Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Season 1)

By: Robert Murphy

Many of us have been around the block a few times when it comes to TV and their love for work place comedies like Parks and Recreations or The Office but with Brooklyn Nine-Nine we get something we haven’t seen, a comedy about working in a police station. The show follows the detectives of the 99^th precinct as they do a somewhat romanticized job of an every day detective on the streets catching bad guys and solving murders. The shows forerunner is Detective Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) who plays a cocky/goof off character but one who is an extremely gifted detective who now must deal with a new straight laced captain Ray Holt (Andre Braugher) that won’t be letting him get away with acting up. Alongside Jake are his other detectives such as Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio) who is a bumbling but hard working detective as well as Sergeant Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews) a muscle bound man who has been put at a desk job due to a “unique” on the job incident. These characters and more make up the cast for this hilarious take on what it means to be a cop.

Now right off the bat I had a lot of hope for Brooklyn Nine-Nine because of the cast list alone, Terry Crews is perhaps one of my favorite actors of this year and he himself is popping up all over the place in movies and television. Then we also have Andy Samberg and Joe Lo Trugilo who each have names for themselves as comedians, Joe having been around a little longer obviously but the two make for great chemistry on screen. The cast also introduced me to some names I hadn’t heard before but who made great additions to the show such as Melissa Fumero who plays Detective Santiago a straight laced and by the book character who butts heads with Andy Samberg’s character in quite a few episodes. Also we have Stephanie Beatriz who plays Detective Rosa who is a smart but tough and very scary police officer who has a short fuse and lets it loose frequently when she is frustrated. All the characters react incredibly well together on screen and just seemed to fit almost immediately, even more so as we learn more about each of them as certain episodes hash out these characters more and more.

As I mentioned before though, Brooklyn Nine-Nine does give a romanticized notion of what it means to be a cop and what I mean by that is when you’re a kid and you think how cool it is to be a cop and catch bad guys, that’s what the show pretty much makes it look like. But this is understandable because you can’t really make the actually job of a policeman funny because it is a hard profession to be a part of and its more serious than anything, also it’s Brooklyn and it would probably be pretty hairy out there if it was real. This is done to lighten the mood though as many of the cases are petty things for example one episode is about a tagger who is spray painting cop cars. And even when there is a murder it usually takes place after the fact and it doesn’t show up much, it’s replaced with banter about how it happened or in one case the episode revolved around solving the case before someone takes the case away from the Nine-Nine. So I feel this is all okay because the show is a comedy and if you want something more cop-like well then try Cops or Law and Order.

Surprised, is the word that I’d use to describe Brooklyn Nine-Nine because that’s genuinely what it is, the show catches you with just how witty and funny it can be with its one liners and characters. Andy Samberg has had his feet in the water a couple times and he doesn’t always hit high notes but here is a shining moment for him as an actor as he plays the role of childish Peralta perfectly. The rest of the cast as well are brilliantly placed and casted in my opinion as it doesn’t take them much time to fit into their characters and make them work just right. I hope to see the show back for another season this Fall as it was one of my favorites to watch this past year.

Good:

-Well casted characters

-Quick witted with one liners and banter

-Andy Samberg does an excellent job as the shows main character

Bad:

-A little fluffy with its cases but I can’t really fault the show for that it is a comedy

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10