All kinds of people who may never have been particularly vocal about police violence were shaken out of their complacency last summer, when Minneapolis cops killed George Floyd. As citizens nationwide began interrogating the role and history of policing in this country, critics began focusing on the issue of “copaganda”: film and especially TV narratives that center officers as the heroes of crime stories, as opposed to telling stories that reflect the reality of what it’s like for members of marginalized communities to interact with cops.
Columbo, Marvel and DC superheroes, the Paw Patrol: All were implicated. So when it was announced late last June that Brooklyn Nine-Nine was throwing out the scripts they’d already written for the show’s eighth and final season, fans took notice. Starting on Thursday, NBC will finally air the episodes that were written after producers reconsidered the show’s perspective, and whether anyone at the 99 also embraces the philosophy of ACAB.
In some respects, these characters had a less bastardly starting point than most TV cops. Since the show’s premiere, Brooklyn Nine-Nine has been justly praised for assembling a racially diverse cast. Though white dude Andy Samberg anchors it as Det. Jake Peralta, Andre Braugher’s Raymond Holt—a Black, gay, married police captain—has essentially become the show’s colead over the years; the characters of Latinx detectives Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) and Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz) have been praised for not playing into stereotypes.
Notable attempts to acknowledge discriminatory carceral practices predate the current season too. After a previous wave of protests in 2016 following the killings by police of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, Brooklyn Nine-Nine aired the 2017 episode “Moo Moo,” which revolved around police lieutenant Terry (Terry Crews) getting racially profiled and hassled by a beat cop in his neighborhood. The incident sparked a debate between Terry and Holt, the squad’s two Black members, about whether Terry should make a formal protest or—as Holt initially advises—trust that change will come incrementally if Terry doesn’t make waves with his complaint. That fall, the show’s season five premiere found Jake Peralta in prison; over the course of a single conversation, the warden (Toby Huss) casually admitted that he turned off security cameras whenever a guard and an incarcerated person got into a physical fight. They then agreed, sadly, that the only inmates who have it worse than cops and snitches are trans people.
Years ago, The New Republic’s Alex Pareene tweeted that “90% of what cops deal with should be handled by well-paid social workers.” It was fun to imagine season eight kicking off with the entire squad resigning in protest or shame, becoming social workers instead. Alas, that’s not what happens in “The Good Ones,” the season eight premiere—though one character’s soul-searching about the job does lead to a significant career change.
The episode also focuses on a police-brutality case, illustrating how legal protections for police officers prevent the prosecution of such incidents. Our heroes want the offending cops fired, and so does their captain (Rebecca Wisocky)—but she explains in detail why their quest is futile. The sequence is grimly funny, if dispiriting in its truthfulness, but the episode also has lighter gags that are still on theme. Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio) goes over the top in his anti-racist self-education and showy allyship. The episode also introduces John C. McGinley as Frank O’Sullivan, a blowhard scumbag at the police union; he returns in “Blue Flu,” the show’s third episode, in which true events inspire a story line about a uniformed cop claiming that fast-food workers deliberately served him a burrito containing a dead mouse.
I was slightly dubious about how effective the show would be in making this pivot. In the end, though, it works pretty well. Is that partly because this series has always been more of a wish-fulfillment fantasy than copagandistic productions like, say, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit? Sure! Though if there ever were a TV precinct that would create a pilot program advocating for its own defunding, it’s the 99. (In fact, that’s what the season’s fourth episode, “Balancing,” is partly about.)
At the same time, there’s still a good deal of cognitive dissonance inherent to Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The premiere recognizes that it’s hollow to gesture toward the idea of any cop being one of the “good ones,” when a given cop can only be as “good” as an intrinsically racist institution will permit. Yet that’s exactly how we’re supposed to think of Brooklyn’s characters, even in a post–George Floyd world. The show’s attempts to counter pro-carceral TV messaging is evidently as far as NBC is prepared to go. This current season will be Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s last; a Law & Order spin-off revolving around defense attorneys was scrapped at the network just last month.
Generally speaking, though, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is still the same show it’s always been. A beloved repeat offender returns in an episode that gives his character a fun send-off. Boyle gets a few surprise wins amid his usual run of punching-bag moments. Amy and Jake’s chemistry as a couple remains flat—so the show’s tendency to present them as friendly colleagues is a good bet, even if COVID restrictions are likely part of the reason we rarely see them touch. I’m happy that a sitcom that’s delivered so many hard laughs over the years has had the chance to go out on its own terms—nudging its audience toward a greater awareness of what other cop shows are trying to sell in the process.
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