I didn’t want to recommend this show before I caught up with it. I have yet to watch Season Seven, but as it is still airing, it'll be a while before I can watch it soo... Brooklyn 99, here we go.
“You jump off a cliff.”
“Gladly. Provided Rosa did it first.”
Let me start off by saying: I LOVE THIS SHOW! Out there is people fighting over Friends Vs. How I met Your Mother, meanwhile I’m here just chilling and enjoying this sitcom that’s actually fun, rather than just coaxing a reaction out of me with pre-recorded laughter.
With a winning cast of quirky characters, nice pace and a perfect balance between comedy and drama, Brooklyn 99 wrecks sitcoms as we know them, and I totally live for this.
The storyline is pretty dynamic, and not as over-the-top as the cold openings probably make you think. As I stated before, Brooklyn 99 balances out well jokes and seriousness, as well as making a good job switching the storytelling format between one-time cases solved within a single chapter, to cases that lasts multiple ones.
Issues you thought of as loose ends will come back in further chapters, or even the next season, too, giving a sense of realism. The series actually manages a timeline we are reminded of from time to time.
However, what I love the most about this series is not the comedy. Don’t get me wrong– the comedy is golden, in fact, the series has so many iconic moments and relatable characters, to the point of owning the majority of memes shared in tumblr. But what makes Brooklyn Nine-Nine stand out in comparison to other sitcoms, to me, is the character arcs and development.
The hugest example of this is the main character: Detective Jake Peralta. At the beginning of the series, Jake has a high rate of successful arrests and solved cases, in spite of his relaxed, carefree and immature personality who often than not annoys his coworkers. However, thanks to the influence of the new appointed captain of the 99th Precinct, Raymond Holt, Jake starts changing for the better.
But, don’t think it’s a one-sided deal, as Jake also influences Holt to loosen-up and helps him to integrate in the precinct as well. As result, we see how Holt bonds with the detectives during the different seasons and becomes very appreciated by them, which is (again) not a one-sided thing.
I.e: the crew rides all the way to Florida, where Jake and Holt are hiding under witness protection, after learning the criminal chasing after them might be there. Then, in another season, we see Holt willing to take the risk of owing a debt to a criminal in order to help Jake and Rosa get out of jail, after the two were framed by a dirty cop and sent to prison. And so go on.
Each character gets an episode highlight during seasons, so we aren’t left wondering about them. It’s not a show that revolves around Jake only, and I really like that. We see the relationahips between multiple characters: supporting roles/main cast, main cast/main cast, supporting role/supporting role, etc. It’s pretty dynamic and realistic, despite the show’s comedic nature.
Even the two characters who are used mostly for comedic relief, Hitchcock and Scully, get episodes dedicated to them. Heck, we even got a whole flashback episode in which we see these two were actually a couple of badasses, though cops.
Heck, we even got two recurrent, iconic, subplots I’m always looking forward to each season: the Pontiac Bandit series, and the Halloween Heist.
But, you don’t have to believe my words, you can watch and judge yourself. Before I go, though. I’ll leave this compilation of the best cold-openings of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
