The police procedural has been a mainstay television genre for decades. Cold cases files reopened, detectives on the edge, and undercover agents have time and again been the source for a cornucopia of hour-long dramas. With such an established TV genre, it’s only natural that it gets  poked fun at — much like TBS’ brand new series Angie Tribeca does.
The idea of a comedically bent police procedural isn’t anything new, especially if you remember Car 54, Where Are You? from the early ’60s. However, in a world of CSIs and Law and Orders, seeing goofy police doing goofy police work is very refreshing. Brooklyn Nine-Nine has taken advantage of this niche all the way to solid ratings and Golden Globes wins. Angie Tribeca looks to do the same.
Steve Carrell and his wife and Nancy Carell developed Angie Tribeca (formerly named simply Tribeca) starring Rashida Jones as, you guessed it, Angie Tribeca: an overly hard boiled LAPD detective that deals with getting a new partner. Of course, since the show stems from the minds of the Carells, Jones hardly assumes the sobering, looking-out-into-the-distance moments typical of most TV gumshoes. Instead, she makes sure to not forget her bow and arrow, plays twenty questions rather than interrogating, and gets into plenty of extreme physical comedy bits.
When TBS ordered Angie Tribeca last week, it was described to be in the spirit of Naked Gun. After watching the series trailer that was posted today after TBS’ upfront presentation, there is no doubt about that. For you Office fans out there, this is probably the closest we’ll get to Michael Scott’s Threat Level Midnight being a real show.
So when they say “From the minds of Nancy and Steve Carell”, what they mean is, “From that time when Steve Carell was in Get Smart, and how they used to watch Naked Gun when they were kids, comes…”