Angie Tribeca: Pilot

January 18, 2016 4:41 PM - Season 1, Episode 1

The mayor is being blackmailed, and the lieutenant is just sick about it. Angie Tribeca is assigned a new partner, Jay Geils, to find the blackmailer and bring him to justice. The only problem? Tribeca works alone.
posted by tobascodagama (28 comments total)

Soooo... Basically, if they keep this up, Angie Tribeca is the new Police Squad! Down to the use of some of the same gags, but in a way that not only lands but still manages to feel fresh.

My only real complaint is that the recurring Rookie Cop Who Vomits character means I can't watch the show with my emetophobic partner.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:48 PM on January 18, 2016

There's no way they can keep this up. I hope they do, though.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:15 PM on January 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I caught the first five episodes during the marathon, and there wasn't a dud episode in them. I mean, I could have done without seeing Jeff Dunham, and I definitely could have done without Rob Corddry in a redface outfit. (Seriously, Hollywood? We're still doing fucking redface?)

Can't speak for the other half of the season, though.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:05 PM on January 18, 2016

I wonder if I would have enjoyed this more if Brooklyn Nine-Nine hadn't happened first? I recorded the whole marathon, and have watched only the pilot so far, and though I like a lot of the cast/crew involved in the show, it didn't pull me in enough to make me want to burn through the rest of the recordings. Didn't make me want to delete them all immediately, but, they definitely feel more like homework than guilty pleasure viewing.
posted by oh yeah! at 6:30 PM on January 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I haven't watched the show yet, but I did have a good laugh after reading the descriptions for episodes 1-10 on iTunes. The variations of "and the lieutenant is just sick about it" were pretty funny.
posted by mmoncur at 9:19 PM on January 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I tore through this thanks to having MLK Day off, and it holds up pretty damn well. There are one or two dud scenes, but not a single episode doesn't come together and work. Even the dog works for me.
posted by Etrigan at 7:22 AM on January 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

If this works for you, maybe also try Charlie (Black Mirror) Brooker's similar pisstake on UK crime shows, A Touch of Cloth.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:06 PM on January 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

Ehhh... a "modern" Police Squad that missed its marks.

Thumbs up for Rashida Jones as the salty cop who doesn't need a sidekick, thumbs down for the budding romance, and a solid "meh" on most of the physical gags and jokes (except the professor stating "I keep telling you people, it was a scuba-gear malfunction. I loved her." without prompting, but that's because my wife loves true crimes shows about murder). I fully expected them to do a fake freeze frame ending.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:10 AM on January 20, 2016

Yeah, some of the Police Squad stuff was a bit much. Like the lady offering Angie tea, then various other things, then a Gyro. Or the parkour chase scene that weirdly also appeared in the Charlie Brooker show years ago.

Somehow when it's not 1979 and Leslie Nielsen isn't around this kind of joke just makes me think "Surely they can't be serious."
posted by mmoncur at 2:16 AM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

I hope they get David Rasche somewhere along the line.
posted by lmfsilva at 8:51 AM on January 21, 2016

I hope they get David Rasche somewhere along the line.

Or Timothy Omundson (late of Galavant), who is this generation's David Rasche.
posted by Etrigan at 9:01 AM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

Timothy Omundson should be in everything. Maybe he'll have a guest appearance in Season 2. Or maybe not, since that's premiering next week already??

(I probably should have titled this post Season 1 instead of Pilot.)
posted by tobascodagama at 11:04 AM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

Whaaa? Season 2 already? Good lord, you're right.

That is bizarre.
posted by Etrigan at 11:07 AM on January 21, 2016

I think they might be onto something. Split a season in two, so you have a first half of 10 episodes served shotgun style people can binge and quickly get into, and a second of 10 episodes delivered in a traditional fashion starting a week later. The hardest bit for a new series is to get fans going, and that's hard with the current all-you-can-eat distribution models (legal and otherwise).

And yes, Timothy Omundson would be just as fine.
posted by lmfsilva at 11:42 AM on January 21, 2016 [2 favorites]

The whole binge-a-thon thing was obviously an attempt at trying out a Netflix-style model for releasing shows, but following it up with a normal season is an interesting twist. Like you say, it's a way to get fans stoked enough to spread word of mouth (certainly worked on me).

I can think of more than a few shows recently that suffered due to a slow build-up that they couldn't recover from despite a marked improvement in quality over time. Dollhouse is kind of my go-to example there, since it really foundered until episode four or so, but Agents of SHIELD also qualifies. (Damn, Joss. You didn't have this issue with Firefly. What happened?) Maybe that show would have been better received if it came out on this kind of schedule, with the first half of the season dropping all at once.

On the other hand, it does take a lot of confidence on the network's part to even try it.
posted by tobascodagama at 12:06 PM on January 21, 2016

Dollhouse is kind of my go-to example there, since it really foundered until episode four or so, but Agents of SHIELD also qualifies. (Damn, Joss. You didn't have this issue with Firefly. What happened?)

Firefly got cancelled after 11 episodes, is what happened.

I don't remember whether I said it here on MeFi, but Joss should be allowed to make six episodes of each new show, and then burn them after he learned what he really wants the show to do.
posted by Etrigan at 12:18 PM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

Sci-fi is a genre that could certainly be helped a lot if writers were told the first 3/4 episodes would be shown sequentially and in the same night. Instead of cramming all world-building and setting the characters in 40 minutes and then occasionally during the rest of the first season could do wonders, they'd have a three hour long episode for it, and then still have the rest of the season to give it character.
posted by lmfsilva at 12:49 PM on January 21, 2016 [3 favorites]

We're getting way off Angie Tribeca now, but what I meant about Firefly is that it got immediately off the ground and sold you on its premise and characters. And that's true whether you're looking at the original pilot or the aired pilot (the train episode). Whereas Dollhouse took really half a season to get started. But I guess in retrospect Firefly is really the anomaly there, since Buffy's season one was pretty rough as well, and Angel in season one was literally a different show from what it became.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:02 PM on January 21, 2016

Well, 30-ish years since Police Squad, maybe Naked Gun, and I'm ready for a well-made homage. I'm halfway through episode two but I'm already itching to go back and rewatch the pilot for things I'm sure I missed the first time.

I think the cast is great, and if they can keep up this level of guest stars through the season that should be very fun.

I'm also happy to support a show that can be funny and smart without being mean, which is what I'd expect from noted nice guy, Steve Carell (and I assume wife/partner Nancy Carell is also nice) especially for a show that could have a lot of punching down.

Obvious, but I liked the nod to Michael Scott with "That's what sheep said." I always like Jere Burns, but he's got some competition in the face-acting arena.

If you missed it, the cop that is stationed at Mayor Eric Garcetti's office is played (well!) by Eric Garcetti.
posted by Room 641-A at 6:36 AM on January 22, 2016 [3 favorites]

(Oops, that should be that it's the real Mayor Garcetti playing the cop protecting the fictional Mayor.)
posted by Room 641-A at 6:40 AM on January 22, 2016 [2 favorites]

(Oops, that should be that it's the real Mayor Garcetti playing the cop protecting the fictional Mayor.)

Huh, I like the show well enough and don't mind/didn't notice most of the homages to Police Squad/Naked Gun, but that's a straight-up copy of Portlandia's using Portland Mayor Sam Adams as the assistant to fictional mayor Kyle MacLachlan.
posted by psoas at 2:28 PM on January 26, 2016

Stealing terrible jokes? It really is a Police Squad homage. Anyway I love this show. It's so fucking dumb and doesn't give a crap.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:10 PM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

straight-up copy of Portlandia's using Portland Mayor Sam Adams as the assistant to fictional mayor Kyle MacLachlan.

Huh, I don't think I knew that. It's definitely something I would have had to have read somewhere because I wouldn't recognize Sam Adams. Did he play to the camera at all? I also got the impression that Garcetti's ittle eye roll at the camera (which, again, was really good!) was a joke about everyone in L.A. being an actor.

Anyway I love this show. It's so fucking dumb and doesn't give a crap.

I'm having surgery in a few days and I'm saving the back half of the season for recuperatiion, plus I'm not rewatching in the first episodes for now. It's been really, really hard! I, too, love this dumb show.
posted by Room 641-A at 3:25 PM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Whaaa? Season 2 already? Good lord, you're right.

Turns out that was wrong. TBS is re-running Season 1 one episode per week. Season 2 is allegedly filming.

Note from the IMDB Trivia page: Takes place 2 years prior to the events of Terminator: Salvation.
posted by Etrigan at 10:02 AM on January 27, 2016 [5 favorites]

I know this had an unusual release with the initial binge-watch, so is there already a plan for posting the other episodes? I don't want to step on anyone's toes, but I can post episode two if no one else plans on doing it.
posted by Room 641-A at 9:18 AM on February 6, 2016

I was planning to just let this stand for the whole first season (despite the misleading title), but I don't mind if you want to post new ones for the other episodes.
posted by tobascodagama at 10:09 AM on February 6, 2016

The finale was my favorite episode. It had a much higher hit/miss ratio IMO. Still, not a bad episode in the bunch.
posted by Monochrome at 9:46 AM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm catching up with the first season on Hulu. I've watched random episodes on TBS and always enjoyed them and always meant to watch the whole thing. I love that it just goes full throttle with the gags and silliness.
posted by numaner at 11:51 AM on July 10, 2017