Let’s Get Reel: Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Let%E2%80%99s+Get+Reel%3A+Brooklyn+Nine-Nine

Brooklyn Nine-Nine premiered its fifth season on FOX last week, answering questions about the fates of two of its main characters. The end of season four saw Jake (Andy Samberg), a goofball who always manages to crack the case, and Rosa (Stephanie Beatriz), a fierce detective with a hard-outer shell, sink into the corrupt world of Lieutenant Hawkins. After Hawkins selected the pair to train with her squad, Jake and Rosa soon learned that their new boss ran a drug smuggling ring and organized large scale robberies to fund her operation. In just a few episodes, Hawkins frames Jake and Rosa for bank robbery and after a trial that would’ve taken up the entire new season if Brooklyn Nine-Nine were a drama, Jake and Rosa were sentenced to fifteen years in prison – where we found them in last week’s “The Big House, Part 1.”

The Nine-Nine members are worried about their coworkers, but this episode spends more time dealing with Jake’s troubles than with his friends at the precinct. As this is the first of a two-part episode, it’s fair to speculate that we could spend more time in Rosa’s prison next week, but the series follows Jake more closely than others (Samberg is the first-billed actor and serves as producer).

Absent from the premiere was Chelsea Peretti and her superb comedic timing; hopefully her return from maternity leave can help bridge the gap between office and prison, as the jumps back and forth felt awkward.

The authentic dive into Jake’s toils in prison – and into the lives of those whom he and the squad have sent to prison – separates Brooklyn Nine-Nine from its dramatic counterparts. Instead of watching a tortured cop struggle with his morality before throwing it out the window for the supposed greater good, Brooklyn Nine-Nine delves headfirst into systemic issues with the criminal justice and prison systems without sacrificing its tone. In fact, the fast-paced comedy aids in the deliverance of the show’s messages: the viewer can quickly move on from a joke about police corruption to one about different flavors of Ramen, but the impact of the humor resonates.

For example, Jake wakes up thrilled at the prospect of seeing his girlfriend, Detective Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero), and best friend Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio) on visiting day, but his mood shifts when he discovers that one of his block mates has committed suicide. Jake submits to provoking a guard on film repeatedly because his cell mate (Tim Meadows) has been in prison too long to know how to use the smuggled smartphone: first he films the altercation on selfie mode, and then with a Snapchat-inspired sombrero filter. But the comedy is punctuated with the prison warden’s remarks that the violent guard was only giving out “warning stomps” when he slammed his boots onto Jake’s face. Jake and the warden discuss the brutalities that trans people in prison face, drawing the viewer in to a moment of realism instead of making the vulnerable population the butt of the joke. While Brooklyn Nine-Nine needs a little help balancing its comedy with its politics, it’s refreshing to see a sitcom tackle tough issues with heart and humor.