There are two things that stood out to me about this week’s episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Amy and Jake’s relationship and how it could either go the way of will they/won’t they tension or be put to rest and show just how bizarre this show can be.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine isn’t afraid to be a little weird, and the insanity and the energy works – thrives, even – off of the well-defined and immensely watchable characters. The Jimmy Jab games are an excuse to watch these characters perform ludicrous acts. They eat two week-old Chinese takeout, race in bomb squad gear, try to disguise themselves to what must be very disgruntled co-workers, and then run an obstacle course with the most random tasks. None of this makes sense, but watching Amy and a game Melissa Fumero give her victory dance or Boyle using the time to recover an incriminating tape of him and Gina from a power hungry Hitchcock is funny stuff, and watching the actors go all out makes it a more entertaining episode and on par with the preceding two.
Amy and Jake’s relationship is the other noteworthy storyline of the episode, and the Jimmy Jab games and his wager with Rosa to get her friend’s phone number is just a distraction on how he’s still not over Amy. He overcompensates to try and cover those feelings, but Rose sees straight through it and tells him to knock it off and in the end gives him her friend’s number to help out.
Due to an over saturation of forced, paired couplings that seem to be in the blueprint of the show from the get go, especially on sitcoms, we’ve come as an audience to view them as an obstacle our favorite shows need to overcome. Recent shows such as New Girl and The Mindy Project have dealt with the will they/won’t they debacle with varying success. Shows like Friends thrived off of the premise, as it’s likely one of the most prominent of tropes. The Office had Jim and Pam and Parks and Recreation has Leslie and Ben. Of course, we’re going to see Brooklyn Nine-Nine and its setup – the fact that the showrunners were a part of the former two shows as well – and wonder if they’re headed down a similar path, and if it’s a good idea.
Luckily, from what we can tell from season one and the past three episodes, Brooklyn Nine-Nine has a much stronger start, and it has such a great understanding and affection for its characters that whatever direction it goes in will feel justified. We just need to hope the execution plays out well. Personally, I have no problem with Amy and Jake becoming a thing despite the burn I felt from the lackluster Jess and Nick season three plotline on New Girl. I do think it would benefit the show to wait a while, establish itself some more and aim for the laughs before setting forth on the couple landscape. Andy Samberg and Fumero have a sweet, playful chemistry, but the show doesn’t need to dive into romantic subplots just yet.
Elsewhere, Captain Holt and Terry are looking to get funding for research on a new and popular drug, and much to Holt’s chagrin, he must face off with his nemesis, Deputy Wuntch. No matter what, due to what we’ve known of Holt so far, this storyline was going to work. It’s hilarious watching Holt fume at some of the most ridiculous insults. What’s better is that finally it allows Holt to be foolish rather than playing it straight against the other more outlandish characters. Putting Andre Braugher up against Kyra Sedgwick is comedy gold, and they play their mutual hatred well with so many subtle facial tics it isn’t hard to realize why they’re so well loved as performers.
It was another great episode. I’m curious to see how the Amy and Jake storyline turns out.
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9/10
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