Reno 911 is a partially unscripted comedy in the form of the show cops. It gives you an inside look documentary style of the Reno police force. It's one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. It's one of the rare comedies where every season is just as funny as the others. It just remains as clever and funny in every episode of every season. It's the definition of a cult hit show. It's actually so popular that after the series ended in 2009 they brought it back in 2022 and people still love it. The show is still just as funny watching as reruns as when they first came out! You can rewatch it as many times as you want and it'll remain funny to you. If you haven't yet seen this incredibly funny show then do yourself a favor and go watch as soon as possible!
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Supermanfan-1312 July 2023What's there to say about Reno 911 that hasn't already been said? It's one of the most laugh filled shows I've ever seen and one of my favorite comedies ever. What's makes this show even funnier is that the majority of it is improvised, it's just the actors doing what they do best. It's one of the few shows where the entire cast are almost equally funny. Everyone has their favorite but they're all hilarious. There's really not a weak link on the entire show. They just brought this show back after being gone for over a decade. They've also made a few movies and while those weren't quite as good as the show they're all still pretty funny and worth watching. I can not recommend this show enough.
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And like that the six seasons of Reno 911! and it's spinoff movie are over and I'm a combination of saddened and relieved.
Saddened because it's a great show, relieved because the final season felt like a chore and really wasn't on par with the rest.
Now for those unfamiliar Reno 911! is a mockumentary show about the Reno police department which is made up of hilarious inept characters and the chaos that transpires during their job.
The trouble with Reno 911! is that it's quick fire dry humour, and though most jokes hit the mark (Many firmly so) a lot fail thoroughly as well and that's what prevented the show from being truly legendary. Had it been more consistent it would have easily been one of my favorite shows of all time.
Led by the excellent and criminally underappreciated Thomas Lennon the cast is on point until the final season when they suddenly replaced two cast members with a pair that simply didn't gel very well and damaged the final season.
Slapstick, silly and often satirical Reno 911! is a solid comedy show I would recommend to anyone and everyone under the appreciation that many jokes fall flatter than a dry fart.
Reno 911! You shall be missed, fantastic show.
The Good:
Excellent cats
Hilarious for the most part
The Bad:
No finale
Last season doesn't deliver
New characters fail to entertain
Things I Learnt From This Show:
At some point they ran out of ideas but chose to carry on anyway
Thomas Lennon needs more movie work -
minister_of_silly_walks9 January 2019A mocumentary of the show COPS executed to perfection with fun characters, surreal and hilarious story lines combined with great performances by the main cast. One of the best Comedy Central has ever made right up there with South Park.
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liquidcelluloid-16 July 2004Network: Comedy Central; Genera: Comedy/Sketch; Content Rating: TV-14 (for strong language and sexual content; Classification: Contemporary (Star range: 1 - 4)
Season Reviewed: 5 seasons
From the outset, a full-length parody of 'Cops' wouldn't sound like any groundbreaking comedy. With it's well known traditions and often copied style, 'Cops' has long been the subject of parody for years before arguably becoming a parody of itself. However, 'Reno 911!' does you one better. From Thomas Lennon, Kerri Kennedy and Ben Garant - the creators of 'The State' and the now forgiven and forgotten 'Viva Variety' - 'Reno' takes that 'Cops' mold (and 'Rescue 911!' title sequence) and populates it with a world of realized original characters.
In 'Reno' this comedy troupe has found a perfect cross between the improvisational sketch comedy series and the episodic televisions series. The show, as you might expect, is largely improved which can be good or bad (as seen in last year's disastrous 'Life with Bonnie'). The show's hit-and-miss laugh ratio is lower than it probably would be if it was scripted, but what we gain in the trade-off is this wonderful naturalistic dialog. The crew have an ear for recreating that often witty but just as often dull, monotonous and uncomfortable naturalistic conversation. If 'Reno' were any funnier it would be in the stratosphere. I love the opening title sequences.
The entire cast is note-perfect. We have straight-laced Jonsey (Cedric Yarbrough), Garcia (Carlos Alazraqui), a racist, lonely, complex shell of a man, Clementine (Wendi McLendon-Covey) is the truck stop waitress turned cop "with a full dance card", Junior (Garant) is the incompetent, fully of stories, young cadet and Rainessha Williams (Niecy Nash) is the sassy, booty-licious femme-fetal cop. The show bounces all these characters off each other, matching them up in odd pairs and letting the nuances in them create the sparks. Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kennedy have given themselves the juiciest roles and approach brilliance in them. Kenney's Trudy Weigel is superbly dysfunctional beyond any simple description and Lennon's Jim Dangle is poised to be the breakout character of the show. Like Mr. Garrison in 'South Park' and Stewie Griffen on 'Family Guy', Dangle is a character than can get a laugh from me almost anytime he opens his mouth. It has a knack for creating scenarios where, in an odd way, the set-ups can be funnier than the punch line. Just the idea that Jim Dangle is going to show up to Trudy Weigel's house and "give her the thrill of her life" is funnier than ultimately seeing the Asian man she's hiding in her kitchen.
'Reno' knows its way around the 'Cops' traditions, making ample use of streakers with strategically placed edit blurs (also brilliantly hiding the faces of the cast doubling up), belligerent roadside pull-overs, hookers with bad wigs and crazy domestic disturbance calls that reveal fetishes best kept behind closed doors. But it also knows it needs to be more than that. The episode plots are as hilariously strange as it comes and veiled thinly enough to support any number of tangential gags. In one episode the group is put on suicide watch for Trudy Weigel and she flips out because they look disappointed she didn't go through with it. In another, they venture to the Burning Man festival and get lost along the way in full rave gear. In a particularly inspired episode they compete for 2 tickets to an execution with a suspect scavenger hunt.The bumbling officers get visits from the FBI, Homeland Security, British officers and in 2 classic episodes a religious tele-evangelist and Reading Ron (Brian Unger) featuring a show-stoppping bit with a cat on a roof. Watch continuously and you'll see running gags and continuity coming out in what otherwise seems like randomized chaos. These cops view enforcing the law as a happy side effect to the real joy of holding their power over the citizens of the burned-out Nevada suburb, abusing it gleefully and not above pulling guns on themselves.
'Reno 911!' was originally produced as a pilot for Fox and sat on the shelf for 2 years before Comedy Central came calling (and it became an almost instant hit). Sounds like something Fox would do. It's all for the best as 'Reno' on Comedy Central is given free range to do things every week that would have gotten them throw off the air at Fox. Jokes around rape, accidental shootings, cops planting evidence and screwing with the citizens (in a time when the media loves to put a wedge between cops and the people), red-necks & every racial demographic known to man, discussions on when it's appropriate to use the N-word, terrorists in the post-9/11 world (with the greatest of ease I might add, a subject most shows trip over themselves to run from) and everything else you might imagine would give a network suit a conniption fit are peppered well into the show. It enthusiastically leapfrogs from one set piece to the next in an attempt to offend anyone and everyone it can and getting big laughs with it.
I largely consider Comedy Central a dumping ground, but admire their drive to take chances - which is more than you can say for the networks. 'Reno' is a show that isn't crude for the sake of it or the edgy in appearance only. It is a gutsy, frequently hysterical series in which the gags are expertly delivered (and edited together) by a well developed cast of comic talents. A real screwball farce that roams freely around without politically correct borders or boundaries, the likes of which you just don't see much of on TV today. And you want, silly slapstick? 'Reno' proves that even the age-old kick-in-the-groin gag, if done well, can still be funny. An acquired taste, but well worth it.
* * * / 4 -
trafficbabe200022 February 2019I do not recommend the unedited version. There is just something about the original that makes it so much more funny. Such a great binge worthy show.
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lexxiauguste2 January 2020Honestly this was the best entertainment for me when I was younger and even today! You can't re-create this, it was just a very unique show. The actors mesh well together when it comes to comedy; It was a perfect cast. Around that time comedy central had better comedy shows that actually made me laugh. Reno 911! was always hilarious with the random hi-jinks they always seem to get themselves in. Even til this day I watch reruns of this show, CLASSIC!
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view_and_review14 March 2020"Reno 911!" was creative and stupid funny. My first time watching it they had me fooled. For a moment I thought it was the actual Reno P.D. because of the COPS style embedded cameraman filming. I don't think it took a full episode before I realized, "OK. This is a comedy show," and I was hooked. After "South Park," this was probably the only Comedy Central show that I regularly tuned into.
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athanasiosze9 March 2023FIRST SEASON : 7,5/10
SECOND SEASON : 7,8/10
THIRD SEASON : 7,6/10
FOURTH SEASON : 7,5/10
FIFTH SEASON : 7,9/10
SIXTH SEASON : 7,1/10
SEVENTH SEASON : 6,7/10
EIGHTH SEASON : 7,2/10
This is one of the tv shows that bring tears in my eyes because i laugh so hard while watching this. It's hilarious. These guys don't respect anything, there is not a single heart-warming moment here. It's raw, crude and deliberately dumb. Surely, it's not for anyone. Many people won't like it. But, if your type of humor is something like IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA, then you will probably like it.
First five seasons are better than the last ones. However, this should not discourage you from watching this because there are still many funny moments. Maybe you should skip 7th season, they look kinda tired and uninspired. They find it again in the 8th season though. I hope it don't get cancelled. I cannot stop watching Dangle, Jones, Junior, Wiegel, Raineesha and Clementine. -
KUAlum264 March 2007A 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. -
jcmcclurg14 June 2014I watched the first four seasons, which started out being quite funny -- in the vein of Super Troopers: The writing was tight, the characters were likable, and seemed to hint at a layer of depth beneath the hilarity. That works well in a two-hour movie, but if characters aren't allowed to grow at all within a five-season TV show, the silliness can get old really fast. After a while, things started to get way too predictable, relying much too much on cheap gags and wacky twists to keep viewer interest than on actual plot/character development. The first episode of season 5 starts out with Dangle trying to "jump a shark." I stopped watching after that.
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haildevilman3 May 2007This is basically "Cops" done like "Spinal Tap." I wonder if Misters Guest, McKean, and Shearer are proud.
It's filmed really well. I imagine someone unfamiliar with it might wonder if it's real or not. That is until one of them shoots a suspect on a shoplifting call because he didn't want to waste time.
Dangle's tiny shorts put a few people off it seems. It's not the most attractive look, but then, that's comedy.
Travis Junior (Benny's a real Deniro/Taxi Driver fan.) looks like such a stereotypical beat cop. He plays the whole "Step over here for a minute sir" role to the hilt too.
And while I like the Williams character, I don't think we need so much fake "L'il Kim" lingo to get humor. And some of the Gay humor seems a bit trite too.
But funny? Yes. I discovered this recently and got plenty of laughs. Glad it survived. -
Swampfire12 September 2020I was a bit excited to see that there would be more of Reno 911 after all of these years, but after making it 4 episodes in to season 7, my main thought has been "it's a good thing these episodes are only 7 minutes long". My most generous assessment would be "weak".
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This show is a laugh riot, It follows the exploits of a group of Sheriff's deputies on they're beats and on calls. like a parody of "Cops" this show has it all. drunk hicks and stoned losers. If you like this show I highly recommend you go to the video store and rent "Broken lizard's Super Troopers" it's like Reno 911! on the big screen.
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perillomike7 June 2021This ensemble is really amazing and you cant choose a favorite as each character is unique and hilarious in their own cliched way. The improvisational aspect is amazing and you just know they are having a blast creating these COPS style scenarios. The guest stars really shine as well. Kyle Dunigan, jack plotnick, patton oswalt, nick swarsdon, toby huss and zack galifiniakis are a few of the best regular perps routinely called upon for their antics. Ive binged this show so often its addictive.
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windtar28 October 20083 words describe Reno 911 - Funny Funny and Funny.
Inept cops who have child mentality towards life and who should be fired run the law enforcement in Reno.
CLASSIC It's funny, stupid, silly, annoying, and literally begs you to break the law just to see what happens.
The characters all have their own unique quirks, with Weigel just being retarded. That woman just makes me cringe, hehe. The blacked out nudity is always funny.
I'm not sure if it would be successful in primetime, but i'd watch.
You need to enjoy stupid humor and have a guy mentality to appreciate -
stephenchase-635048 February 2021The funniest guest star is Nick Swanson, and the funniest star is Thomas Lennon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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branchoptics21 September 2020This for me will always be the funniest mockumentary show ever made. A COPS version of Spinal Tap but even darker and sillier. Always Sunny wouldn't be what it is today without Reno, along with all the other shows full of people who are monsters that destroy everything in their path, oblivious to their own stupidity and selfishness. All of the old seasons still hold up and will still be inspiration for other comedies. And everyone loves Terry.
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tmartin-787216 September 2020I was pleasantly surprised at Quibi's part 2. The episodes flow together and don't feel I like shorts. It's also still hilarious!
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jl19829 February 2023I watch Reno 911, South Park, King of the Hill, and The Office on repeat. I have all of the seasons from each of these shows downloaded in original form onto my external in case "they" one day decide to swap the originals with censored versions or cut off access altogether. This is what the world was like before the PC babies took over and this is the way I will remember it. After AI takes over every job imaginable-when we're all living in pods receiving our monthly UBI stipends, I will be in my allotted cube watching Reno 911 with my wired headphones on to block out the drones that will inevitably be scanning every square inch where human beings reside to make sure no one is consuming "offensive" content. Long live Reno 911 and the crazy bunch that were a part of it. Truly one of the most magnificent, hilarious, and genius (I don't say that often) shows of all time.
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alkady2 September 2006http://www.myspace.com/reno911scrubsfanpage
i even set up my own scrubs/reno911 fan page on myspace because i love this show so much the whole cast crack me up i love Trudy and Dangle best but seriously love them all keep up the great work and cannot wait to see Reno Miami :D
This show is so underrated and i think they all deserve every award going here in the Uk it is played on the sky channel Fx and i wish it could be played on terrestial TV so more could love follow and enjoy this show as i do, each and every cast members role is just so believable i am hooked and love it. and to know the Thomas Lennon aka dangle is a Huge Jackie Chan fan is a cool thing too :D way to go to you all -
Analog_Devotee3 August 2021Never understood what people saw in this show. I guess if you're into really bland humor that just barely qualifies as humor, this is the show for you.
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yogibear444-115 November 2003This quickly became one of my favorite shows. The similarity to "Cops" is humorous. The realistic actions and reactions to situations is so far from what you'd expect that all you can do is laugh as they make a farse of law enforcement. Watch this show, again and again. It's too funny not to. Don't listen to those who watched it for 15 minutes and gave up.
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caa8219 December 2006A lot of previous comments here were made sometime ago - during the program's initial year. I would simply add to those who feel it's about the funniest thing on the tube - I agree!
Its times of airing seem to move a lot, and I've often caught it "hit-or-miss." But when the channel on occasion will run several episodes back-to-back, and I have the opportunity to see (or tape) them - I still find them funny and throughly entertaining. The combination of scripted and (largely) improvised stories and situations make it a better show than if it relied upon one of these techniques exclusively.
These are a funny and diverse cast of regulars, and the guest actors have all been hilarious, as well.
I also agree with some of the comments here which mention the fact that the "Comedy" channel has often fallen short of living up to its name.
However, they hit the mark with this one. -
MovieAddict20165 September 2005I hate reality TV so it's great to see Comedy Central satirizing the trend. Essentially this show is about the Reno Police Force and their consistent misadventures.
The show features at least one blurred naked body per episode and uses a few running gags, but for the most part it's totally unpredictable and very, very funny.
The show follows the cops as they go around stopping crimes and helping the public. It's kind of random - like the show "COPS" - and will jump from one segment to the next even if they're unrelated to each other.
The cast is great because they never let on that it's a comedy. They each have their trademark - the guy who wears shorty-shorts, the busty blonde bimbo, the minority figure, etc.
The show regularly features performers Cedric Yarbrough, Niecy Nash, Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon and Carlos Alazraqui (who supposedly flubs up the most takes by laughing) - as well as a host of regular guests or cameo performers.
Overall this is simply one of the funniest and most irreverent shows on television, and it's quite a surprise to see it on Comedy Central, because they're typically known for having quite lousy shows. ("South Park," "Dave Chappelle" and "Reno" are about the only three original Comedy Central shows - currently airing - that I watch.)