In this week’s episode of the comedic cop spoof show Angie Tribeca, the team finds themselves in a frosty predicament after discovering a dead body stuffed into someone’s brand new fridge. Realizing the corpse is that of a former coast guard member, Tribeca (Rashida Jones) sets off against the coast guard themselves to find out who may have been responsible. In addition, she hopes it’ll lead to finding out more about what her former lover Sargent Pepper (James Franco) is really up to.
First and foremost, the good news is that this week’s episode of “The Coast is Fear” is a slight improvement over last week’s “Boyz II Dead,” which was easily’s the season’s worst chapter thus far. Unlike last week, there’s actually a good amount of laughs written throughout the plot, thanks to the inherent silly nature that Angie Tribeca occasionally embraces (when it’s not trying to force its cobbled-together narrative.) Rashida Jones takes command of the most screen time, and her character’s oddball quirks are what leads to the plot’s biggest highlights. The audience even gets a good amount of screen time with Lieutenant Chet Atkins (Jere Burns), who’s been sorely lacking in a handful of season two’s stories.
But that doesn’t mean this week’s show was anything substantial either. For the most part, this slump of episodes seem to be recycling similar ideas and themes over and over, hoping to squeeze some new comedic material out of them, but rarely does that occur. Even actor James Franco didn’t bother showing up in this week’s show, despite his character turning up towards the end. Instead, Franco’s voice is laid over a shadowy figure whose face is never revealed. Guess even Franco realized his role wasn’t that important this week, and didn’t bother showing up for work.
And so continues Angie Tribeca’s slow spiral into average comedy territory. Lacking is a lot of the heart and charm that made the first season such a success, and is replaced with nothing inventive or imaginative to keep the second season memorable. While I am happy to hear that Angie Tribeca will be getting a third season on TBS, I do hope they learn lessons from season two’s mistakes, and make the third outing of this dynamic team of characters closer to what the first season had to offer.
Rating: 6/10
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