TV Review: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2×12) – “Beach House”

After two weeks away, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is back with a familiar episode. It doesn’t do anything remarkable but it’s a cozy half hour of characters we enjoy being put together in a beach house for a weekend getaway where they get drunk, gossip and sit awkwardly in a bubble-less Jacuzzi. It’s a fun, solid episode but doesn’t mess around too much with any preexisting storylines. It’s safe.

Safe on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, however, is still immensely enjoyable and again, watching this group interact on a weekend getaway where they get to be even crazier than usual is a treat for audiences who like watching a well-structured cast interact.

It simply can’t be said enough: this is a tremendous cast and one of the most talented on television. I will not be swayed from my opinion; I am infatuated with all of them and their ridiculous characters. The cast and writers have created such lived-in characters that their growth as individuals and as a group doesn’t surprise but rather feels like a natural, commonplace step forward. Moments such as Boyle helping Rosa text her boyfriend (played by Nick Cannon, who still hasn’t had more than a minute of screen time), Gina and Amy kind of having a moment of friendship (that happens once Amy is six drinks deep), and Holt and Jake sitting nonchalantly behind Holt’s desk without any pants on (in my personal favorite visual gag of the episode) all work because of how well we know these characters and their idiosyncrasies. From Terry going 100% into relax mode, equipped with a fanny pack with nips, ear buds and a pair of croc slippers, to Holt being the awkward one at the party, none of it’s surprising but all of it works on a comedic level.

The episode starts with Jake gathering the troops to go off to their annual weekend getaway where they leave behind their spouses, their bosses and their everyday concerns and relax for two and a half days. Jake goes to thank Captain Holt for letting them take the half day, and Holt tells Jake of how he knows it’s important for a team to blow off steam in such a manner. Holt, however, as he tells Jake, was never privy to these types of excursions. Due to him being black and gay in a police force that was predominantly white and straight, he was never invited along. Cue Holt flashback that’s equal parts sad and hilarious where Holt is only partially invited along to a golf outing.

Since Jake has been proven to be a nice guy (in some wonderful character building that often goes unnoticed due to Jake and incidentally Andy Samberg’s broader comedic tics) and he doesn’t want Holt to feel left out, he ends up inviting him along. This annoys the group, who wanted a weekend where they didn’t have to worry about pressure. Even Amy, who loves Holt, is stressed out over it because she’s already two drinks in by the time they arrive, and while she wanted to prove to Gina that she could be fun, she isn’t comfortable getting drunk in front of her boss.

As predicted by most of the team, bringing Holt along, no matter how well intentioned, proves to be subtly disastrous. Holt isn’t poor company, he’s just very particular in his tastes and his discussions. Jake tries to fix this by having them split the party up into two.

I don’t know if the two party idea Jake had was completely sold on me, particularly because of how idiotic an idea it was and how obvious the outcome ended up being. Of course Holt finds out and of course he’s bothered by it. There are no other options in a storyline like this. However, the setup leading to the split and the resolution more than make up for that one narrative fumble.

I even found the scene where Jake goes to speak with Holt to be kind of sweet. It’s a brief moment but it emphasizes the change that’s happened over the course of the show thus far between the two characters. Elsewhere, Boyle isn’t weird about Rosa dating someone else, comfortably putting behind last year’s unrequited crush he held for her, and as mentioned before, even Gina and Amy have a moment where Amy drinks until she’s lying on the floor and Gina offers a helping hand. It must be mentioned just how much of a gift Melissa Fumero is to this show – drunk Amy may have been the MVP of the episode. Personal favorite moments of the episode come from her hitting on Rosa and later when she’s past her five drink limit and turns into sad drunk Amy and hugs the banister.

The episode ends with all of the arguments being resolved and Jake doing a horrible but hilarious Holt impression. So, the only real way the episode should have ended.

It was a funny episode and I’m glad the show is back. What were your favorite moments of the episode?

7/10