Edelweiss fakes a disability, anything from being blind to wheelchair-bound, in nearly every episode he’s in. It’s a concept that ultimately is not funny, yet they keep trying to ram this into viewers’ skulls hoping to get a laugh or two. When you’re watching this as a part of a massive marathon, these issues are obvious, making it harder to enjoy.
It’s an incredibly low-stakes comedy that puts jokes before plot. This is a bit of a shame because while creative ideas exist here, they’re never utilized.
The best episode of the entire season was “Tribeca’s Day Off,” in which she struggles to take time away from solving crimes to have a vacation day. Bill Murray pops by as a store manager, and there’s a bit of a comical exchange between Jones and Murray. Other surprise guest stars in the first season include Gary Cole, Adam Scott, James Franco and Cecily Strong. They’re all as goofy as the rest of the cast, so they fit right into this strange little world the Carells created.
Maybe that’s what this whole show is intended to be, lighthearted silliness that occasionally generates a laugh or two. Then again, former ABC’s “Happy Endings” was all about the jokes set up for its characters rather than the plot, and it turned out to be one of the decade’s most underappreciated series.
We’ll see how “Tribeca’s” marathon did for TBS later on down the road, but the damage might have already been done. With the horrible marketing campaign and humor that misses more than it delivers, this show is hugely overshadowed by FOX’s much better police series, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” Hopefully better things are on the way for the second season and TBS in general.
