The hardest thing with any comedy is to keep it, well… funny. ‘Brooklyn 99’ is now on its third season, yet it’s still got that same appeal that it did when it first came out.
A lot happened at the end of the last season – Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) and Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) admitted their feelings for one another, Charles (Joe Lo Truglio) and Gina (Chelsea Peretti) are now step-siblings, and Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) had to say an emotional goodbye to the team after being transferred over to the PR department by “talking raisin” Deputy Chief Madeline Wuntch (Kyra Sedgwick).
To keep it from going stale, it seems that the writers have added a lot more to this season – it’s always nerve-wracking when new things are added to a TV show that already seems to be working so well, but a lot more risks have been taken this time. It pays off, however, with excellent comedy and an incredibly strong cast still very apparent. Season 3 really builds on the strengths of season 2, with a lot more elaborate, built-up jokes through the storytelling, rather than just the one-liners that we experienced in season 1. If you think about it there are definitely less laughs than the previous two seasons, but this isn’t a bad thing – ‘Brooklyn 99’ is now starting to feel like a drama as well as a comedy, and it’s adding some serious dimension to the characters and the storyline.
Relationships are moving forward a lot better now, and we’re still surprised with insights to characters that we thought we knew a long time ago. Even Hitchcock (Dirk Blocker) and Scully (Joel McKinnon Miller) get explored in more depth, which really adds something. There’s also a lot more focus on the relationship between Captain Holt and Gina, and an entirely new character added towards the end unveils a different side to a main character that we all know and love.
The storytelling is brilliant, but the cast really do make ‘Brooklyn 99’. They’ve all gelled from the very beginning to a point where it’s hard to believe that they’re not actually all running a precinct together. If I’m honest, I’d say that ‘Brooklyn 99’ has the strongest set of characters that I’ve seen in a televised comedy since the original characters of ‘Scrubs’ back in the early 2000s. I’m surprised that some of them haven’t been seen in more comedies – Terry Crews is definitely making more appearances now, but I’d definitely like to see more of Joe Lo Truglio and Stephanie Beatriz.
There isn’t a flat episode in season 3, which is rare. Each episode varies in quality, of course, but a standard seems to have been set which each one hits the whole way through. There also doesn’t seem to be any obvious fillers either, with each episode either being fully essential to the plot, or enlightening us to new information and perspectives. The final episode is particularly brilliant, and will be particularly appreciated by avid viewers of American drama ‘24’.
With on-point storytelling and a fantastic range of characters and situations (as always), ‘Brooklyn 99’ has yet again delivered laugh out loud comedy that you can’t help but look forward to. If you’re not already watching it, then you’re seriously missing out.
I give it a 5/5.
The storytelling is brilliant, but the cast really do make ‘Brooklyn 99’. They’ve all gelled from the very beginning to a point where it’s hard to believe that they’re not actually all running a precinct together. If I’m honest, I’d say that ‘Brooklyn 99’ has the strongest set of characters that I’ve seen in a televised comedy since the original characters of ‘Scrubs’ back in the early 2000s. I’m surprised that some of them haven’t been seen in more comedies – Terry Crews is definitely making more appearances now, but I’d definitely like to see more of Joe Lo Truglio and Stephanie Beatriz.
There isn’t a flat episode in season 3, which is rare. Each episode varies in quality, of course, but a standard seems to have been set which each one hits the whole way through. There also doesn’t seem to be any obvious fillers either, with each episode either being fully essential to the plot, or enlightening us to new information and perspectives. The final episode is particularly brilliant, and will be particularly appreciated by avid viewers of American drama ‘24’.
With on-point storytelling and a fantastic range of characters and situations (as always), ‘Brooklyn 99’ has yet again delivered laugh out loud comedy that you can’t help but look forward to. If you’re not already watching it, then you’re seriously missing out.
I give it a 5/5.
★★★★★
Hannah Read
Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Season 3 at CeX
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