The plot beats were nothing special, but the actors were funny and had chemistry. The main guy got to be an animal geek, and the sad cop realized cops sucked and that this animal guy was more her level.

The baker and the mindreader were a typical sadsack and MPDG but they had good comedic sense.

So of course, the sequels immediately contrived stupif reasons to split the party and doubled down on the grimdark stuff that just barely held together in the first one