Sidelined by lower back pain, this reviewer has been unable to attend recent theatrical screenings. As such, I missed out on the compelling action story of “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,” to say nothing about the good times of “Ride Along 2.”

I would venture to guess that most of us are by now more familiar with the name of the second largest Libyan city than we are able to name the capital cities of most European nations. France? That’s Paris, an easy one. Bulgaria? Have to look that one up.

For shut-ins and those housebound for medical issues, it’s a good thing that the television season is heating up again, what with new series on cable channels and the networks starting to roll out new product.

Courtesy of FX Network in early February, you’ll soon get the 10-part limited drama series “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.” I am not yet sold on the idea of reliving that bit of history.

Taking another tack that looks to be a lot more fun is the TBS Network’s launch of ten episodes of the oddly-named police procedural spoof “Angie Tribeca,” a show that is bound to delight fans of a cop spoof genre that includes comedy classics like “Sledge Hammer!” and the short-lived “Police Squad!”

Leslie Nielsen parlayed his role of Lt. Frank Drebin in “Police Squad!” to the successful run of “The Naked Gun” film franchise, which much like the TV series derived its absurdist humor with endless sight gags and non-sequiturs.

In “Angie Tribeca,” the titular character is played by Rashida Jones, who thrives in the role of straight man, which is appropriate because one of the running gags is that her fellow police officers appear to be oblivious to the fact that she’s actually a woman.

There could be a reason for that misconception. For one thing, LAPD detective Angie Tribeca is a strong, committed loner who’s already had more than two hundred workplace partners.

Her morning ritual consists of punching and kicking her refrigerator, destroying the living room furniture and doing pull-ups in the shower.

In the first episode, Tribeca, much to her chagrin, is teamed up with new partner Jay Geils (Hayes MacArthur), partner number 237 to be exact. There’s a melancholy flashback to losing her partner Sgt. Pepper (James Franco, one of many celebrity cameos).

Geils is more soulful and willing to let Tribeca take the lead, even in the precinct gym where his new partner’s aggressive boxing style turns his face into a puffy pulp as if he had gone 12 rounds with Mike Tyson.

Deon Cole’s Danny Tanner, another detective in the same precinct, is partnered with a Belgian Malinois named Hoffman (Jagger the dog), a canine so talented that he even drives an unmarked squad car.

Overseeing the madcap adventures at the police station is Lt. Chet Atkins (Jere Burns), the prototypical tough, no-nonsense boss who spends most of his time yelling at Tribeca and Geils to get into his office.

In the episode “Tribeca’s Day Off,” the high-strung detective is ordered to use one of her many unused vacation days, and the Lieutenant says to her: “I want your badge and your gun,” to which, Tribeca replies: “Don’t you have your own badge and gun?”

On a visit to the grocery store, while off-duty, Tribeca runs into Bill Murray’s stock boy who persuades her to buy products made for loners, such as the “Flying Solo” TV dinner that is billed as “Airplane Style Food for One” and “Very Single” slices of American cheese.

The quirky medical examiner Dr. Scholls (Andree Vermeulen) performs an autopsy on a ventriloquist’s dummy after its master was horribly murdered, while being assisted by the eccentric Dr. Edelweiss (Alfred Molina), who appears each time with a new physical deformity.

Tribeca and Geils, backed up a SWAT team, bust into a house with a drug lab and counterfeiting operation and proceed to ignore these flagrant crimes as they are single-mindedly determined to arrest the owner for illegal possession of a ferret, a crime with a 50-year sentence.

Much of the humor derives from observations during the process of interrogations, such as when detective Geils questions a suspect by asking “Are you aware that someone was murdered on that flight and now he’s dead?”

The episode investigating murders in-flight, entitled “Murder in the First Class,” recalls the silliness of gags and one-liners from “Airplane!” There’s a pattern in these old shows having an exclamation point in the title, but “Angie Tribeca” stands on its own.

“Angie Tribeca,” created by Steve Carell and his wife Nancy, is often hysterically funny with goofy bad puns and deadpan one-liners that should brighten the day for anyone in the mood for laughs and very silly good fun.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.