The first season of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” proved to be a wild success as Andy Samberg seamlessly transitioned from “Saturday Night Live” superstar to goofy NYPD officer Jake Peral-ta.
Complimented by brilliant screenwriting and solid camerawork, main actors Andy Sam-berg, Andre Braugher and Melissa Fumero attracted a cult following. Receiving incredible re-views across the board, the first season of the show ended in a promising cliffhanger. Peralta was “fired” from the force and was sent to the FBI to investigate and infiltrate a crime family.
In the down time between the finale of season one and the premiere of season two, hype for “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” continued to rise. The show racked up a hefty set of awards including an American Comedy Award, a Critic’s Choice Television Award, two Golden Globes and a Creative Arts Emmy Award. Review sites like Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and IGN praised “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” for its ingenuity and endless humor. With such a high bar set by the first season, is it possible for season two to garner similar widespread support?
Looking at the first two episodes of the new season, it appears that “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” has already hit its stride.
Despite this potential, the premiere episode “Undercover” starts off on a relatively disap-pointing note in terms of narrative. Peralta has served his undercover time since last season’s fi-nale and the viewer is introduced to the show with no description of his experience. From a viewer’s standpoint, it appears that the writers shot too high with this plot line and needed an easy way out. What this episode lacked in story was quickly made up for in humor, character re-lations and beautiful acting from all members of the cast. From Terry’s impression of an unat-tended backpack to Peralta’s quick kisses with the crime boss, the episode is sure to keep the viewers attention based on humor alone.
However, the writers made up for the poor storyline by reaffirming the hilarious relation-ship between the stoic Holt and the not-so-stoic Peralta. The episode ends on a serious note of character development as Jake reaffirms his feelings for Santiago, which makes the viewer won-der if season two will elaborate on this possible relationship. If nothing else, this confirmation of feelings will certainly add a new dynamic to the duo throughout this season.
Episode two, “Chocolate Milk,” brings the audience back to the critically-lauded “Brook-lyn Nine-Nine.” It completely disregards the undercover plot story in favor of the elements that made the show successful originally. The episode adopted the incredibly diverse range of humor inherent to “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” The show lyn Nine- proved their worth in this episode as they offer character development and backstory from two angles. You learn a great deal about Holt’s backstory and beginnings as a detective as you simultaneously witness the progression of Peralta and Terry’s friendship. In a minor sub-plot, Boyle and Diaz resume the friendship that was miss-ing at the end of the first season. The new character roles offer promise for the rest of season two that will hopefully keep the show from simply recreating the first season.
The first episodes of season two offer the possibility for a new and yet equally amusing season of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” If viewers can get over the discarding of a promising plot, the show has offered humor equal to that seen in the first season with unrivaled character develop-ment indicative of writers who will continue to create masterpieces throughout the second sea-son.
Jack Nichols can be reached at [email protected].
