‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ finale review: The end of a great first season
If you are looking at the finale for “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and even the season as a whole, the worst thing that you can say about it is that it did very little to break the TV mold. It was basically “Parks and Recreation” the whole way through except the confessionals, and had a vibe that reminded us distinctly of past seasons of “The Office” and even “The Big Bang Theory” in its first-season finale Tuesday night.
With that all being said, there is no hard and fast rule out there that says a show must be extremely creative, and give that there are over five decades worth of comedies out there, it’s very hard to be creative. What the finale did last night was present a funny and at times surprising conclusion to TV’s best new comedy of the year, and provide some sort of suggestion as to where season 2 is going to start.
Let’s start with the simple way in which the story was framed, which was probably the most creative thing that you did. In seeing Jake Peralta sitting at a bar giving everyone full rounds of drinks and saying that he was fired, you immediately started to think that he had found some massive way to screw things up with his job once and for all. This was supported by most of the episode, where he was warned repeatedly against trying to go after a powerful man with alleged ties to the drug community. Then, the twist came in the final third: He was right, but in order for him to get on the inside of what was really going on here with the bureau, he had to try and get fired from his job … which wasn’t really that hard for him. Now, he begins a six-month undercover mission to try and get to the root of the problem.
As for the rest of the story, there were plenty of funny / sweet moments. Jake confessing his feelings for Amy was nice, though not giving her a chance to respond wasn’t exactly great. She’s now left for six months questioning her emotions, and she can’t get in touch with him and figure things out.
The funnier reveal was seeing Boyle wake up in bed with Gina of all people. The “waking up in bed” gag has been done to death, but from the moment that you saw Boyle waking up, it was so much easier to assume that it was going to be Diaz given her relative level of sympathy following his breakup.
This is what “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” does best: Gives you a little bit of the familiar, but also just enough creatively, great performance, and solid laughs to throw this above almost every other comedy out there. While it’s not essential live viewing to many out there, it is something that should definitely qualify as must-watch TV. Grade: A-.
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