A review of tonight’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine double feature coming up just as soon as I learn to do trigonometric functions in my head, like a big boy…
Though “The Slaughterhouse” sets up what appears to be another season-ending arc about crooked law-enforcement, it still works as a nice pairing with “Your Honor,” since the former is mainly a personal story about Captain Holt’s relationship with his mother (played by L. Scott Caldwell, a.k.a. Rose from Lost), with a splash of policework, where the latter was mainly a police case complicated by Jake and Rosa’s friendship. When the show has to double up like this, it’s best to have episodes that aren’t too similar, even if both had Hitchcock/Scully-centric subplots, which used to be rare and is now becoming a welcome thing as the show ages.
Of the two, “Your Honor” is a bit funnier overall, if only because Jake and Holt is the show’s best possible A-story pairing, and probably the best overall pairing(*), and any circumstance where Jake gets to act superior to his commanding officer — especially when he has legit reason to feel that way — tends to be comically fruitful. Jake always takes enormous pleasure in learning personal details about the captain, and getting to not only meet the honorable woman who raised him, but realize that Judge Holt likes him — much to Raymond’s dismay — was a delight, as was Andre Braugher getting to play a very petulant and childish Holt who was still recognizable as the robot we all know and love.
(*) Brian and I talked about this on the podcast a few weeks ago, where we tried to draft the best possible character pairings, using each character only once. I think I eventually put Holt with Gina, just because Jake is good with a lot of people (including my choice, Boyle), but pound-for-pound, Samberg + Braugher = the most laughs, which is good, since Samberg is always in the A-story. But I’m curious what everybody else’s favorite two-character group is, whether involving Jake or not.
“The Slaughterhouse,” meanwhile, introduced Gina Gershon as legendary NYPD badass Melanie Hawkins, who would appear to be this year’s final big bad. Having Jake and/or Rosa join her squad full-time might have been a status quo shakeup too many in a season that’s had a lot of them, especially since we know everyone will eventually wind up back at the Nine-Nine, but having their competition turn out to be moot because Hawkins is dirty and needs to be taken down neatly sidesteps that problem. I had mixed feelings about the Jimmy Figgis arc that bridged last season and this one, but Gershon was fun, and the idea of Jake having to take down someone who epitomizes all his John McClane fantasies about policework should hopefully be fruitful over the season’s final two episodes. And in the meantime, Rosa and Jake’s competition was terrific, and far more ruthless than things generally get when he’s in a contest with either Holt or Amy. The water running gag was amusing enough on its own, for instance, but once Rosa started spiking the bottle with caffeine, it went to another level.
Lots of good subplot action as well in both episodes, with Scully and Hitchcock’s brief feud in “The Slaughterhouse” a particular highlight. Joel McKinnon Miller and Dirk Blocker have always been superb utility players for this show, and it’s nice to see them being rewarded lately with more material, despite how tricky it often is for the show to juggle the seven opening credits actors. Two idiots hurling ranch dressing at each other — and Hitchcock unexpectedly referring to Scully as a “basic bitch” — what’s not to love?
Some other thoughts:
* Fox renewed the show on Friday, which was unsurprising but still good news. In lieu of a review of next week’s final episodes, look for a chat with Dan Goor about the show’s funniest overall season.
* The “we have shwayed the fung out of this place” line in the “Your Honor” break room subplot reminded me of a line from Big Apple, the CBS cop drama David Milch did in between NYPD Blue and Deadwood. That show was forgettable for every reason except introducing Milch to a few Deadwood people, and for one line that I still quote to this day: Ed O’Neill’s character, a retrograde Sipowicz-style cop, starts freaking out that an FBI task force will be moving into their squadroom, and bellows at his young partner, “They’re gonna sheng fu this whole office!”
* I preferred Holt teaching Amy to express her anger at him over Amy trying to teach Gina to change a tire, if only because the tire thing never entirely papered over Amy’s disappointment at blowing a chance to hang with Judge Holt due to the “jam on” fiasco. (A clumsy, mortified Santiago is a hilarious Santiago.)
* Braugher’s mispronunciation of “YOLO” was a work of art.
What did everybody else think?