A quick review of tonight’s “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” coming up just as soon as I lie about free strudel…
Perhaps appropriate for an episode that was all about Boyle’s sperm, “Hostage Situation” came to an early climax. The pre-credits joke about Jake failing to record proof of Holt’s dancing, while echoing a similar teaser from a while back about Holt’s hula hoop photos, was still priceless, and a reminder that Jake often works very well comically when he’s the sensible one reacting to the other people being crazy. The eponymous Boyle plot gave Andy Samberg more of a chance to do that, and gave guest star Kathryn Hahn license to be her most comically awful as Boyle’s ex-wife Eleanor, but it suffered at times from pacing, with the end feeling particularly abrupt. (Once again, having to merge what should be the end-of-episode tag with the actual conclusion of a story rarely does the show favors.)
The subplots were amusing, if slight. Holt and Diaz pairings work well because they’re both unemotional, but in very different ways, and Holt’s attempt to play tough cop by threatening to show their suspect the terrible municipal court website was very much him. And though they wound up airing several weeks apart, it’s interesting that we’ve now gotten two episodes in a row where Gina shows some interest in playing cop. Could this be leading somewhere, or is it just a coincidence? Seems hard to imagine her wanting to put in the effort and follow the rules that come with being a real cop as opposed to a pretend one for a couple of hours, but if this comes up a third time soon, it’ll be a trend.
The show’s first episode in its new/old Tuesday home wasn’t one of the season’s best, but if this and “The Grinder” (I haven’t seen this week’s episode yet) should make for a damn good hour of comedy going forward.
What did everybody else think?