"Brooklyn Nine-Nine" Season Seven Talkback (Spoilers)

[Fone Bone]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Manhunter"

Okay, I pretty much love Debbie. She's a nervous tagalong and it's her birthday. What's not to love?

Stop trying to make Boyhunter work, Boyle. Never mind. He's earned it.

Amy isn't overreacting about the dog. That dog sucks.

Hitchcock and Scully are Wiener Warriors. Love it.

Great premiere. ****.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Captain Kim"

I'm actually mad at Jake and Holt. I loved Captain Kim very much. I would have loved a season of her. Maybe she would have reduced some of the funny tension of the series, but I think the show works better as everyone getting along as a family.

It WAS the coat, Charles. It was always the coat. Good thing too. Jake hated the new dynamic.

Loved Scully getting ready to attack Jake for saying the name of The Couch. Dude's got his priorities straight.

Holt's drunken excuse was just plausible enough to work. Although I am mad at him, I do half agree with him blaming Jake and skirting responsibility. He WAS going through some stuff. What's Jake's excuse?

Not great. **1/2.

 

[Fone Bone]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Pimemento"

I freaking love Adrian Pimento. His non-reaction to Memento was both not funny at ALL, and the most hilarious way to end the episode possible.

Kelly is a wife AND a dog. I have questions.

I love Pimento calling Jake an ahole for not knowing what Christopher's Nolan's first film was.

Jim Rash gives me Community flashbacks. Good ones. I miss the Dean.

I liked most of the episode, but Jake is right that Charles overreacts to everything. It's hard to sympathize with him for that reason. But Pimento was funny. ***1/2.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine "The Jimmy-Jab Games II"

I love that Debbie think Charles is suave. For some reason the idea that Charles is hung also doesn't surprise me. The series tends to reward good behavior so it makes sense one of the most chivalrous males on the show is well-endowed.

Is it just me or has Holt turned kind of pathetic since he became a beat cop? It's not just me. I felt so bad for Rosa when she revealed Jocelyn broke up with her. Ray is NOT good at human interaction.

I like Debbie's singing voice. But I especially like that she's so stupid she thinks believing she can do anything means she can steal evidence from the evidence locker.

Jake took out the batteries for his smoke detector for his singing Billy Bass? Jake is not smart. Him on the Epipen was hilarious.

Holt not liking the music but wanting to stay anyways was sweet.

Good episode. Debbie is going to be future trouble. ***1/2.

 

[Fone Bone]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Debbie"

Wow, Debbie's Miss Piggy karate really works.

I agree with Rosa that Debbie is an adult who made mistakes she's responsible for, but she's also right that her mom sucks and should be nicer to her. She can pay for her crimes and her mother can still love her. It's not one or the other and it never should be.

The bleep over the sexual stuff Debbie and Rosa would do to Mr. Bean raised a lot of questions for me. Questions I suspect I don't want to know the answer to.

Loved Holt calling Terry "Son" when saying he'll read his tombstone. What a badass thing to say.

Jake is right that Debbie's wacky shtick will play better once she's a cougar aunt. Vanessa Bayer may be ageless. My patience is not.

That was fun. ****.

 

[Fone Bone]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Trying"

Hitchcock still sucks. And his life is NOT like a fairytale.

I like that Holt learned Russian without even realizing it all because he had to walk the beat Terry gave him. That was cool.

Rosa and Charles and the Guinea Pigs were a scream.

I "Awwed" at Jake telling Amy she was his family and he would just be happy being with her. The show is great at stuff like that.

Good episode. ****.

 

[Peter Paltridge]

Guess what?

Spoiler

Melissa Fumero revealed her real-life pregnancy last November

That's something I wish I hadn't found out.

 

[Fone Bone]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Ding Dong"

A rare bad episode.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a refreshing show, because with the notable exception of Hitchcock, all of the characters are likable. Not so much here.

Holt is an outright monster in this episode. And while Rosa being amused by his antics is kind of funny, it's also completely horrible. Why should I like and sympathize with a person who watches E.T. and thinks he's the monster who deserves to die? What is this show thinking?

Similarly, the stuff with Jake, Terry, and Charles was outright horrible. The resolution was so frustrating because not only did Boyle and Terry not deserve that good of a resolution after their terrible behavior, but the solution could have been thought up at the beginning and solved everything. It made the pointless conflict seem even more pointless than it already was.

Was there anything in the episode I liked? Holt throwing a fake funeral just in case is funny if only because it turns out he was right to do it. But that was pretty much the only thing I liked in the episode. *.

 

[Fone Bone]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine "The Takeback"

Pontiac Bandit episodes are the best and this is no exception. In fact, it's even better than usual because they sort of made it half a Halloween episode since there wasn't one this season. I love that the entire reverse heist was a scam for Doug Judy to be able to make Jake his best man. That is wholly consistent with both characters and how and why they love each other. And yeah, Judy does NOT mind betraying his criminal friends. Because Jake's all he really needs. Good scam.

Rosa having no pictures on her phone is far weirder than Terry's thousands.

I love him being infuriated she was taking credit for helping when it worked out with Holt. Honestly, I don't blame Terry. That was super annoying.

Craig Robinson is like a national treasure. Doug Judy is his best role. *****.

 

[Fone Bone]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Dillman"

That was a great mystery. Not because the culprit was a shock, but because it turned out it wasn't a botched prank, it was a crime. That's genius. I especially love that the lead detective, who is smoking everyone in the 99, turns out to be a fraud. And he's still not the culprit. Him being the culprit would have actually made no sense. But I love the notion that the greatest detective Holt has ever worked with is pretty much worthless. Yeah, he's okay at sizing people up. But he is not good at solving actual crimes.

J.K. Simmons was great. That's a guy who does equally well in comedy and drama.

I accept Boyle solving the crime, simply because it's not inconsistent with his characterization. In the Pilot Terry tells Holt that Boyle works harder than everybody. And that's the way he solved the crime. It's not flashy or glamorous. But Boyle's value is that he bothers to put in the work. And maybe he won't elicit appreciative gasps from the rest of the squad for it, but he got one from Jake, which is pretty much all that mattered. Not bad.

When Holt sheepishly tells Dillman these detective were here when he got here I was like "Ray is a total ahole." It's not just that he lost a great deal of respect for Dillman by the end. I personally respected him much less after that quip.

Rosa's being obsessed with a soap opera is not a new joke for that type of hardass character, but it was a very well done use of the trope, ending with Dillman lamely claiming she's innocent. It was a pretty good string of rapid-fire comedy.

I love Rosa being mad at Terry for making her accidentally speak first to give Dillman the upper hand. You know what? That would infuriate me. Shut up about your lousy kids, Terry. Nobody cares about them.

The show has been very hit or miss this season, and this episode was a bit of a return to form. Yeah, the Pontiac Bandit episode was also great, but I don't consider a Brooklyn Nine-Nine season great if only the Pontiac Bandit and Halloween episodes are great. It has to have a fair amount of great regular weeks too. And this season has been lacking them, but this episode finally delivered. It was excellent. *****.

 

[Fone Bone]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Admiral Peralta"

I like that Jake realized that the idea of a Peralta curse is nonsense. Jake proves it not just because he is preparing to be an amazing father. But because he's an amazing son, despite his father screwing up when he was kid. I love any episode of any series that says people are responsible for their own actions. I particularly approve of it if the actions are actually awesome things. If Jake being a good dad is actually up to him, he actually gets the credit due for that.

I love the way Andre Braugher says "Never give anyone your flute." This season has gone out of its way to say Holt is nuts. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I laughed at the reveal of the aftermath of the blind clean-up job. Hilarious.

I also like that Hitchcock and Scully may be bad cops, but maybe they aren't bad people regarding protecting witnesses. And that isn't true of a lot of cops either good or bad. One of the things I like and respect about the show is that it shows how proper police should behave. I don't ever feel like the show is unduly glamorizing cops, which is something Law and Order annoyingly does. Instead it offers the viewer insights into the way law enforcement SHOULD work, and often through the lens of how the other departments and people outside of the 99 are failing. I personally hate cops. But I love the idea of a show demonstrating how good cops should act. That's very important, and it's especially refreshing because this is a comedy. Not a lot of comedies are concerned with setting a moral example for the audience. And I think that whenever a comedy DOES do that, it tends to be better for it. The Good Place and Parks And Recreation, both shows also by Michael Schur, prove that point as well.

I really enjoyed this week. ****.

 

[Fone Bone]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Valloweaster"

Jumping backwards off the roof to the ending of "The Game" was probably the most joyous laugh we've ever seen Rosa give. It was also insane and diabolical.

I have to say, Rosa making it so she secretly won the first two contests without anyone knowing WAS genius. I was super impressed by that. And Scully gets two wins added simply for being adjacent to her. And the filing cabinet still has more than Charles.

Next year is Boyle's year. I can feel it.

Jake and Holt teaming up was a brilliant twist. There were a lot of fun twists this year after a few years of being a bit paint-by-the-numbers. My favorite is the idea that Amy hired an actress to play a fake therapist for Jake. Although I question big time how Rosa knew about it and repeatedly got into the office. Usually the plots of the heist episodes hold up. This one didn't entirely because of that.

It's really cool how they found a way to make part of the heist Halloween after all. Hopefully if and when NBC renews it, whenever the next season is isn't pushed back until midseason. But the virus means all timing bets are off regarding good TV.

I don't care. That was still fun. *****.

 

[Fone Bone]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Ransom"

Kevin is SO funny. Indeed.

Holt's fight with the dognapper at the end was sweet. I love how much Jake loved it too. Is he Riggs? Awesome!

I think Jake would have preferred to have been rescued after he learned how to beat Wario.

Who is the mole? Is that going to be a plot thread for later?

I love this show. Because a storm is coming. ****1/2.

 

[Fone Bone]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Lights Out"

I think Andre Braugher lacks vanity for doing the hip hop dance. But do you know what? He lacks TOO much vanity. The producers should never have asked him to do that.

Him making fun of the uselessness of Terry's muscles is something that I believe he's done before but it never gets old.

But yeah, Jake needs to put down his son to see the footage.

Dottie is the worst but Charles is surprisingly sucky too. He is just so creepy and weird, and I loved Rosa calling him on it. And he doesn't recognize which McClane it is? Why is Jake his best friend again?

Naming the baby Mac is great. It's a stupid name, and I assume it will start trends. That how stupid baby names on TV work. There were a ton of Sevens after that dumb Seinfeld episode.

I am really starting to love how much Hitchcock and Scully love each other. Do you know why that's smart? Because the abuse heaped on them by the rest of the cast doesn't actually matter if each of them feels loved and happy with each other. Which is something I never got from Meg on Family Guy, and Jerry from Parks and Rec was only granted it when we saw his home life. But it's kind of cool that Hitchcock and Scully don't need to focus and feed on how much everyone else hates them as long as they have each other.

Sweet ending too. I loved Amy telling Jake not to call their baby hot. For some reason it doesn't strike me as creepy as long as it's a parent and the kid's a baby. Instead I think Jake is like the coolest dad ever.

Nice episode. ****.