For the most part I am not a fan of sitcoms. As you can probably tell by my writeup about The Crew with Kevin James a few days a go, I especially hate the ones that have the canned laughter and the illusion of a live studio audience and in many cases there actually is a live studio audience, but that isn't their laughter you are hearing.
There are a few comedies out there that I feel are incredible to the point where I have watched all the episodes multiple times and most of them are ones that are done without canned laughter. Brooklyn 99 is one of those shows and I am yet to meet a person who doesn't like it. Yet it is being cancelled after their final season this year and that just sucks.
This actually isn't the first time that the show has been cancelled, in the past Fox cancelled the show but it was almost immediately picked back up by NBC. It manages to maintain about 3 million viewers and apparently that isn't enough for the network. I don't know how these things work and am unclear as to how much these shows cost to make. On another note I am curious as to how it is that networks actually make money anymore since nobody watches commercials on anything other than live sports anyway.
It is important to note that the show has not been cancelled by NBC executives, the producers and writers of the show itself have stepped in and decided to preempt being cancelled. Executive producer Dan Goor said in a statement that they want to give the show a definitive ending rather than waiting around for an abrupt cancellation that they have no control over leaving the overall story in limbo. It is conceivable that some other, minor network would pick the show up if NBC did cancel it or maybe even Netflix would take over control and this may still end up happening... but for the time being, the makers of the show all seem to be in agreement: It is time.
There was some talk about how the show was negatively affected by the BLM movement in America and that a large percentage of people refused to watch any show that glorified police officers and this hurt their ratings. To the people that would refuse to watch a silly show about cops that is hilarious because of some political movement based largely on lies I have this to say to you: Get back on your meds, you are insane.
Brooklyn 99 is one of my favorite sitcoms ever and I get massive laughs out of all the characters on the show and feel they are all perfectly cast. When "Gina" left the show there certainly was a gap that couldn't be filled but the rest of the cast and recurring characters like "Doug Judy" are just perfect.
It makes me sad to see this show end but if it must be so, I am pleased that it is going to happen on the writers and producers' terms rather than some executive focusing on profits that doesn't even watch the show. Is this really the end? Well, we will have to wait and see. The way it stands now it appears as though The 99 is done for good at the end of this year.
On another sad note I am disappointed to hear that this final season will only be 8 episodes long. I never watch any of them on NBC anyway, so I hope I can avoid spoilers but I am sure that Amy and Jake's upcoming baby is going to be a big part of it.
All good things have to come to an end I suppose and I don't yet know how I will fill that comedy void that will be created once this show disappears. There is also the question of the careers of all the people on the show. Out of the entire cast only Andy Samberg, Terry Crews, and Andre Braugher really have any sort of marketability for films so it will be interesting to see what the others end up pursuing. I would predict mostly voiceover work for animated films.
