Brooklyn Nine-Nine splits the difference with a novel premise and a tired one – The A.V. Club

Blue Flu

Brooklyn Nine-Nine was bound to have a clumsy re-entry upon its return to a post-2020 television landscape. The NBC years were already occasionally hamstrung by didactic political dialogue and wink-wink references to the zeitgeist that mostly reassured viewers of the shows progressive worldview. This isnt a bad move, per se, or at least it doesnt have to be. Every character basically says the right things (and its obviously better than spewing reactionary rhetoric), but more often than not, these ideas were awkwardly integrated into the action, so it barely lands as drama let alone comedy. It mostly serves to demonstrate that the Nine-Nine are the good guys and nothing more.

Naturally, this is a dicey impulse for a sitcom about cops during a time of heightened awareness around systemic racism, police brutality, and the defund/abolition movements in the wake of George Floyds murder. There was no possible way for Brooklyn Nine-Nine to please everybody, and thankfully it doesnt really try. But after the relatively exposition- and speech-heavy premiere that tried to do too much in the way of lip service and hedging, Blue Flu features a premise that integrates Brooklyn Nine-Nines political consciousness into a novel episodic premise thats funny and compelling. Its a good example of a show adjusting to The Times without getting bogged down in defensive anxiety.

After a uniformed officer plants a dead mouse in a burrito as a publicity stunt to shore up sympathy for law enforcement, the Nine-Nine struggles to maintain readiness when every officer in the precinct stages a mass walkout under false medical pretenses. Captain Holt splits the team into three groups (under a belabored trident analogy that Jake immediately tries to undermine by commenting that Aquaman wields a five-pronged trident): Jake and Boyle set out to prove that the officers doctors notes are fraudulent; Amy and Terry are assigned to keep crime down with no police on the street; and Rosa, being an outside investigator, is tasked to find evidence that the mouse was planted. Meanwhile, Holt must keep Frank OSullivan (John McGinley), the nasty patrolmens union president, at bay before hes forced to cave to his humiliating demands.

Simply put, Blue Flu provides the entire ensemble with their own story that plays to their comedic strengths. Terrys stomach-bug fiasco allows Terry Crews to flex his tough-guy act while also playing feeble. Boyles cancer scare gives Joe Lo Truglio the chance to wallow in terror and misery. Andy Samberg and Melissa Fumero successfully play straight against their characters chaotic situationsBoyles mortality and a sea of Hitchcock and Sullys sent by other captains as a false token of good will, respectivelyand Andre Braugher plays the hits. (Rosa barely factors into the episode, but Stephanie Beatriz plays up her restrained glee at potentially discovering the nature of Holts secret tattoo very well.) After eight years, a show like Brooklyn Nine-Nine knows its strong points fairly well, and watching the cast hit their marks within their wheelhouse has its own pleasures.

However, its elevated by a premise that does a little more than pay lip service to bad cops are bad, etc. Holt and co. are beset by institutional inertia buttressed by ideological rigidity. In his drunken, cheese-riddled state, Holt devises a fresh strategy: he shows OSullivan weekly stats that illustrate fewer police didnt raise rates of major or violent crime, which means the Nine-Nine could serve as a case study for how a police force can work more effectively with fewer police. This scares OSullivan into calling off the blue flu and getting every uniformed cop back to work, but the subtext is damning: the threat of even the slightest positive change that hinges on police absence will force the return of an unproductive, dangerous status quo. That Brooklyn Nine-Nine would rather button Blue Flu with a tattoo gag than underline that idea is a point in its favor.

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Unfortunately, the second episode this week features a tired premise around work/life balance and having it all thats been done better many times before. Jake and Amy struggle to parent their son, Mac, while maintaining the pressures of their respective careers. For Jake, its an opportunity to catch a serial killer that has evaded capture for his entire career, while Amy is set to give a presentation to One Police Plaza for a reform proposal thats suddenly become highly competitive. When Macs daycare shuts down for a couple days due to a lice outbreak, it stretches the new parents to the brink as they try to care for their son and their career.

Its pretty easy to see where this is going. Jake and Amy learn that career sacrifices have to be made in order to be attentive parents and that doesnt have to be a major tragedy. Though Jake doesnt get to make the arrest, Jake helps Boyle uncover the killers identity and instead gets to watch his son pull himself for the first time. Meanwhile, Amy misses the milestone but successfully convinces her bosses to fund her reform proposal. This stock premise would be fine if the jokes were stronger, but aside from a quick scene of Jake and Amy realizing that their lice home remedy (maple syrup in the hair) has led to a swarm of ants in the bed and a montage of terrible babysitter applicants that includes a cheerfully abusive male Mary Poppins, its a bit of a dud.

The B-plot fares slightly better. Holt, still separated from his husband, moves into Rosas apartment, but he drives her crazy by constantly talking about Kevin. When Rosa suggests getting very drunk to take his mind off his marital problems, Holt sends a dick pic to Kevins email address in the wee hours of the morning, sending them both on a mission to break into his house and delete it. Again, another stock premise, but its improved by Braugher and Beatriz, who have proven time and time again to be an excellent duo, playing off each others restrained, yet easily flappable energy pretty well. Sometimes performances raise material and sometimes material confines performances.

Stray observations

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Brooklyn Nine-Nine splits the difference with a novel premise and a tired one - The A.V. Club