Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is an American police procedural comedy television series created by Dan Goor and Michael Schur. The series revolves around Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg), a talented but immature NYPD detective in Brooklyn’s fictional 99th Precinct, who often comes into conflict with his commanding officer, the serious and stern Captain Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher). The rest of the cast features Stephanie Beatriz as Rosa Diaz, Terry Crews as Terry Jeffords, Melissa Fumero as Amy Santiago, Joe Lo Truglio as Charles Boyle, Chelsea Peretti as Gina Linetti, Dirk Blocker as Michael Hitchcock, and Joel McKinnon Miller as Norm Scully.

Produced as a single-camera comedy, Fox originally ordered 13 episodes for its first season, eventually expanding it to 22 episodes. Brooklyn Nine-Nine premiered on September 17, 2013. On May 10, 2018, Fox canceled the series after five seasons. The following day, NBC picked up the series for a sixth season; it premiered on NBC on January 10, 2019. The seventh season premiered in February 2020. The ten-episode eighth and final season is set to premiere in the 2021–22 television season.

The series has been acclaimed by critics for its cast, especially Samberg and Braugher. It has won two Creative Arts Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy. Samberg has won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy, while Braugher has been nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and has won two Critics’ Choice Television Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. The series has also received particular praise for its portrayal of serious issues while retaining a sense of humor. For its portrayal of LGBTQ+ people, the series won a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.

Premise

Set in the fictional 99th Precinct of the New York City Police Department in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Nine-Nine follows a team of detectives headed by the overly serious and intellectual Captain Raymond Holt. The detectives include Jake Peralta, an ace investigator with a high rate of successfully solved cases in spite of his relaxed and childish attitude. He eventually falls for his nerdy, by-the-book but skilled colleague, Amy Santiago. Jake’s best friend, the timid and loyal Charles Boyle is often partnered with apathetic and aggressive, Rosa Diaz. The pair of older detectives, Michael Hitchcock and Norm Scully, often seem incompetent and lazy; but were once legendary detectives.

The detectives report to Sergeant Terry Jeffords, a gentle giant and devoted family man who initially has a phobia of going back to field police work for fear of being killed in the line of duty and leaving his children fatherless. The precinct also includes sarcastic and dominating civilian administrator Gina Linetti, who dislikes her job, plans her life around social media, and focuses on dancing as a life goal.

Cast and characters

• Andy Samberg as Jake Peralta
• Stephanie Beatriz as Rosa Diaz
• Terry Crews as Terry Jeffords
• Melissa Fumero as Amy Santiago
• Joe Lo Truglio as Charles Boyle
• Chelsea Peretti as Gina Linetti (main season 1–6)
• Andre Braugher as Raymond Holt
• Dirk Blocker as Michael Hitchcock (main season 6–present, starring season 2–5, recurring season 1)
• Joel McKinnon Miller as Norm Scully (main season 6–present, starring season 2–5, recurring season 1)

Development and production

Writers and producers Michael Schur and Dan Goor, who had known each other since they were students at Harvard University and had collaborated on the sitcom Parks and Recreation, conceived the idea to set a comedy in a police station, a setting they felt had been insufficiently used in television comedies since Barney Miller. They pitched the idea to the production company Universal Television, where Schur had a development deal. Although Universal signed on to produce the series, its parent company’s network, NBC, passed on airing it, so the duo sold it to the Fox Broadcasting Company.

Fox placed a 13-episode order for the single-camera ensemble comedy in May 2013. The series was picked up for a full season of 22 episodes in October 2013, and was later chosen to air with the sitcom New Girl in a “special one-hour comedy event” as the Super Bowl XLVIII lead-out programs. It is filmed at CBS Studio Center in Studio City, Los Angeles. The exterior view of the fictional 99th Precinct building is the actual 78th Precinct building in Brooklyn.

Fox canceled the series after five seasons in May 2018. Negotiations to revive the series for a sixth season began shortly afterwards with TBS and NBC as well as streaming services Hulu and Netflix. After fans launched a social media campaign calling for a renewal, Goor announced that NBC had picked up the series for a sixth season comprising thirteen episodes 30 hours following the cancellation. In a statement, NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt expressed regret for originally passing on the series to Fox and was “thrilled” at its addition to the network. It was subsequently announced that the series would premiere mid-season in the 2018–19 television season. In September, the network ordered an additional five episodes for season 6, bringing the order to 18. The sixth season premiered on NBC on January 10, 2019. Peretti, who portrays civilian administrator Gina Linetti, departed as a series regular during the season but returned for a guest appearance.

In February 2019, NBC renewed the series for a seventh season, followed by an eighth season renewal in November prior to the airing of the seventh. The seventh season premiered on February 6, 2020, and concluded on April 23. In June, Crews said that the planned direction of the eighth season was being altered in response to the killing of George Floyd, with Goor canceling four “ready to go” episodes as a result. Samberg also stated that the series will be “striking a balance” between addressing police brutality and maintaining its comedic style. It will also incorporate the COVID-19 pandemic during the season. Although initially announced as part of NBC’s fall schedule, the eighth season premiere was pushed back to 2021 due to the pandemic. In February 2021, NBC announced that the eighth season of ten episodes would be its last, and further announced that the eighth season premiere would be delayed until the 2021–22 television season.

In an interview, co-creator Dan Goor made this comment: “Ending the show was a difficult decision, but ultimately, we felt it was the best way to honor the characters, the story and our viewers … I know some people will be disappointed it’s ending so soon, but honestly, I’m grateful it lasted this long”.

Episodes

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes gave season one a score of 89% based on 56 reviews. The consensus is: “Led by the surprisingly effective pairing of Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a charming, intelligently written take on the cop show format.” For Season 2, it received a score of 100% based on 17 reviews. That season’s consensus is: “Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s winning cast, appealing characters and wacky gags make it good comfort food.” Metacritic gives the first season of the show a weighted average rating of 70/100 based on 33 reviews, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.

Alyssa Rosenberg of The Washington Post deemed Brooklyn Nine-Nine “one of the funniest, most important shows on TV” and highlighted its “ability to find unpredictable routes into a wide range of issues in contemporary policing.” Writing for Vanity Fair, Grace Robertson regarded the series as “a well-made exemplar of the workplace sitcom” that confers “straightforward pleasures”. Slate‘s Aisha Harris called the series “a well-crafted fantasy, with hardly any discernible connection to current cultural attitudes about law enforcement” but complimented its “talented” ensemble cast. It was ranked No. 24 in Rolling Stone‘s 50 Best TV Shows of the 2010s list, in which its curator, Alan Sepinwall, praised “the comedic yin and yang” of Samberg and Braugher’s characters.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine has received praise for its forthright portrayal of LGBTQ people and the serious issues that affect them while retaining its sense of humor. Portraying Captain Raymond Holt, a lead character, as an openly gay, no-nonsense black man in a same-sex interracial marriage is unprecedented in cinema and television. The coming out as bisexual by detective Rosa Diaz in episode “99”, the 99th episode of the series, has been described as an important representation of sexual orientation.

Ratings

Awards and nominations

Broadcast

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is broadcast in Canada on Citytv. After the second episode of the second season, it was replaced on Sunday nights by Rogers Hometown Hockey for the duration of the 2014–15 NHL regular season; after the NHL season concluded City resumed airing Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and has continued to broadcast the show simultaneously with the American broadcast since the third season (Hometown Hockey was moved to Sportsnet in 2015).

The series also airs on TBS and sister channel TruTV since 2018.

In the United Kingdom, the show premiered on E4 in January 2014. The second season debuted on January 15, 2015, the third began on January 7, 2016 and the fourth on January 5, 2017. The fifth season aired on March 8, 2018, the sixth on March 28, 2019 and the seventh on March 26, 2020.

The series airs on RTÉ Two in Ireland.

In New Zealand, Brooklyn Nine-Nine premiered on TV2 on February 13, 2014.

In South Asia, Brooklyn Nine-Nine airs on Comedy Central India.

In South Africa, the series premiered on SABC3, in the 19:00 timeslot, airing Mondays to Fridays, where repeats aired on Sunday

In Australia, it premiered on SBS on July 28, 2014, and airs repeats on Universal Channel from January 7, 2015. It moved to SBS 2 in 2015 commencing with the second season, which premiered on March 3, 2015. It has now moved to SBS Viceland, currently airing on Fridays at 8:30pm.

In December 2014, Netflix UK added the first season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine to its listings, with Netflix Australia following suit in March 2015. Since 2016 Netflix Germany/Austria/Switzerland carries season 1 to 5 in both English and German audio.

In South East Asia and Sri Lanka, Brooklyn Nine-Nine airs right after the U.S. on Diva.

As of November 2020, Netflix in Latin America has seasons 1 to 6.

French Canadian adaptation

A French Canadian adaptation of the series, titled Escouade 99 (pronounced Squad 99), debuted on the Québec streaming platform Club Illico in 2020. Set in Quebec City, Escouade 99 has a budget of 4 million for the first season of the series, which is approximately the same budget of a single episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Following the release of the first trailer, Fumero criticized the casting, specifically those of white actresses in the roles based on Amy Santiago and Rosa Diaz.

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