Locked, cocked and ready to rock, your favorite deputies are back
for another season of Reno 911! Armed with the arrival of two new
officers (the -loving Deputy Frank Rizzo and the cantankerous
Sergeant Jack Declan), a bevy of guest stars (Craig Robinson,
Patton Oswalt, George Lopez, Nick Swardson) and some usual
suspects (Terry the roller-skating prostitute and Big Mike), the
sixth season delivers everything you're come to know and love
from the deputies of the Reno Sheriff's Department... namely,
questionable workplace attire, botched assignments, and egregious
displays of incompetence.
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"I could have sworn for sure we were canceled," a surprised Lt.
Dangle (Thomas Lennon) greets the cameras in the season opener.
Prophetic words. Comedy Central has since unceremoniously retired
this veteran series, but happily not before revealing the origins
of Dangle's short-shorts style and that the unfortunate Dep.
Trudy Wiegel (Kerri Kenney-Silver) was once smoking hot. Reno
911! may not go out with s blazing, but there are enough
moments of truly inspired lunacy to warrant one last ride along
with Wahoe County's funniest. There are two new faces on the
force following the departures of ensemble members Wendi
McLendon-Covey, Carlos Alazraqui, and Mary Birdsong (their
characters are said to have perished in the taco stand explosion
that ended season 5). Both have excellent priors. Joe Lo Truglio,
as loose cannon Frank Rizzo, was a member of The State. Ian
Roberts, as former Chicago cop Jack Declan, earned his stripes as
a member of the Upright Citizens Brigade. Both characters are
considerably more hardcore than their predecessors. Rizzo makes
Denzel Washington from Training Day look like Sgt. Joe Friday. In
one episode he relentlessly harasses the soccer coach who won't
play his son. In another, he compels his new partner Dep. Jones
(Cedric Yarbrough) to perform illicit and unprintable acts while
undercover.
To its credit, Reno 911! did not mellow over its six-season run.
It continued to brazenly cross the PC line with impunity, as
witness the department's senior abuse PSAs and an encounter with
an unrepentant teacher who has been having sex with one of her
teenage students. The series enlisted some notable accomplices
this season, including Rainn Wilson as a cunning serial killer
with escalating demands (like watching Cold ain) before he
will reveal where a body is buried, Jane Lynch as a couples
therapist, George Lopez as Reno's mayor, who may have committed
bigamy with a maniacal hooker, Jonah Hill as a terminated
employee who will not go quietly, Patton Oswalt as a criminal
extradited to Thailand, and Craig Robinson as a linoleum-floor
pitchman. Dangle and company may be dumb, but they're not
clueless, and after watching them suffer no end of humiliation,
it's nice to also see them get the upper hand every once in
awhile. In one episode, Junior (Robert Ben Garant) reveals how to
c an Italian wedding. In another, Dangle eggs on a hippie
protester who has become a Reno tourist attraction. "Y'all can't
be cops," a citizen protests at one point. "This must be a joke."
Yes, it was a joke, and a great one while it lasted. --Donald
Liebenson
Stills from Reno 911 (Click for larger image)
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