With Parks and Recreation finishing it’s final season earlier this year, the throne for best American comedy is waiting for it’s King OR QUEEN (this is just a metaphor, television shows don’t have a gender and I don’t want to be sexist). It seems that we only have the Community movie left to look forward to and no one has recommissioned Futurama yet GOD DAMN IT! So those are out, still there quite a few good shows at the moment, New Girl, Silicon Valley, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia to name a few. But if we are talking about a big show that is consistently hailed as the best comedy on TV, I say Brooklyn Nine-Nine could be the one to watch(pun intended, the only reason people say “no pun intended” is so that they can point out that they made a pun).
Brooklyn Nine-Nine centres around a group of detectives heading up the 99th precinct in the New York Police Department and their newly appointed captain. The show has got an astounding cast, who are all amazing comedy actors that all deserve a mention. Headed up by Andy Samberg who seems to be playing Andy Samberg the cop aka Jake Peralta, which is fine because Andy Samberg is hilarious and he really goes the extra mile in this role. Andre Braugher is introduced at the team’s new captain, Raymond Holt who is stilted, yet focused and efficient, which on the surface sounds dull but Braugher’s amazingly dry wit can make his character the funniest in the room. Melissa Fumero plays the driven Amy Santiago who quickly becomes the teacher’s pet, a fact that she is quite proud of. Joe Lo Truglio’s character, Charles Boyle is riddled with eccentricities that make his character charming and hilarious at the same time. Half way there; Terry Crews plays Detective Sergeant Terry Jeffords who is the team’s strongest, yet most sensitive member. Rosa Diaz is the team’s scariest team member and about the only fact I know about her is that she is played by Stephanie Beatriz. Dirk Blocker and Joel McKinnon Miller are Hitchcock and Sully, the most pointless and ridiculous detectives in the entire precinct. Finally there is the precinct’s civilian administrator, Gina Linetti, played by Chelsea Peretti, who for my money is the funniest member of the team. Chelsea Peretti’s performance just oozes funny and everything from her odd dance moves down weird giggle/noises she makes all add up to an amazing comic performance.
It’s not just the cast that this show’s got right, there’s also the setting. As my brother said to me, it’s nice to see a cop show that isn’t all scary murderers, dramatic back stories and stern looks. As well as that, Brooklyn Nine-Nine may well be the most progressive comedy on television(after Transparent of course). The cast is very diverse, the male protagonist is always making feminist comments and most of all, the captain of the entire team is a black homosexual man that fits none of the gay stereotypes TV has built up over the years.
Alright, now that I’ve dumped all my praise for the show on top of you, let’s return to the title of this article; Brooklyn Nine-Nine COULD Become The Best Comedy On TV. While I think the show is very good, it just doesn’t seem quite ready to be called great. Sure the ingredients individually all taste great but when you put them all together, the final dish doesn’t taste quite as sweet as you were expecting. What it boils down to is, there just isn’t enough jokes.
If we are going to compare the show to Parks And Recreation, you’ve got to remember how hilarious Parks And Recreation actually was. Every episode had at least two laugh out loud moments an episode with a few chuckles thrown in along the way for good measure. Brooklyn Nine-Nine on the other hand may have one laugh out loud moment every two episodes or so. There are also times in the show where you can see that the writers have made an attempt at a joke but it hasn’t quite paid off. It may just be down to the fact that the characters still need time to grow but if we look back to Parks and Recreation again, that show really learnt from it’s mistakes in the first series.
Having said all that, I am very excited for the third series and I have faith that the writers can beef up the joke count. They have all the right tools at their disposal considering that quite a few members of the creative team come from Parks And Recreation to begin with, I’m quietly confident. So I would like to say good luck Brooklyn Nine-Nine and thank you for reading an article that really could have been summed up in the one sentence; Brooklyn Nine-Nine is pretty good but it needs more jokes.
Have anything to add, or just downright disagree with me feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.
Article by Daniel Priman.
