Police Squad!
1982
Original language: English
- comedy
- crime
The story
In this cult parody of cop dramas, replete with farce and sight gags, Lieutenant Frank Drebin and his fellow officers from Police Squad bungle their way though crime investigations.
What it’s like
Bright, flat daytime light and deadpan staging, with the camera holding on straight-faced cops in drab offices, rain-slick streets and cheap-looking sets that play every gag as if nothing is wrong. The jokes arrive through background business, mis-timed reactions and visual non-sequiturs rather than punchlines, so a background of dated 1980s styling, bland police-procedural décor and a sprightly, earnest theme makes the absurdity land harder. The mood is giddy and relentlessly silly, a sustained comic deadpan that rewards close attention, and the pace is brisk: short episodes packed with rapid-fire sight gags that never let up. Violence is cartoonish, slapstick and bloodless, with gunfire and tumbles that are plainly fake, and there is no real menace, gore or sexual content. It suits a lazy evening, a comfort rewatch or a group laugh, and it is for people who enjoy spoofs of hard-boiled cop shows, Airplane-style absurdity and performers who keep a straight face while the world falls apart.
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