Last summer, Fox cancelled their sitcom “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” following its fifth season. The decision caused an uproar of disappointed fans on Twitter, who tweeted out their support for the show and begged for a streaming service or different network to pick up the show. Less than a day and a half later, NBC, which had passed on the show at the time of its initial pitch, announced that they would be bringing the show back for its sixth season.
NBC went further than simply resurrecting the show that fans had already started to mourn – it began heartily promoting it. The network produced digital content as well as regular promos to air in order to build anticipation for a show fans had reluctantly said goodbye to months before. The new home of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” had done what the old hadn’t and invested extra time and money into show-related projects beyond episodic production, the most memorable of which being a “Die Hard”-themed imagination sequence in which Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) lives out an imitation of his favorite film.
Building off the combination of an aggressive marketing campaign and fan excitement, the sixth season’s premiere went on to gain its highest ratings in two years, along with creating a massive buzz on social media. While this spike is probably due to the increased attention, it’s clear that there was a well of appreciation for the show that Fox either hadn’t known about or simply had ignored.
So far, four new episodes have aired on NBC. They match the previous ones in tone and characters. The NBC-created episodes have added some variety – the characters can curse now – with some themed episodes, including an origin story for Hitchcock (Dirk Blocker) and Scully (Joel McKinnon Miller) and a honeymoon episode for Jake and Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero). The season’s fourth episode is the last for main character Gina Linetti (Chelsea Peretti), as she departs the show. So far, Brooklyn’s 99th precinct has yet to fully return to the station for a regular crime-and-shenanigans-of-the-week episode, which were the predominant storylines when the show aired on Fox. It will certainly be interesting to see if those episodes, too, will keep a tone consistent with the rest of the show.
The only character that has seemed different in the aftermath of the switch is Captain Holt (Andre Braugher). In the new season, he comes across as looser and more laid back – still far more uptight than any other character, but a noticeable difference regardless. Again, this could be due to the change of scenery of the new episodes, including, for him, a trip to a resort in Mexico during which he questions his career path. Whether NBC chooses to make this a trajectory into character development for him or just a bump in the road remains to be seen, but tacked on to Peretti’s departure, it could alter the cast’s chemistry.
Nearly seven months after Fox cancelled “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” its sixth season premiered. So far, NBC has only promised a 13-episode deal for what was intended to be its final season on Fox, but with a community of fans passionate enough to express support for the show en masse on social media, who’s to say what the future holds for the 99?
