Season 1: Reno 911

If Season 1 has a protagonist, it is Lieutenant Jim Dangle (Thomas Lennon). With his patent leather platform boots, ill-fitting shorts, and a voice that vacillates between authoritative and frantic, Dangle is the anchor of the department’s delusion. Season 1 establishes his desperate desire to be a serious lawman, juxtaposed with his utter inability to control his squad.

Watch it for the shorts. Stay for the pig funeral. And remember: in Reno, the joke is always on the badge. Reno 911 season 1

The series opens with Deputy Clementine Johnson (Wendi McLendon-Covey) explaining why she accidentally shot a fleeing suspect in the back. Within the first five minutes, we meet Lieutenant Jim Dangle (Thomas Lennon) in his famously tiny shorts, Deputy Travis Junior (Ben Garant) sleeping in his patrol car, and Deputy Raineesha Williams (Niecy Nash) taking a bribe via a doughnut. The tone is set: incompetent, lecherous, and bizarrely endearing. If Season 1 has a protagonist, it is

Opposite Dangle is Deputy Trudy Wiegel (Kerri Kenney-Silver), a character who creates a unique brand of discomfort for the audience. In Season 1, Trudy’s mental instability is front and center. From her disturbing shrine to Dangle to her deadpan admission of inappropriate behavior with feral cats, Trudy subverts the "ditz" archetype. She is the department's wild card, capable of surprising violence or deep, confusing sadness at a moment's notice. Watch it for the shorts