By John Thomas
Columnist
My fans, Im sure some of you are expecting a year-in-review column this week or next, but Ive decided to forgo that critics convention until May. However, next week will still be a special column. In the first half, Ill be pointing out a variety of different new shows you can stream on break, and in the second half, Ill suggest a few television related gifts you can pick up on the fly for whichever holiday you celebrate.
Today, Im checking back in with Brooklyn Nine-Nine, one of my favorite shows of the year thus far, and one that I truly believe will become part of the pop cultural canon.
Were you late to the game on Arrested Development or Parks and Recreation? Did you find out who Pigly was after all of your friends were already tired of that joke? Did not a single person attend your Leap Day party because they already had one a couple of years back, that wasnt as fun as you thought it would be, so why would they go to your half-assed party this year? Well, then, I would suggest getting on with your life first, and then checking out Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
In pretty much every way, its a stronger first season than Parks and Recreation and even 30 Rock. While I wouldnt say it quite rivals the heights reached by Archer and Arrested Development, it definitely could in the future. I say this because the cast has already gelled together in such a sublime way by this weeks Christmas episode, that the writers would really have to mess up for that to not be the case.
Some of my contemporaries strongly disagree with me on this, but I think Christmas is Brooklyn Nine-Nines first truly great episode. Brooklyn plays within classic sitcom conventions, not the mockumentary style of a lot of critically acclaimed sitcoms that are on the air today, and I think that that structure is its greatest technical strength.
This episode, and the previous Thanksgiving centric one, is explicitly aware of that. Peralta handcuffs himself to Holt early in the episode, and it is shot as if the director was saying, Look at this plot point, this is important, here is the premise of this episode, right here, what just happened, thats it, thats what were going with. Some might take that as a lazy way to advance the plot, but I dont think thats the case at all. In fact, it was that shot and not even the wonderful This is the true meaning of Christmas line delivered by Andy Samberg that made me laugh the hardest during this twenty-two minute episode that was filled with just excellent, hilarious gags.
Most importantly though, Brooklyn Nine-Nine has quickly crafted a community both on-screen and off, and thats allowed it to feel like a much older show than its eleven episode count would suggest. I wasnt that big of a fan of Joe Lotruglios Detective Boyle at the beginning of the series, which was surprising because Im longtime fan of Joe Lotruglio himself.
Boyle seemed malformed and on one note, he wanted to date Rosa, mainly because he was sycophantic to the rest of his detectives. He still wants to date Rosa, and hes still a sycophant, but the writers have taken that quality and extrapolated it into the innocent, tender and, both socially and physically, pratfall prone grown-up Family Circus character that Detective Doyle is.
You just have to check out this show. Do yourself a favor and stream it on Hulu as soon as possible. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is one of those shows that youre probably going to make friends over, whether on Tumblr or in real life.