Guest stars are very hit or miss when it comes to sitcoms and Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a strong example for that, particularly this week. While Kyra Sedgwick worked wonders opposite Andre Braugher as his nemesis, I can’t say that Ed Helms (The Office) was as successful as an adversary for Jake. This isn’t all down to Helms’s performance, although how much he works is going to be slightly based on how much you like him as an actor, but it’s also largely down to Jake. It’s down to Jake and how he succumbs to old Jake habits (like last week) but also down to how much we all agree with his-Jack Danger is an annoying tool and why would Jake want him as his partner?
Rosa has paired these two up because of her drug task force that is working at double time now to find any dealers of the drug Giggle Pig. She asks Jake as a friend to please help her because if they don’t get results soon, the force could be disbanded, something the precinct doesn’t need after being under scrutiny earlier on in the season. Jake and Boyle are stuck with Jack who believes the the Postal Service is the big brother to police and that they’re the true stoppers to crime. After Jack gets in the way of Jake apprehending a Giggle Pig dealer, his patience wears out and he and Boyle steal the list of names they’d been tracking without Jacks consent. They manage to catch the culprit they’d seen earlier, and it should be a big win but Rosa is furious.
Rosa and Jake are easily one of my favorite pairings on the show for a number of reasons. Both don’t play to stereo-typical archetypes. She’s the badass cop who rides motor-cycles and doesn’t like emotional confrontations, he’s likely the most likable male character on television currently because he again plays against familiar male gender roles and putting them together creates a wonderfully rich dynamic. We believe their friendship and their mutual respect for one another and, most importantly, we believe that Rosa would be pissed. She tells Jake that because of what he did now none of the new intel will be going to her team. She tells him that when she said to get along she wasn’t asking a favor as a friend, she was ordering him to do it as his team leader.
Jake is reasonably feeling guilty about this and wants to make it up to her. He swallows his pride and goes to apologize to Jack who accepts it, and gives Rosa the case back.
The subplot was concerned with Amy trying to quit smoking and the story get’s the funniest line of the night and it’s just during the intro of it. Holt is asking Amy to work during the weekend again and rather than respond with her usual enthusiasm she snaps at him. To which Holt replies “what just happened” and Braugher again nails every single line reading that he’s given. His response conveys total confusion and it’s hilarious. In their own bizarre, character particular ways, Holt, Terry and Gina all try to help Amy quit cold turkey. Terry tells her that he used to be addicted to food and when it got bad, he trained himself out of it. How? By dunking his head in a freezing tub of ice water as a painful reminder of his past addictions and to shock him back into reality. Holt tells her that he used to have a gambling addiction and to rid himself of it he found a healthier addiction-exercise. He tells Amy that they’ll take a lunchtime jog, won’t converse with one another and won’t be allowed music to distract from the physical exertion.
Sounds like the worst type of work out ever.
It goes poorly though when Amy is caught smoking in a bathroom, not her most glamorous moment.
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Her last ditch effort is with Gina, who doesn’t like her, and Gina’s bizarre, empowering meditation and it too fails with Amy deciding that she quits quitting.
It was a decent episode, nothing close to the best that the show has done but still a serviceable episode.
7/10
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