TBS' Angie Tribeca - Episode 4.08 "Heading to the Legal Beagle"
The team works alongside a victim suing a popular law office for covering up negligence at FarmTech, a farming company with an alleged pesticide problem.
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.
"Heading to the Legal Beagle" was written by Marisa Pinson and directed by Phill Lewis
This show has always spoofed the police procedural so well. In fact, this season has especially taken its game up a notch when it comes to doing episodic riffs on genres from various films and television shows. As such, it's not surprising when the show wades into legal procedural territory. This isn't even the first time the show has explored this format. It has argued things out in the courtroom before. That too can be a solid story engine for a show. However, it's also just not as intense or captivating as the show is on a regular basis. Sure, there is still the ongoing conspiracy of Perry working with the French government to take over various portions of the country. The previous episode saw the vulnerability of the Midwest. This one sees Wyoming open up to a foreign power because of the work that Angie does in the courtroom. But again, the show is still choosing to be very cryptic about what's actually going on. It's unlikely that Perry and Pierre will ultimately be successful in creating an entirely new country. Moreover, it will put Scholls' future with the team in question. Here, she provides the necessary legal assistance Angie needs in order to defeat this corporation that has been testing a destructive pesticide near a human population. Angie sure has a lot of fun putting on her Erin Brockovich persona to fight this case. Meanwhile, she is facing off with AJ and Charo who have gone undercover in the giant law firm that represents this dangerous company. AJ finds himself corrupted by the values of this business. He wants to attack the victim who has come forward with this lawsuit. He sees her as nothing more than someone constantly looking for attention because the world doesn't spell out everything as it actually is. And yet, she truly is a victim of this corporation's cruelty and lack of empathy. They didn't care about the potential consequences of spraying food with this pesticide. The system even proves just how weak everything is when it comes to actually speaking up and making the changes that will ensure that the regulations are followed every step of the way. At the processing plant, it's mostly just about making sure the machine stays on. Beyond that, there is no interest with any other aspect of this industry. That shows how these problems can escalate very quickly. And then, Angie is offered a very simple solution. She is told that she can succeed immediately if she simply assembles a class action lawsuit with bidding arbitration. It's the same exact solution as the conclusion of Erin Brockovich. As such, it feels less like the show is mining this specific genre for all of the laughs hidden underneath the surface and just copying what worked so well in that version of this story. That's lame and unimaginative. That makes this one of the weaker episodes of the season so far. There are also a couple of distractions too. Atkins has a parasite that is killing him faster than expected with the doctor being unable to do anything to stop it in time that couldn't also kill Atkins. Meanwhile, the entire team is aware that AJ and Charo have become a couple even though they would like to believe that they are still being stealthy enough to go unnoticed. That means this episode isn't as tightly focused as it probably should be to succeed.
