As Season 6 of the TV show Brooklyn-Nine Nine, picked up by NBC, premiered on January 10th, I couldn’t help but reflect on why the show gained popularity. A workplace sitcom that follows the stylistic elements of The Office and Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is about a group of dysfunctional but competent cops in the New York Police Department’s 99th precinct. The show pokes fun at life in New York City through its humour, and often dwells on daily problems that a police precinct has to face. Without further ado, let us jump into reasons you should most definitely watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
The cast is diverse and has representation from different spheres of life.
Detective Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) is Latina, Detective Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz) is bisexual as well as Latina, Captain Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher) is the first gay, Black captain of a precinct in New York, Detective Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) is Jewish, and Sergeant Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews) is Black. Not too bad for a Hollywood sitcom!
The show does not fall into the vicious trap of stereotyping their diverse characters.
Unlike the portrayal of Raj in The Big Bang Theory, or Han in 2 Broke Girls, Brooklyn Nine-Nine shows characters from marginalised communities in a wholesome, well-rounded light. Sergeant Terry Jeffords, a strapping, 6 ft 2 man with abs and serious muscles, is portrayed as a family man who adores his twin daughters. The main character, Detective Jake Peralta, one of the best detectives in the precinct, is a hopeless romantic who is terrible at sports. The show does not stereotype gay people like most sitcoms. Captain Raymond Holt is a humourless, businesslike cop who happens to be gay; his identity is explored in the show but it isn’t the butt of jokes. The show also exceeds expectations while portraying women. Amy, Rosa, and Gina are powerful, badass women who subvert harmful gender stereotypes while still having interesting quirks and flaws. In fact, in Season 5 Episode 18, the men, Terry and Jake, go wedding shopping while the women, Amy and Rosa, catch a perpetrator. Watching a show with lead women characters is pretty damn empowering.
The intro song is a bop.
Unlike most shows where I hit the “skip intro” button as fast as I can, while watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine, I jam to the intro song despite having listened to it a million times. You can listen to the intro song here.
The show criticises many social problems through its jokes.
Humour is a social lubricant. Audiences seem to be more willing to address problems when heard through a joke. Brooklyn Nine-Nine deals with issues such as police brutality, racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism in a humorous but inoffensive way. The jokes on these subjects are usually dark and dry, and make the audience feel guilty for laughing at them. Brooklyn Nine-Nine successfully manages to hold a mirror up to American society.
It’s just straight up funny.
The many running gags in the show, like Jake quipping “Title of your sex tape” every time Amy says something suggestive, the yearly “Halloween Heists,” and Terry loving yoghurt never fail to crack me up. The cold opens are genius, with my favourite one being Jake asking a criminal line up to sing The Backstreet Boys’ “I Want it That Way.” You can watch the cold open here.
It pays a nostalgic tribute to detective thrillers.
Whether it is the numerous references to Die Hard, or the fast paced chase sequences and arrests, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is aware of the fact that it is still a detective show. We see made up names, disguises and undercover operations that are clear spoofs of detective shows. It pokes fun at the idea of having an arch rival, a bad guy that can’t be caught, through Doug Judy (a.k.a the Pontiac Bandit), who always eludes Detective Jake Peralta. There is one caveat, though. Doug Judy is such a cool personality that Jake would have been best friends with him in another life.
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