Amelia Madarang
Instantly beloved by fans and critics alike when it premiered in 2013, NBC’s “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” has finally come to an end after an eight-season run. The airing of the double-episode finale on Sept. 16 marks the end of the Halloween heists and Boyle family reunions.
Built around Andy Samberg’s character, Detective Jake Peralta, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” was regularly applauded for its innovative take on the cop show format; it managed to satisfy all the criteria of a single-camera sitcom while also tackling real world issues.
It has been especially lauded by critics for its support of the LGBTQ+ community and its unapologetic representation of love on screen.
However, the focus has always been more on the comedy. Samberg is joined on screen by comedic talents such as Terry Crews and Chelsea Peretti, as well as recurring guest stars including Craig Robinson and Jason Mantzoukas.
This eighth and final season, despite the obligatory return of the Pontiac Bandit, focuses almost exclusively on the elephant in the room for a 21st century cop show: police brutality. While episodes such as season four’s “Moo Moo” have scratched the surface of this issue, never before has a season of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” been built around a single issue.
According to Samberg and Crews, this decision was made in order to address the reckoning over racial justice in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd. Crews told Access Hollywood in June 2020 that showrunner Dan Goor scrapped four episodes of season eight that were already finished.
“They had four episodes all ready to go and they just threw them in the trash,” Crews said. “We have to start over … this is an opportunity right now for us all to unite.”
The trouble for the cast and crew was figuring out how to delve into these social issues as much as they wanted to, while still being able to call themselves a sitcom.
“We’re going to be striking a balance,” Samberg said in an interview with GQ. “Between reckoning with decades of police brutality, and putting on a show that people who love it have been watching for seven years.”
A balance indeed this eighth season turned out to be; subplots about marriage, maple syrup shampoo and a hundred-year-old sourdough starter made their way through, but the focus never left the overarching theme.
Warning: spoilers ahead.
Season eight begins with the news that Rosa Diaz, played by Stephanie Beatriz, was quitting the force because she no longer agreed with what the institution stood for.
“I couldn’t ignore what I was a part of anymore,” Diaz said in season eight, episode one. “I couldn’t ignore what the police are doing in my community to people who look like me.”
The episode also features a clueless but well-meaning Charles Boyle, played by Joe Lo Truglio, getting a “low-drop fade with a crisp lining” at Terry’s barber shop in the name of supporting Black businesses, Venmoing Lieutenant Terry Jeffords an accidental $10,000 as “a mini reparation,” along with other common microaggressions.
But the real balance between comedy and reality comes through the introduction of Frank O’Sullivan, head of the patrolman’s union and a perfect foil for Peralta, Captain Raymond Holt and Sergeant Amy Santiago.
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