After 20 years in prison, Angie is reunited with her old team and son A.J., now part of the Special Division Force. The team's first assignment is to infiltrate a hospital to find a potential assassin of French Ambassador, Pierre Cardin.
In 2018, there were 495 scripted shows airing amongst the linear channels and streaming services. The way people are consuming content now is so different than it used to be. It happens according to one's own schedule. As such, there is less necessity to provide ample coverage of each specific episode in any given season from a show. Moreover, it is simply impossible to watch everything. As such, this site is making the move to shorter episodic reviews in order to cover as many shows as possible. Premieres and finales may feature longer reviews. With all of that being said, here are my thoughts on the next episode of TBS' Angie Tribeca.
"The Force Wakes Up" was written by Ira Ungerleider and directed by Ira Ungerleider
Angie Tribeca hasn't aired a new episode since June 2017. That can be a long wait in between seasons for the audience. Some viewers could forget everything that was going on with the characters and what was still important to them. Of course, it never felt like a big deal to this particular show because it has its own set of logic that makes it clear that not everything needs to make sense all of the time in order for it to still be effectively amusing. This is a very silly show. It's the type of show that will set this entire season twenty years in the future but not recast any of the actors or make them noticeable older. Angie Tribeca is now mother to a 20-something son - who happens to be played by Bobby Cannavale, who is a few years older than Rashida Jones. That's a visual joke that is so random and yet so delightful in this premiere. It should be very fascinating to see if it's a conceit that can be sustained over the course of the entire season though. It's clear that Cannavale is having fun playing a character who is so childish and impatient. Of course, AJ has gone through a troubled life as well. As a baby and toddler, he was always made to be the butt of the joke. Angie and Jay never really cared about him or changed their lives all that much because of him. They simply just sent him off to a boarding school for sitcom children who just have to disappear for awhile. And now, it's clear just how selfish and abusive that decision actually was. This season will absolutely be painting Angie in a new light because of her now being a mother. She will have an ongoing dynamic with AJ. They are working together as a part of this Special Division Force. Atkins and Scholls are still part of the team as well. Meanwhile, Jay is just gone completely. That's a shocking move because so much of the narrative has been about his relationship with Angie. The last season was predominately about him trying to pass the lieutenant's exam. That was ultimately what the entire story was about as well. And now, Angie is arrested and locked away for 20 years simply because of something she says is a convenient misunderstanding. She changed her name one year while working at the DMV which also happened to be the year someone else named Angie Tribeca was killed in a tragic meet-cute situation. That's so ridiculous. But it's also par for the course when it comes to this show. The rest of the premiere is devoted to a Grey's Anatomy sendup where the team goes undercover in a Minnesota hospital to see who is trying to assassinate the French ambassador. It's a story that also sets up the new ongoing story for the season as it becomes clear that this new task force may not be the good guys in all of this. That's something that Angie and company will have to reconcile with. They take their orders from the Vice President who continues to be insanely corrupt. It's still a whole lot of fun seeing the gang figure out how to work together all while Angie is trying to avoid getting caught in a romance with head surgeon Autumn Portugal. Eliza Coupe and Taran Killam are the guest stars here. Both are delightful with Killam's French accent being insanely over-the-top. Plus, there is the sense that both will continue to appear as Pierre Cardin represents a global side of the story while Autumn Portugal is actually Sarah Crouton, who works undercover for the CIA. So basically, there are no real doctors at this hospital whatsoever.
