Feature image from The Guardian-Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Turner

Over break, I watched a fair amount of Law & Order (the original one – I know!), and TNT was showing commercials for TBS’s new show, Angie Tribeca. I’m not usually a fan of Steve Carell, but when I saw that Rashida Jones (aka AnnPerkins [in Chris Traeger voice]) was in it, I figured I’d give it a try. I liked the idea of the #Bingeathon, and I think it was pretty appealing to those who enjoy binge watching shows. However, I still DVR’d the new episodes so I could watch a few before I left for school.

And I wasn’t disappointed.

The show’s basis is a spoof on cop shows, and there is a ridiculous amount of puns, and it is amazing. Let’s start with the main characters:

Angie Tribeca: played by Rashia Jones and is a dectective in the LAPD, once was engaged to Sgt. Pepper (played by James Franco).

Jay Geils: played by Hayes McArthur and is Tribeca’s new partner. For those who don’t know, his name is a spoof on the J. Geils Band, who is best known for their song “Centerfold”.

Lieutenant Pritikin “Chet” Atkins: played by Jere Burns; he’s often loud, to the point and makes a lot of puns.

DJ Tanner: played by Deon Coles and is a detective in the LAPD with Tribeca and Geils; his partner is a German Shepard and one of the running gags is that no one acknowledge he’s a dog – they just act like he’s a detective in the department.

Dr. Monica Scholls: played by Andrée Vermeulen and is the medical examiner.

The show also has had a bunch of guest stars, like Lisa Kudrow, Jeff Dunham, Adam Scott, Sarah Chalke, Bill Murray, Cecily Strong, and Gene Simmons. The crimes are pretty absurd, like in the episode where Jeff Dunham guest starred, a ventriloquist was killed; Dunham, whose name was “Fisher Price” was the prime suspect (spoiler: the killer was actually his puppet Walter.

There is also a lot of product placement and sponsors. For example, in the Jeff Dunham episode, DJ Tanner was in an interrogation room with a suspect (at the end of the scene we learn it’s a puppet) and he says, “This is not a game. This is a game” and pulls a board game from out of the frame and goes through a handful, making puns with the titles of the games.

As I was watching them before I moved back to school, I asked my dad if he wanted me to save the shows for him the DVR, and he said no because he hadn’t heard of the show before. Come to find out, a few days later he told me that he couldn’t find anything interesting on TV so he watched a few of the new ones in the DVR that I hadn’t watched yet. And he said he really liked it.

I can’t wait to go home and finish watching the first season because it’s definitely a great show, and if anyone is curious, just watch the first episode. Hopefully like me, you’ll be hooked from the start.