`ANGIE' IS BACK,
Jones back on the case in TBS’ ‘Angie Tribeca’
I t takes truly smart people to make a dumb show.
And one of the smartest dumb shows, TBS' “Angie Tribeca,” created by Mass. natives Steve and Nancy Carell, returns for a third season tomorrow night with the same silly sight gags, absurd jokes and a parade of guest stars coming out to play, including “Jackie's” Natalie Portman, “Star Trek's” Chris Pine and “Fresh Off the Boat's” Randall Park.
In the opener, Angie (Rashida Jones) is giving up her career to be a full-time mother to ... um ... what's his name. Who can remember?
You've had sneezes that lasted longer than her retirement.
Angie's back at work with food all over her clothes and carrying a dirty diaper, and she slugs the first guy who makes a peep of protest.
She and her partner, Jay Geils (Hayes MacArthur), ship the toddler off to a boarding school in Maine. Gosh, they hope the school takes him in.
(And that is how you handle a baby on a TV series. Take notes, other shows. OK, maybe not.)
Back to, meh, not-so-serious police work.
“I'm afraid the unthinkable has happened,” Lt. Atkins (Jere Burns) tells Angie and Geils. “A rich white man has disappeared.”
The victim is a businessman who became wealthy after creating an oil that doesn't wash off penguins.
Angie suspects he's being held by a radical animal rights activist looking to punish big-game trophy hunters.
She has no choice but to consult with notorious serial killer the Zookeeper (Pine), housed in the Mennen Speed Stick Maximum Security Prison.
Yes, it's a riff on “Silence of the Lambs.” A lot of “Angie” this season plays with popular movies, and you won't have a problem with that.
Turns out he knows everything about the case.
“You may want to adjust the privacy settings on your Facebook page,” he sneers.
This case is serialized over the season's 10 episodes, but there are plenty of other offenses, illegal or otherwise, to keep the squad busy.
Atkins faces the prospect of retirement and figures he better start dating now so he can find someone else to drag down into the abyss. Geils is studying to be a lieutenant. Dr. Scholls (Andree Vermeulen) can't control her gambling. Dr. Edelweiss (Alfred Molina, moonlighting this season from “Feud”) loses his job and is forced to work in a number of humiliating positions. The team's canine officer might be addicted to puppy porn.
Oscar winner and Harvard grad Portman shows up in the May 8 episode as the administrator of a private space program that seems curiously stuck in the 1960s. (Why, hello, “Hidden Figures.”) She's sad she'll be fired once she becomes a mommy, but she still bakes cookies for the guys.
When Angie tries to take one, she pulls back. “These are for the men. I'll get you a Fresca and a diet pill later.”
Park plays the department shrink in the April 24 episode.
Angie confides, “I still enjoy roughing up bad guys, putting them behind bars for life, and it's not even my job to decide whether or not they did it.”
When “Angie Tribeca's” on the case, crime doesn't stand a chance. Comedy, on the other hand, just thrives.