A double dose of Brooklyn Nine-Nine kicks off its 8th and final season
That calls for a resounding, "Nine-Nine! Nine-Nine!"
TV Reviews Brooklyn Nine-Nine
“The Good Ones”
Last June, it was revealed that the Brooklyn Nine-Nine writers’ room had essentially gone back to the whiteboard in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. According to Terry Crews, “They had four episodes all ready to go and they just threw them in the trash.” Since then, it’s been a question of just what the show would look like upon its eventual return for its final season. Would the Nine-Nine squad decide to quit the force and instead work at a post office? (At a certain point in 2020, many people were adamant that they’d watch a sitcom about the USPS.) Would they become firefighters? (Considering the canonical rivalry, that would be an interesting status quo shift.) Would they become private investigators like Adrian Pimento? (The most logical option, considering their skillsets and the established Pimento.) Naturally, with four scripts in the trash and a decision to start over, some assumed that maybe the Nine-Nine would no longer be Five-O.
As “The Good Ones” finally reveals, that’s not quite the case at all.
“The Good Ones” is a statement of a season-opening episode, from its content to its episode title. Especially over the past year and a half, the concept of “[one of] the good ones” is a loaded one. So while the title and concept of this episode could have easily been used in a past season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, it’s especially relevant now. However, while culturally relevant, “The Good Ones” and Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s approach to what’s going on in the world kind of implode upon themself, thanks to the previous seven seasons of the series.
Over the years, I’ve consistently written this about Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s depiction of police: All cops are bad, except for the squad at the Nine-Nine, who are the only good cops. All other cops introduced on the show are varying degrees of incompetent, conniving, corrupt, and straight-up villain. Never forget that, because of this fact, Jake and Rosa—a couple of the good ones—ended up in prison. This truth is why last season’s “Captain Kim” ended up somewhat surprising, as Kim (Nicole Bilderback) actually was one of the good ones; as well as why the Debbie (Vanessa Bayer) arc was ultimately a bit disappointing, as the show found a way to make even the most seemingly innocent character a corrupt cop. At this point, no one watching should be surprised when any cop outside our core characters is one of the bad ones. And neither should any of our core characters. Especially Jake Peralta.
David Phillips and Dewayne Perkins’ script for “The Good Ones” does a lot of work to make sure that Rosa consistently makes clear to Jake that her decision to leave the force and become a private investigator is not about him. However, it’s work that doesn’t completely, well, work, because despite this being an ensemble, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is still an Andy Samberg show. It’s always ultimately going to be about Jake Peralta. Jake and Boyle are two sides of the white ally spectrum in this episode, with Boyle as the obnoxiously performative one and Jake as the one who wants to remind everyone that he’s a good guy, even when no one’s even talking about him. Both have to be taught by the people of color around them in this episode, but Jake is taught a hard lesson he should’ve already known about the very broken system that he’s a part of. (And Boyle is taught a lesson that hopefully sticks, because he is a lot here.)
While it doesn’t make the episode all about it, “The Good Ones” does bring race into this episode. As mentioned, Rosa and Terry are the POC teaching their white friends here, but specifically, it’s the fact that Rosa even brings up people that look like her being targeted by the police, while Holt also mentions how he struggles with being a Black man and a cop right now. And obviously, the show’s given Terry a showcase in this realm when it comes to “Moo Moo.” But this episode also has Amy seemingly have no issue with what’s going on in the world, which doesn’t feel right, considering everything else going on. That’s not to say that this should be a heavy half-hour made solely for the purpose of these conversations, but when these conversations are happening yet pointedly not happening with one more character who should probably have an opinion on any of this, it sticks out. Amy thrives in this episode because of the comedic Raymy (not RaymondAmy) plot. Melissa Fumero and Andre Braugher are absolutely the comedic centerpieces of this episode, while also bringing it emotionally when the moment comes. But with the particular overall focus of “The Good Ones,” that Amy’s contribution to said focus is simply being Holt’s sounding board in his moment is the choice that makes little sense, comparatively.
But the Amy/Holt story really is the comedic lifeline of the episode. While the A-plot with Jake and Rosa has laughs—mostly in a “laugh because it’s true… and sad” way, with both John C. McGinley and Rebecca Wisocky’s very distinct performances as the Billy Joel-loving Frank O’Sullivan and Captain Lamazar, respectively—it’s somewhat weighed down by the obvious knowledge that justice won’t truly be served. (Even before her first appearance, it was clear Lamazar was going to be “one of the bad ones” as soon as Jake vouched for her.) As for the C-plot, Joe Lo Truglio is so talented and this story is so specifically real that it strikes a nerve in a way that personally makes me really glad that it’s only an episode-long story. Terry’s frustrated interjections about “Scully’s book” as a third wheel in the B-plot actually land a lot better than his understandable—and more grounded—frustrations in the C-plot, where he is a main player. Perhaps because said interjections surround the beautiful back and forth that is Amy and Holt’s non-sexual relationship exercises.
This episode is truly held up and together by the performances. It’s nice to see all of these faces again—even Hitchcock’s, on a tablet—and the cast brings their A-game to these stories. Moments like Jake going “undercover” as Mitchell Keith Erickson, Boyle upsetting decked out in Kente cloth, and again, everything Amy/Holt are the kind of ridiculous that Brooklyn Nine-Nine excels at. That’s exactly what you want in a season premiere. There’s also the cold open, which seamlessly blends that ridiculousness (“the COVID-Five”) with the serious topic at hand (Rosa’s resignation in the wake of George Floyd’s death).
“The Good Ones” is a good season premiere. It’s especially helped by the fact that Brooklyn Nine-Nine has gotten away from those big, world-shattering season finales, as it doesn’t have to scramble to figure out how to really undo any of that. But ultimately, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is saying with “The Good Ones” that there’s no reason to feel uneasy continuing to watch this show, because the Nine-Nine squad is made up of the good ones. However, it’s still doing so while saying everyone else is the bad ones. It’s kind of hard to feel optimistic there, isn’t it? Except for when it comes to Raymy, that is. There’s nothing but good vibes there.
Grade: B
“The Lake House”
The issue with doing a double premiere is that while it may make sense from a network standpoint to include an episode that is simply non-stop jokes—especially after an episode like “The Good Ones”—it might not always tonally work. Or, as is the case for the combination of “The Good Ones” and “The Lake House,” the latter episode might somewhat undercut an aspect of the former.
In this case, it’s the fact that Holt and Kevin are separated. In “The Good Ones,” Holt revealing that to Amy is the emotional peak of the episode. It’s an intimate moment, just between those two, as Holt hasn’t told anyone else in the precinct. In fact, Amy was able to get it out of him because she was the only one who could tell that something was wrong with him. The power of small talk. But with double episodes, moments later, she has apparently told everyone in the squad over drinks. If there were a week between these episodes, it could perhaps cushion the blow. Instead, with a double shot, the heartfelt moment between those two characters suddenly means nothing.
Then again, that network standpoint of going from a topical, NYPD-heavy episode to one where the characters just max and relax at the Lake house (a three-sitting room house once owned by Kirsopp Lake) does make sense. It’s also typical for Brooklyn Nine-Nine to return to the status quo as quickly as possible—especially at the top of a season—which is exactly what Jake’s plan to Parent Trap his two dads, Holt and Kevin, is all about.
As Rosa even points out, an episode like “The Lake House” isn’t a new concept to Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It’s not a very special episode or even a big event one. (There’s not even any Cheddar. Who has custody of Cheddar?!) It’s a lowkey episode where Jake, yet again, projects his own childhood parental issues onto Holt (and Kevin). However, now that Rosa’s no longer a cop and has a marijuana prescription for her anxiety, that creates a little bit of variety for when the drama of an episode like this kicks in. (As opposed to a drunk Amy.) Said drama comes in the form of Jake’s Parent Trap stratagem, Terry’s hedge vs. ledge outlook on life, and Amy’s hesitance to let Boyle help her take care of baby Mac.
As for Rosa’s edible experience, while television is no stranger to depicting recreational drug and alcohol use as over-the-top as possible, the newness of something like this makes the story work for a character like Rosa. There’s something so effortlessly earnest about a high Rosa eventually joining Scully in crowning the “chip-ion” of a tournament of chips. In fact, while the enjoyment of the beats reminding us just how high Rosa is all depends on your tolerance for this type of story, the way that Stephanie Beatriz bips and bops around during this episode is just so good. The story itself isn’t too big, and neither is her and Scully’s reaction to the rest of the squad simply not caring about their thing. Instead, that bigness is saved for the end tag, with Rosa—still high but not realizing it—agreeing to go on a chip adventure with Scully (and Hitchcock).
The Parent Trap is up there with Pygmalion in terms of storytelling tropes that have become so meta that there’s not much else to do with them (outside of that metaness) at this point. That’s not even a negative criticism, as both stories tend to lead to some pretty fun scenarios when self-awareness is in the building. Unlike with “The Good Ones,” there’s not too much to discuss when it comes to the actual story in this episode. Instead, this plot succeeds based more on the way the episode is edited—the way this obvious plan is presented. From the “53 SECONDS LATER” title card to the depiction of Jake’s description of his plan, the A-plot of “The Lake House” isn’t telling a new story, but it’s bringing fun to the way that it does tell it.
However, despite it being Jake’s plan and Andre Braugher and Marc Evan Jackson’s deadpan deliveries filling every room they enter, it’s Terry who ends up being the secret star of this plot. From the runner of his love of hedges (which feels like it was previously established) but disdain for ledges (which does not) to his first bit of cardio in 20 years (“How hard could it be? It’s immediately awful!”), Terry’s non-commitment commitment to Jake’s stratagem is honestly more interesting than the actual Parent Trap-ing of it all.
As for actual parents and trapping, in comes the Amy/Boyle plot. Thankfully, moving away from performative ally Boyle, “The Lake House” settles Boyle back into a role he knows very well: know-it-all. While Charles Boyle doesn’t have the most self-esteem, when he does have self-esteem, he lets everyone know it. In this case, it comes in the form of parenting, as Mac apparently is a terrible sleeper and Amy can’t figure out what’s wrong with him. It all boils down to Amy’s Amy vibes being the problem… and a gloating, moonwalking Boyle accidentally locking Mac in a room for three hours. The logic as to why that room locks from the inside is never explored, but the episode does eventually use the logic (and pure power) of mom-strength to resolve it. Really, the key to this story is Amy’s behavior after she finds out what happened. Her repetitive, seething rage is understandable—and repetition is almost always funny. While “The Lake House” isn’t as much a comedic showcase for Fumero as “The Good Ones” is, she still gets her moments here in times like Amy reminding Jake that Boyle locked their child in a prison and making clear—even after she and Boyle have reconciled—that she’s not going to forget Boyle locked her child in a prison.
But while the Boyle/Amy story is a fun, small little thing in this episode, I do have one big thing to ask: Mac is Jake’s child too, right? While he obviously had his stratagem to execute, this is two episodes in a row where Amy is clearly a new parent and dealing with that, even on top of her other things… while Jake seemingly is not. I’m clocking this now because Brooklyn Nine-Nine has already struggled to tell the Sergeant Amy story—as more commitment to it would most likely mean more separation from the rest of the core characters—and to fall into her being a mom (who is also a cop), while not necessarily doing the same for dad Jake, could just as easily happen. Just something to sleep on.
Grade: B-
Stray observations
- This is my last Brooklyn Nine-Nine review. Like with my Lucifer coverage, my new job (in television) has made it so any work in television criticism has to take a backseat. I started reviewing this show seven years ago, and I was really hoping to finish out this coverage. But I’ll leave you with this, one last time…
- This week in webisodes Brooklyn Nine-Nine needs: A whole series on High Rosa and Scully during the 64-round chip tournament.
- Jake: “Not exactly an emotional welcome back— Are you crying?”
Amy (crying): “Oh, he just always knows exactly what to say.”
Jake “Ah, she’s consistent.” Props to Braugher for pulling off the COVID-related exposition to set the season scene, especially as it’s supposed to be as stilted as possible. - Hitchcock retired… but now lives in a tablet so he and Scully can still do everything together. Classic “COVID Season” shenanigans.
- Amy: “This is my big fear about having a child: losing my spark with my boss.”
Terry: “Amy, he’s your Captain. You act like it’s some romantic relationship.”
Amy: “You know what, Terry? You’re right. It is like a romantic relationship.”
Terry: “That’s what you got from what I said?” - Detroiters fans, Shawntay Dalon plays Rosa’s client in this episode. She doesn’t do much here, but Jake does Mrs. Doubtfire “Hello” her.
- Amy “Hello, Captain. It’s so good to see you. So, so good.”
Holt: “What’s with the bizarre eye contact and the weird way you’re talking, Santiago? Did you join a cult?”
Amy: “What? No!”
Holt: “Are you sure? Most cult members don’t realize they’re part of a cult.”
Amy: “I’m not in a cult!” - Amy: “Ever since I’ve come back, you’ve been acting distant. What happened to Raymy?”
Holt: “Raymy?”
Amy: “Ray and Amy. Raymy. It’s what people call us.”
Holt: “I don’t know a single person who’s ever called us that.” They will now. - Rosa’s delivery disguise is for a water delivery place called “DROPLETS.” In this climate?
- Captain Lamazar: “And you don’t want me gone, I’m one of the good ones. And I know how that sounds, but I’m not one of the bad ones who say they’re one of the good ones. I’m one of the good ones who say they’re one of the good ones.”
Jake: “Yep, I hear it, Rosa. You can stop staring daggers at me. Let’s just go.” - Jake: “Okay, you guys probably don’t know this, but my parents got divorced when I was a kid and it really messed me up.”
- Holt: “Stop it. Kevin doesn’t like to be lied to. You’re disgusting to look at.”
Kevin: “Thank you, Raymond.” - Jake: “That’s The Parent Trap! I knew my stratagem had classy origins.” Of course Holt and Kevin only know The Parent Trap as Das Doppelte Lottchen, the name of the original German novel.
97 Comments
Congratulations on the new job! I’m gonna miss reading your reviews. Whenever I finished watching an episode, I’d always jump on here to read your review. I’ve reread your reviews many times during my re-watch. It was joy reading your writing. So thank you for that!
Yippie! They’re back! — Oh, does Peacock mean that this isn’t on Hulu now?
It’s still on Hulu. I forget how much longer exactly new NBC shows will appear the next day on Hulu, but it’s at least another year or so.
I recognize that B99 is in a tough spot in the current climate, but for me this show simply isn’t capable of dealing with serious real world issues, and frankly it shouldn’t try. It is an absurdist, workplace farce. The B99 precinct does not exist in our world, and nothing about it is remotely realistic, or more importantly, meant to be realistic. I found the Good Ones to be a painfully moralizing, Very Special Episode, that also wasn’t funny. I have no interest in seeing how Peralta and Boyle struggle with racism – they are caricatured goofballs and not real characters (which is fine for an absurdist farce, but totally unsuited to addressing real world problems). Braugher is the only one with the dramatic acting chops to make something like this even kind of work, and strangely he was mostly left out of this part of the episode. So I’d love to see B99 go back to straight comedy – not every show has to be about the world’s problems. Probably for the best that this is the last season.
They’ve done a good job with specific episodes – The one where Terry is profiled holds up. A sustained storyline – I’m less sure.
To each their own, but I’ve never found their “serious issues” episodes to be particularly good. The one where Terry is profiled actually isn’t bad, largely because Crews and Braugher are really good in it. The one about sexual harassment is not good at all, both because the show is not built to deal with these issues and because Samberg isn’t a good enough actor to pull his part in that episode off.And as an aside, it is astonishing to me that B99 (which is deliberately woke in so many ways) was STILL doing to sex tape “joke” the year they did the sexual harassment episode. For those who think there is some element of realism to B99 I invite you to make that joke to a work colleague and see what happens to your career.
B99 has always engaged with serious issues in a comedic way; I think it would be really weird if they just pretended that the atmosphere surrounding cops was unchanged from a couple years ago, especially given their tendency to discuss and address social issues.
I generally agree with you, although they have handled some real issues in the past rather well. But here I was disappointed with the utter lack of nuance, particularly with regard to Rosa. The plotline they dropped on us completely out of nowhere is “Rosa has all of a sudden quit the force because … she can’t even?” That’s disappointing to me, because the Rosa we know is a fighter. She is, IN FACT, one of the good ones. The character we watched for 7 seasons wouldn’t simply throw her hands up. She would BE the change that society is demanding. But the showrunners were so desperate to give us something “big” to signal that they “get it.” So we end up with this.
I agree that the Rosa stuff came out of nowhere (would make more sense for Amy or Holy), but is Rosa really one of the good ones? She generally disdains people, so I would think she would be quite poor at the routine daily interactions with citizens that is 95% of a cop’s job. She also has clear anger management issues, and I think it the early seasons it was pretty strongly hinted at that she beat up perps just for laughs.
I know people say this show has healt with serious issues before, but last night’s episode was a Masterclass in making me feel bad for continuing to be a fan all these years.I’m supposed to believe Rosa would quit the force, while Amy, Holt, and Terry all continue to work for the police? And then the writers give Holt an emotional moment only to have him get back together with his husband by the end of the second episode.This show’s writing isn’t good enough to do what they were trying to do last night. Instead, I felt weird for watching, and even though that second episode tried its best to go back to the old status quo as much as it could, I couldn’t have as much fun with it because the first episode was on my mind.
I don’t understand the issue with the bedroom locking from the inside; apart from actual jail cells, most rooms with locks lock from the inside for the security and privacy of whoever is in the room. As for how, we saw the bar fall when Boyle smugly shut the door. Yeah, that would be pretty unlikely to happen in real life, but it’s not impossible, and that kind of contrivance is pretty standard for a sitcom.
Weirdly enough something like this happened to me on a family trip to Colorado- my room got locked when I wasn’t in it because the place was like an old ski lodge. Fortunately we didn’t have to bust down the door.
I guess my other question would be why did they not think about going through the window to open the door?
A house like that, isolated in the middle of nowhere and frequently void of residents, might well have much more secure windows.
It helps that you’re also in a house designed/decorated by a childless couple with multiple sitting rooms who has never worried or thought about what will happen if someone gets locked inside.
What if Cheddar got locked inside???
Cheddar’s no common bitch. He’d find his own way out.
“Cheddar’s no common bitch. He’d find his own way out.”You’re a savvy 99 alum. Why do I know this? Because you recognize both that Cheddar was once referred to as a “bitch,” but later referred to as “he.”
My hope is that by the end of the series, Jake is able to defeat his nemesis, Wario.
Seriously, that motherfucker cheats…
I’m glad they let Braugher/Holt say “Wario” JUST ONCE.
I kinda liked the second episode more than the first, mostly because Holt/Kevin’s weird boring interests are usually never not funny (like describing the exact pantone colors of the bird, or Kevin describing a glass of water as “a snack”).
Rose quitting and that entire first episode plot line was basically B99 doing what Boyle was doing with Terry in his plotline. It was almost cowardly.
Compare it to what was meant to be the comic relief plot, where we get the revelation of what Holt’s been going through. That felt real. That felt like real consequence. Like someone actually struggling with reality. It didn’t feel like the writers “doing something” so they could be seen “doing something”.
And now they not only have to contrive reasons for Hitchcock to be there, but Rosa as well. Hell, let’s just have Gina be in the rest of the season, always there for no explainable reason. Makes about as much sense.
Compare this to, say, S.W.A.T., a show that has also had to deal with being:
1. About heroic cops.
2. Having the lead be a black man.
Outside of an episode where they *literally* kneeled before a picture of George Floyd (dude was not a saint, so that’s going *way* too far), that show has almost always managed to avoid being preachy about it, and doesn’t shy away from any issues. It certainly never took the easy way out.
How did S.W.A.T. deal with it, if I can ask? I’m curious how other shows are grappling with the same problem (while actually grappling with it at all).Also, is S.W.A.T. also ending this year? Asking because I imagine the approach to the situation gets pretty different between a show that knows it’s ending this season than one that knows it’s going to try to keep going as normal. Perhaps B99’s approach is different because it knows it has to spend time resolving and ending things anyway, as well as addressing the elephant in the room—because we all know why they’re ending it this year, so why not have that be a core part of things in-universe? Meanwhile, I assume S.W.A.T. is on some level trying to enforce some normalcy, incorporating current events while keeping its week-to-week largely the same, which is a situation more conducive to ‘acknowledge it, respect it, then move on’.
SWAT has always had an element of “How do I justify being a black cop in LA” to it’s storytelling. It’s had black characters (multiple, actually) disagree on methods of helping the community, whether they should be cops in the first place, whether what they’re doing is enough or even worth while. I was worried that some of the “home life” stuff would drown the show in melodrama or soap-opera style drama, but it’s actually provided a very interesting perspective on a range of issues (not just race relations/cops in the US). Hell, the inciting incident in the first episode is a white member of SWAT shooting a black kid (completely by accident, but still). That’s what leads to Shemar Moore’s character taking over the unit.
When the season came about after the George Floyd murder, they kind of turned it to 11. It didn’t get preachy or overly saccharine (kneeling before his picture being the only odd standout), but it was’t just swept under the rug. And they also tied it into the Rodney King stuff (via flashbacks), as many of the characters had lived through that, and a few of the younger ones had no idea what that was like, so it gave a lot of pointed contrasts between the two.
And it wasn’t just dealt with in an episode and then they moved on. It’s still an episodic show with serialised elements that tend to bookend each episode (or pop-in every now and again as they’re doing case-of-the-week stuff), but the racial side of it was never ignored. In fact, it got built up in a not-all-that-unrealistic racist cop plot line that avoided making the racist cops into moustache-twirling villains with babies stapled to their foreheads, but also didn’t try to sit on the fence as to who was in the right or wrong.
And the fallout from that plot line is what leads to the cliffhanger. SWAT has another season coming in October (I think), but it’s a network bubble show, so whether it’s ending will be up to the whims of capricious TV executives. 😀
Piss off.
For starters, given that the show is ending, I think Rosa quitting may be just the first pebble- she can’t square being a cop with what’s going on in the world, and at the end of the episode it’s clear that Jake’s had a few illusions shattered too. I may be wrong on this but we may have a season arc going here.
If it ends with all of the quitting, then that seems even more cowardly.
I mean what we’re seeing now- in the real world- is that it may well be impossible to do real transformative change “from the inside” so it’s either quit or work for a system that was built on old slavecatching patrols and still serves to maintain a white supremacist status quo.
John C. McGinley is in at least 4 episodes so it’s definitely a sustained arc.
Someone doesn’t have to be a saint for it to matter that police decided it was okay to sit on his neck until he was dead. We can expect better of our system and officers.
That’s a great argument to make. Pity no one actually said anything of the sort for you to argue against.
… you really had to ‘dude was not a saint’?
I love how that’s the part you pick out. It was in reference to, as I said, characters ***literally kneeling*** before a portrait of the man. It was gratuitous, especially given everything else the show had done when it comes to portraying racial relations.
It was valid inasmuch as the point of kneeling was never ever about the type of people knelt for, but the type of people who think it’s OK to treat anyone like they’re less than human because it’s not them and theirs. No one, not even the worst of the worst, deserves to be treated as less than human. Declaring shows of that as overkill because you don’t like someone ignore the point of how liking someone shouldn’t matter.
The issues with many cop shows (B99 isn’t free of it and no network is, but CBS – with your beloved SWAT, the CSI franchise, Blue Bloods, Hawaii 5-0 reboot, Criminal Minds, and sooooo many more – is basically LEO PornHub), is that it normalizes seeing the humanity and heroics of the officers without diving too deep into the society or the foibles and failures. Unless a special event or a guest spot that’s two episodes at most there are barely any errors, no push back, and IA/psych evals are always Wrong and Bad (unless psych eval is hot). More can and should be done to burst the myth.
(dude was not a saint, so that’s going *way* too far)
Jesus fucking Christ.
The first episode was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. The equivalent of writing a high-school essay at the last minute and trying to cram in every buzzword the student thinks should be mentioned one after the other.The 2010s resurgence of “more hugging, more learning”-type sitcoms is depressing.
I wasn’t sure about how Brooklyn 99 would feel after… well, the entire year we’ve had. I knew it had to do something, but I had no idea what. That first episode… by itself, no, it’s not enough. But it does give me the feeling that they know the road they have to go down, and that they have the courage to do it. But to do it right (and in a way that ends the show properly) they can’t just pull the trigger as immediately as it feels like perhaps they should.I don’t know if I’ll be happy where it ends, but I do know that it’s not done walking there yet. And honestly, that’s probably better than they could ever do in an episode or two.But then, perhaps my view is a little skewed because I’m Australian. Our police forces… well, they’re also awful, butthey’re not as screamingly, ‘national emergency’ awful as they are in the US. So it’s kinda still plausible for me to smile and laugh at them, at least for one more season.That said: is someone picking up the B99 reviews now that LaToya’s stepping away from them? I’m fond of them as a light-hearted relaxing review of things, as well as to point out all the guest stars I missed (I didn’t who Rebecca Wisocky is, but I immediately grinned about seeing Dr. Cox again).
Don’t worry, B99 coverage will go on.
It’s sad that it’s going to be without you, though :(.
Shame it won’t be you covering it, but at least you can still stop by in the comments (right?) and drop quotes from the episode like the rest of us do because the Stray Observations can only be so long.
We’ll miss you, LaFergs! 🙁
I liked both episodes but hate how the show ruined its internal calendar. The chronology of Season 7, especially the 6 months covered by “Trying,” meant Mac was born no earlier than October 2020. But now he was born before Rosa quit, and since we’re in spring 2021. And so now Mac is 9 or 10 months old and we’re to believe Charles has never given Jake and Amy parenting advice? I wish they could have figured out a way for Rosa to quit a little later. Have her take a personal leave and decide not to return. I did love the callback to Terry’s book, though. Sorry, Scully’s book!
“I liked both episodes but hate how the show ruined its internal calendar.”
It amazes me that people will put up so many stupid, internal roadblocks to their own happiness.
It’s a fucking sitcom and the fucking world has changed since the last season. How about you DON’T be a sandy fucking cunt about it and just enjoy a SITCOM, for fuck’s sake.
I THINK that the Terry/ledges thing was also a callback, right? Wasn’t there an episode where Boyle was out on a ledge and Jake went out the help him, only to become paralyzed with fear and in need of Terry’s help? And didn’t that lead to a “Terry hates ledges” statement? Maybe I’m wrong about the details but it feels familiar.
It felt familiar to me too. I remember Jake and Charles on a ledge with Pimento but don’t recall if Terry was involved, though.
ah, you know, I think you’re right – was Pimento and not Terry
I’m kind of unconvinced by Rosa being the one to quit. I mean, I get why they did it, but it seems, weirdly, to be kind of… I dunno, easy, for want of a better word. Rosa always struck me as the one who was a cop because it gave her an outlet for her to express her anger issues in an authoritative setting. If anything, if I’m honest, out of all the characters she was always the one who I thought would be most likely to find herself facing an excessive force charge at some point. And I get why they feel the need to comment on the issues, despite the fact that this show, well, with maybe or two exceptions it’s never handled the moments when it feels the need to get its soapbox out and make A Very Important Statement About Modern American Policing that effectively. I get that the show’s in a bit of a rock-and-a-hard-place situation not really of its own making. But it feels like if they were going to do something along those lines, it would have been braver and more honest to actually having one of our main characters face some kind of disciplinary issue as a police officer themselves (and not that bullshit “Rosa and Jake have been framed OMG!!!” plotline) and maybe have to probe their motivations for being a cop and examine whether or not they actually were one of the “good ones”, rather than just have the show depict these people as apparently literally the only actual decent police officers in the entire NYPD once again. I mean, maybe not “shooting an unarmed person” serious, this is still a comedy show, but something.I dunno. It just seems a bit “have your cake and eat it”, especially after they made such a big deal about how they scrapped everything and went back to the drawing board.
“I’m kind of unconvinced by Rosa being the one to quit.”
Because you don’t understand her character at all, I suppose.
Yeah, if anything I figured that Amy would be the one to have the “quit the force” storyline. She built her entire life about a career in the police and tackling that would have been a great source of both some character drama AND great comedy – flipping Amy from a gung-ho career cop into a nihilistic “nothing matters” gadfly in the vein of Holt when he was in the dumps would have been a very fun dynamic that could adequately address the rose-tinted glasses of the show.
It would also mean they would have to strain less to have a reason to keep her around than they do with Rosa.
Amy is climbing the ranks of both union and management. She’s an institutionalist reformer plain and simple.
I get that the show’s in a bit of a rock-and-a-hard-place situation not really of its own making.
“A rock-and-a-hard-place situation not really of its own making” is more like when in season 1 Archer they called their agency “ISIS”.
This show decided to be a cop show, and when was that not going to be problematic for liberal-types? I mean, have ya’ll never even heard of Barney Miller?*
* oh, you haven’t? i guess that makes sense
Even if I haven’t always agreed with you every time, it’s been a pleasure reading your reviews of the show over the years. Congratulations and best wishes going forward LaToya!
“This is my last Brooklyn Nine-Nine review. Like with my Lucifer coverage, my new job (in television) has made it so any work in television criticism has to take a backseat.”
Seems rather pointless to review the first two episodes of a season as your last reviews. Why not just…not start the season if you have no intention of finishing it?
“The logic as to why that room locks from the inside is never explored”
You need a sitcom to explore that DOORS LOCK FROM THE INSiDE?
Thank you LaToya! Always looked forward to your reviews
Damn, gonna miss ya Ferguson. Good luck with the new gig.I think the first episode handled the trickiness of The Current Situation about as gracefully as it could. The 99’s always been sort of a misfit outfit but even that may not be tenable anymore, so the end of the series is presumably going to take that into account.The second episode worked for me entirely because of High Rosa. Beatriz is such a comic gem. (Also smoky bacon chicken does sound really good.) Amy’s breakdown was pretty good too. “Natural Motherf***er” killed me.
I always love Rosa not fully in control of herself and the walls come down, such as when she was hopped up on cold medicine
I’m sorry, but it is not the responsibility of an absurdist comedy to tackle issues of policy brutality, and it would’ve been better served continuing to function as, essentially, a workplace comedy that just so happened to be set in a police station, rather than bending over backwards to try and apologize for the sins of real-world cops.
I think that a comedy about cops has some responsibility to recognize that the police are a fucked up organization. We’re at the point with the police (and, in particular, the NYPD) that you really do need to find a way to justify making a show that depicts them as lovable goofballs rather than violent abusers!
Not to mention, ‘yeah people dont seem to like the NYPD in general’ has been a recurring issue they’ve tackled. It’s never buried its head in the sand in that regard, only that the 99 tries its best to do its best regardless of NYC cop reputation
Point of absurdity is to be a foil against the real. The bit with the captain outlining the hurtles to getting bad cops off the street: all of that is true. It was basically a supercharged Problem Areas with Wyatt Cenac. And were it not our lives on the line it would be hilarious, and it still kind of is because… holy fucking shit.
I’m just glad it’s back. It’s got a weird path to navigate, setting-wise, but the jokes were still solid and the cast is phenomenal.
I know it’s dicey territory. I know a show like this is woefully outmatched in trying to address wholesale the issues at hand. I know that it runs the risk of Very Special Episode territory.I still appreciate the show at least trying rather than burying its head in the sand (which, from what I’ve seen, a lot of other shows have done – even just with Covid). And between its unique position (it’s a show about New York cops, and it has multiple cast members that are people of color) and its history of trying to tackle some of these issues in the past (no matter how moderate)…I don’t think it’s entirely unwarranted.Also, I do kind of feel like the show has been running a bit on fumes the last couple seasons, and it felt a bit more confident here, perhaps because it’s the end run. Not just in terms of status quo shifts (Rosa’s gone from the force; Kevin and Holt are split) but also in terms of having laugh-out-loud jokes. One of my personal favorites being Amy telling Rosa that yes, she (Amy) would totally be a narc.I’m hoping the season ends with Holt and Kevin having that long-overdue vow renewal.Also, thanks for all the coverage LaToya, and good luck in your new job!
Episodes like these and the entirety of seasons 6 & 7 make me feel very bad for wanting the show to continue after it was canceled. Season 5 was the perfect end to the series and it’d’ve been fine if no further seasons came out. *sigh*
Andre Braugher is a magnificent actor, as demonstrated in the one two punch of the first episode’s emotional revelation scene and the second episode’s Parent Trap farce. My first impulse was that Holt should have been the one to quit the force – have the one who has been fighting bigotry and bureaucracy since the 70s just decide he can’t do what he needs to do within the system anymore – but having him and Kevin estranged is a statement on its own. And, frankly, this show simply doesn’t work without Holt in the precinct, as they’ve demonstrated before.
Damn, we’re losing Riverdale and Brooklyn Nine-Nine recaps in just a few days span. There will be no more regular recaps soon.
I’m still not clear whether coverage of the show is stopping overall or if someone else will take it up.That said with this site these days you can never be sure.
I watched both episodes before reading your reviews. The amount of time and considerable thought you put into a show others would consider to be a “simple sit-com” is admirable; this is one of those shows with episodes I can watch more than once but you fill in with such a keen eye and copious observations I feel like I am not paying attention even on a subsequent viewing! Anyway, I needed to see these characters again after a summer of many interesting shows but nothing that hit the sweet spot of heartfelt/quirky/funny/original than my old friends at the 99. One unexpected moment was Holt’s confession to Amy at the end of the first episode last night. Maybe it was the talent of Braugher, the emotion of seeing such a strong character falter, or because I am weird for shows with which I have loyalty and love; I got downright tearful during the scene. My favorite things about this show: You never know where they may go with a story, and wherever they go, your reaction to it can be surprising.
The delivery on the rueful observation that it was a hard year in which to be a “human”, whoof. Directly in the feels.
Yes, double direct hit–from a source not anticipated at an unexpected moment..
nooooooooooooo not amy’s two daaaads
I’ll miss seeing your reviews in general for this and for Lucifer. I know you’ve followed this show for so long and I was looking forward to seeing your perspective on the rest of this season and show specifically because of the depth of your knowledge. I’d rather read your reviews that someone who has only seen the episodes from this season. I hope you are on to bigger and better things. You deserve it.
(But seriously, who had custody of Cheddar???)
I was going to wonder how they were going to handle the Cheddar situation, since the real-life puppy named Stewart is no longer with us anymore 🙁 Actually they are played by multiple corgis. I had to look it up.Wishing you the best of luck, LaToya!
You’re the best LaFergs. I’ll miss your writing here, but I’m very glad that you have better things to move onto. Happy Trails!
My favorite small detail is that Holt asks Amy “how’s” everything going, when they’ve repeatedly established that Holt only uses contractions when he’s lying. And we find out later he’s deliberately trying to hide his separation from her.
Aww…. why you leave???? Good luck!Sincerely miss this show already. Unlike others (Scrubs) they might achieve a nigh impossible good ending. Boyle made my teeth hurt while being so very glad to WFH away from either a Boyle or ‘classic racism’ guy. Truly hope Rosa stays in the periphery, though would still make sense to do so as a PI. That said: wouldn’t there be an argument of her *still* being a part of the problem? As for Amy: maybe it’s coming up? Though hopefully there’s time for nuance – arguments can be made with regards to perceptions of hierarchy and inclusion, with Santiago a Cuban American from a cop family vs Diaz’s non-police upbringing. As for the second episode Rosa reminded me of why Gina was useful: non-cop surrounded by cops doing semi-legal things. Also love a classic Holt and Kevin with their… thirst traps (and Jake’s knowledge of them but not small talk = discombobulated Holt could be a Jake dulled by new baby?).
Good lord, how many times have Holt and Kevin almost split? I swear, those two must get off on make-up sex for how often they almost call it quits and then don’t. If this is all the show’s got left in the tank, then probably best it’s ending.
Amy is a sergeant in the NYPD and a mother. Why the hell would she ever think about leaving her job like Rosa. The show should be admired for doing something that is literally impossible to do. Rosa is single and a detective. Its the option that makes the most amount of sense. Amy is again a married individual with a newborn who is a sergeant. It doesn’t make much sense for her character to contemplate her role in the NYPD. Just something to sleep on. Also writers know better than reviewers of shows. Writers know a character better than a tv critic.
Thanks for the reviews, LaToya. We’ll miss you. Curious what you end up doing in TV, will certainly keep an eye out.Damn, now the only good regular ones left are… Allison and Caroline? No one else comes to mind immediately.Boyle’s “reparations” storyline in the first episode is borderline parody. It kinda makes me doubt their ability to tackle the heavier themes this season, it was just so clunky and pace-stopping, even Joe Lo Truglio feels off with his lines.Second episode is amazing. The more personal in the lives of the characters the show gets, the better it is. Rosa speaking Spanish is hot.
Man, that was terrible. I wan to say it the worst episode of television I’ve seen in some time, but the giant sperm episode of Rick and Morty was less than a month ago.How is that for damning with faint praise? Not as bad as the giant sperm episode of Rick and Morty.While I wouldn’t go so far as to say, “If you want to send a message, call Western Union”, any time you want to address issues in a TV show, you need to have a light hand. This goes double for a light, workplace comedy like B99.Instead, Goor and Shur bring the sledgehammer of meaning into the first episode and bash us over the head with it, leading to an episode that is unfunny, boring and didactic.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Boyle’s ridiculous, over the top, performative anti-racism shtick was meant to hang a lampshade on the whole affair, but I don’t think this is where they were going with it.
Amy is a sergeant in the NYPD and a mother. Why the hell would she ever think about leaving her job like Rosa. The show should be admired for doing something that is literally impossible to do. Rosa is single and a detective. Its the option that makes the most amount of sense. Amy is again a married individual with a newborn who is a sergeant. It doesn’t make much sense for her character to contemplate her role in the NYPD. Same with Terry and Boyle who have families. Just something to sleep on. Also writers know a character better than a tv critic.
Amy is a sergeant in the NYPD and a mother. Why the hell would she ever think about leaving her job like Rosa. The show should be admired for doing something that is literally impossible to do. Rosa is single and a detective. Its the option that makes the most amount of sense. Amy is again a married individual with a newborn who is a sergeant. It doesn’t make much sense for her character to contemplate her role in the NYPD. Same with Terry and Boyle who have families. Just something to sleep on. Also writers know a character better than a tv critic.
I get the impulse to say that B99 shouldn’t try to tackle real-world issues because it’s just a light workplace comedy, and to an extent I agree that it’s perfectly okay for a lot of shows to just be good fun without an Important Message. However, I think if they are going to address these issues, they need to start by acknowledging that the 99th isn’t some perfect oasis of good guys existing in a sea of corruption. Jake and Amy had a bet to see who could arrest the most people. Jake got Nikolaj’s birth dad deported and it’s played off as a cute little joke. These characters are not good people, which is fine because neither are some of the best TV protagonists. However, at least those shows acknowledge their characters’ amorality, whereas every show with Mike Schur’s name on it is obsessed with having its leads seen as the nicest people in the world. That’s why Parks and Rec stopped prioritizing comedy and just became a show where everyone got promoted and had kids and became successful and everyone else in Pawnee was an idiot for not listening to Leslie and her friends. And why Good Place went from being a show about scrappy underdogs trying to survive in a system designed to torture them to a show about the moral arbiters of the universe who decided what was best for everyone in existence. If the show wants to acknowledge police brutality, they need to start with the main characters’ complicity and not just in that cute way where someone points something out an then Andy Samberg talks really fast.
Brooklyn 99 is like Hogan’s Heroes, with the major wrinkle that it’s all from the nazis’ point of view.
The second episode had some major LOL moments for me.
What’s the new job in television?
Didn’t mean to leave y’all hanging. The most I can say is I got a job as a showrunner’s assistant on an upcoming streaming series.
Boyle in this episode perfectly symbolizes this first episode: flustered, embarrassed, well-meaning, guilt-ridden, haphazardly trying to do something but doesn’t know what to do. It took them like a half a season to bring back Holt when he wasn’t running the precinct in season 3. They could’ve taken a few episodes to explore these changes and let it breathe. And having too many changes happen outside of the episode gives it that disorienting Young Justice season 2 vibes.
Is it streaming for free anywhere? I missed the live broadcasts and (free) Peacock only goes up to Season 7. If I have to upgrade a streaming service just so I can see one network show the next day, that, frankly, sucks.
I watched it on nbc.com, but they do make you log in with your cable provider account, so that may not be an option for you. Someone else on here said it’s still being shown on Hulu, but I don’t know whether it’s on the free version or not.
I just hope Hitchcock isn’t confined to a tablet for the entire season.
YAY, congratulations on your new job! Your writing for all the shows I’ve read have been awesome so I’m super stoked that you’ve got a new job that I hope you like!
It’s been here and there sporadically throughout the show’s run, but is the entire season going to be about them apologizing about being a cop show?
Because that’s just going to get really depressing after a while for a comedy show.
Way too high a score..all the wokeness felt way too forced and heavy handed