A feeling of pride wells in me when I think of this show. I recall when this show premiered in the Summer of 2003. I've watched a lot of Comedy Central over the years,and I've sen a lot of shows come and go on that channel,some good,some not-so-good. Outside of Chappelle Show(which imploded under CC's unreasonable production demands after just threes successful seasons),Win Ben Stein's Money(which was quietly shelved)and The Man Show(which disassembled itself after five seasons),the network has retained few shows it has rolled out since 1996,the year the Daily Show was launched. But this show has survived,and the quality of the product bears it out.
A film crew follows the round-the-clock gongs on of seven Reno,Nevada Sheriff's deputies: Lt.Dangle(Thomas Lennon),Deputies Jones(Cedric Yarborough),GArcia(Carlos Alozraqui,spelling?),Johnson(Wendi McLendon-Covey),Junior(Ben Garant),Weigel(Kerri Kinney-Silver) and YAtes(?)(Mary Birdsong),a la the FOX TV institutional hit "Cops". Of course,nearly all of these deps have little good sense about them,and all seem to have increasing difficulty conducting their jobs as enforcers of the law with each episode. Naturally,one hopes that the REAL Reno police is not nearly this incompetent.
The improv talents of each actor is SUPERB,and the camera-work and seamless "documentation" of the events unfolding make this comedy that one has to stay acutely attuned to. For me,that is the sign of a strong comedy that's willing to allow gags and plot lines to hang back and let the viewer come TO it,rather than vice-versa. And as per my previous favorable critiques of comedies,one of the more favorable qualities of it is this show's lack of a laugh track,which would be absolute poison to it(even more so than some more "conventional" sitcoms),anyway.
With this show most recently going to the big screen--and the jury's out on if I want to see Reno 911!:Miami--I feel pretty good about this show's status on CC(perhaps wrongly so). Still,with four seasons in the books,I'm glad CC invested in this hilarious,smart show.
A film crew follows the round-the-clock gongs on of seven Reno,Nevada Sheriff's deputies: Lt.Dangle(Thomas Lennon),Deputies Jones(Cedric Yarborough),GArcia(Carlos Alozraqui,spelling?),Johnson(Wendi McLendon-Covey),Junior(Ben Garant),Weigel(Kerri Kinney-Silver) and YAtes(?)(Mary Birdsong),a la the FOX TV institutional hit "Cops". Of course,nearly all of these deps have little good sense about them,and all seem to have increasing difficulty conducting their jobs as enforcers of the law with each episode. Naturally,one hopes that the REAL Reno police is not nearly this incompetent.
The improv talents of each actor is SUPERB,and the camera-work and seamless "documentation" of the events unfolding make this comedy that one has to stay acutely attuned to. For me,that is the sign of a strong comedy that's willing to allow gags and plot lines to hang back and let the viewer come TO it,rather than vice-versa. And as per my previous favorable critiques of comedies,one of the more favorable qualities of it is this show's lack of a laugh track,which would be absolute poison to it(even more so than some more "conventional" sitcoms),anyway.
With this show most recently going to the big screen--and the jury's out on if I want to see Reno 911!:Miami--I feel pretty good about this show's status on CC(perhaps wrongly so). Still,with four seasons in the books,I'm glad CC invested in this hilarious,smart show.