The much-anticipated return of Brooklyn Nine-Nine came out swinging (obvious spoilers ahead). After the whole cancellation/renewal/channel switch incident, fans were understandably delighted to have it back on the air. As a season opener, there is little to complain about, and plenty of reassurances that the cast and crew are as sharp as they’ve ever been.
On their honeymoon, Jake and Amy find Captain Holt staying at their same hotel, despondent after learning he had been passed over for Commissioner by an officer who had promises to essentially bring back stop-and-frisk, a well-known and unconscionable form of racial profiling. In these trying times, it almost seems an inevitable metaphor for our current situation: we may think we’ve come a long way, but in reality, there are deep wounds still fresh in society that will take much more work to heal and move forward, and there are plenty of people working to stop that progress.
Back at the precinct, Terry is struggling to assert himself as a confident, reassuring force capable of handling the decision making of day-to-day operations. When presented by Rosa with a difficult situation for which his answers are not helpful, Terry begins to spiral as well. Eventually though, he finds that Captain Holt has advised the other officers, in the event of his absence, to come to Terry with any issues they may have.
This affirmation is something we all look for in life, a sense that we are not blindly flailing, that we have some semblance of an ability to chart our own course. However, Terry would never have found this out without the help of Rosa, highlighting our need to communicate and lift each other up.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine may be a cop show (and against our current cultural backdrop concerning the police, that alone is a dicey proposition), but the performances are delivered with heart and the writing is sharp enough to address real problems and admit that sometimes there are no easy solutions. Not that everything has to address a deeper issue, but in the world we live in now, it’s harder and harder to avoid. At least Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher, Melissa Fumero and Co. can keep us laughing at the same time.
Rating: 8 out of 10
