General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

No Activity

No Activity is an American comedy television series adapted from the Australian series of the same name, following two low-level police detectives on a stakeout connected to a major drug cartel bust. It was the first original comedy ordered by the streaming service CBS All Access, running four seasons and 32 episodes from November 2017 to May 2021, first on CBS All Access and then on its successor Paramount+.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Format	Half-hour single-camera comedy; seasons 1–3 live action, season 4 fully animated³
Run	November 12, 2017 to May 2021; four seasons, 32 episodes; status canceled/ended¹
Lead cast	Patrick Brammall as Detective Nick Cullen, Tim Meadows as Detective Judd Tolbeck⁴
Creators	Trent O'Donnell and Patrick Brammall, who created the Australian original and wrote and showran the US first season²
Production	CBS Television Studios with Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's Funny or Die²
Season 4	Premiered April 8, 2021 on Paramount+ with weekly episode drops⁵
Reception	Season 1: Metacritic Metascore 56, Rotten Tomatoes 67% from 9 critics, IMDb 6.8/10⁶^•⁷^•⁸

Spoilers

Premise and style

The series celebrates the mundane inside what should be a high-stakes sting operation. With a major drug cartel bust as its backdrop, the series centers on a pair of junior police officers who have logged excessive hours sharing a car, a pair of offenders kept mostly uninformed, a pair of dispatchers who have yet to connect, and a pair of Mexican tunnel diggers squeezed into a space much too cramped for people who have only recently met.⁴

TV Guide's review described the show's distinguishing feature as also its riskiest: it consists almost entirely of scenes of two characters talking out of boredom in single settings, while the illusion of something grander plays out elsewhere, playing more like a televised stage play than a traditional series. The review noted it eschews the laugh track and multi-camera setup common in CBS sitcoms.⁹ The Los Angeles Times called it "smart, odd and assured" and observed that it was more radical in form and content than the comedies on the CBS broadcast network, where live-audience laughter signals what is supposed to be funny.¹⁰

Cast

Patrick Brammall, who also starred as a police detective in the Australian original, plays Detective Nick Cullen; Tim Meadows plays Detective Judd Tolbeck.⁴^•¹⁰ Amy Sedaris plays a cynical, self-absorbed police dispatcher, and Sunita Mani plays Fatima Khorasani.¹¹^•¹ Recurring roles included Jesse Plemons as Angus, Arturo Castro as Miguel, Adrian Martinez as Roberto, and Will Ferrell as Adrian.¹

The show made heavy use of guest stars. Season 4 additions announced in January 2021 included Louie Anderson, Kevin Bacon, Jillian Bell, D'Arcy Carden, Rob Delaney, Elle Fanning, Will Forte, Kimberly Hébert Gregory, Udo Kier, Lamorne Morris, Oscar Nuñez, Hannah Simone, June Squibb, and Samara Weaving, with returning guests including Joe Keery, Sunita Mani, Jason Mantzoukas, Tim Meadows, Bob Odenkirk, and Amy Sedaris.³

Production and history

The Australian original was commissioned by the streaming service Stan just two months after its January 2015 launch as Stan's first local production, made by Jungle Entertainment and created by Trent O'Donnell and Patrick Brammall. Its success led to distribution in overseas markets and licensing of the format rights to CBS for a US adaptation in 2017.¹² The Australian first series comprised 12 episodes of 30 minutes, completed in 2016, directed and written by Trent O'Donnell, produced by Chloe Rickard, and starring Patrick Brammall and Darren Gilshenan; it won a 2016 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts award for Best Performance in a Television Comedy.¹³

The US version was CBS All Access's first original comedy when it was ordered in 2017, produced by CBS Television Studios with O'Donnell attached to direct and with Will Ferrell and Adam McKay onboard via Funny or Die. O'Donnell and Brammall wrote the scripts and were showrunners for the first season.² O'Donnell, an Australian television director and showrunner, created, wrote, and directed the series for Stan and subsequently developed and directed it for CBS All Access.¹⁴

The fourth season was announced as fully animated, keeping all the fan-favorite characters in animated form, with O'Donnell again directing and Nina Pedrad, Steve Toltz, and Becca Kinskey as co-executive producers.³ It premiered on Thursday, April 8, 2021, with subsequent episodes dropping weekly, shortly after CBS All Access was rebranded as Paramount+ on March 4, 2021.⁵

International versions

In addition to the American version, the format has been licensed for local adaptations in territories such as the Middle East, Japan, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands. Jungle Entertainment chief executive Jason Burrows noted the original was sold to platforms including the BBC in the UK and Hulu in the US.¹²

Reception

Season 1 received a Metacritic Metascore of 56, indicating mixed or average reviews, with two positive, two mixed, and one negative review among five counted.⁶ On Rotten Tomatoes the season holds a 67% Tomatometer from 9 reviews and an 86% Popcornmeter audience score, with the critics' consensus calling it "refreshingly slapdash and agreeably aimless for a cop comedy."⁷ The series holds a 6.8/10 IMDb rating from about 1,700 user ratings, with per-episode scores generally higher in seasons 2 and 3 than in season 4.⁸

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Sitcom and comedy series › American sitcoms and comedy series › 2010s cable and streaming comedies

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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