Brooklyn Nine-Nine season 8 premiered recently and addressed police brutality, racism, and how problems cannot be solved any time soon right off the bat. As someone who is a fan of the show and how it handles various social issues with a comical twist, I wasn’t disappointed with this episode.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine season 8 episode 1 addresses police brutality and how our favorite characters react to it in their own distinct ways. Rosa can’t tolerate it and leaves the force, Charles becomes hyper woke/borderline pretentious, and Jake still believes in the system, thinking it has a few ‘good ones’ too!
The episode was smartly segregated into three popular themes or reactions people had after George Floyd’s murder. With each theme, the writers associated a character giving a face to the reaction and making it all the more real and relatable.
The Flawed System | Rosa Diaz
B99 is known for the best cold openings, and though most of them are funny, this one was quite shocking! Rosa resigns and leaves the police force because of everything that’s going around. Her stance is pretty straightforward. The system has flaws that cannot be fixed from within, and she could do more good from the outside.
She is clear right from the beginning and maintains her stance (rightly so!) till the very end. It’s perhaps the most radical thing for someone to do, but Rosa has always been radical. Or maybe radical is the wrong word. Perhaps it’s the right thing to do.
Rosa’s character is perfect for this since she can keep her biases aside, think clearly, and arrive at a decision quickly! In essence, she sort of represents the people who can call out the bullshit and act on it by taking appropriate steps.
The Hyper/Pretentious Woke | Charles Boyle
Famous for his over-the-top attitude and behavior towards everything, Charles reacts to racism and police brutality the same way. We see him be overtly woke by either listening to podcasts and narrating them, celebrating Juneteenth and other antics.
He represents the hyperbolic version of the woke generation who read and share articles online, are always in your face about cultural appropriation, and preach a little too much. This is precisely what Charles does either with Terry or with others in the presence of Terry.
The show quickly establishes this and also that though Charles is well-intentioned, he shouldn’t be doing it all just to show Terry that he’s an ally every passing second. He can tone it all down a bit and just show support without the need to publicize that he’s showing support actively.
Belief In The Good Ones | Jake Peralta
Jake Peralta has always been in love with his work and the police force. In fact, he is the so-called good cop and believes that there are still good ones, and the problem can be solved from within the system with just a little bit of bending the law.
The entire episode is the back and forth between Jake and Rosa while they’re working on a case where a victim who was colored had been charged with assault for no reason.
I loved the way the writers developed this narrative. They established both the POVs and, through the episode, educated us and Jake himself that the problem indeed is pretty deeply rooted.
Towards the end, Jake realizes that it’s not about him being a good cop or Rosa leaving just because she didn’t have as much belief in the system as before. It’s about the other side. It’s people who face this every day in ways big or small and how we’ll never truly know what it’s like to be in that position.
The show doesn’t try to find a utopian answer to all these issues because in reality there isn’t one. It ends with a long, introspective silence between Jake and Rosa as they each ponder over how there is still a long, long way even to come close to solving these issues.
About Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is an American police procedural comedy television series created by Dan Goor and Michael Schur.
The show stars 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, Andre Braugher as Captain Holt, Dirk Blocker as Michael Hitchcock, and Joel McKinnon Miller as Norm Scully.
Braugher has been nominated four times for the Primetime Emmy Award and has twice won the Critics’ Choice Television Award. The show has also received a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series portrayal of LGBTQ+ people.
The series revolves around Jake Peralta, 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.
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