Thursday, September 19, 2013

Brooklyn Nine-Nine 1.01 Review: You Don't Always Have to Grow Up


By now you should know the drill. All those that haven’t watched Tuesday night’s episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the premiere episode, please kindly exit the premises of this blog. As always, there may be spoilers pertaining to the episode below. To reiterate, THERE MAY BE SPOILERS AHEAD!
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, I’ll dive right into the review portion of the evening. The episode started off with a lovely image of Andy Samberg’s face, and his giving a speech we find out he’s giving to a video camera while solving a robbery crime. Solid opening, in my opinion, and it definitely gives the audience a sense of who this character is – a smart cop that hasn’t quite grown up yet. He could end up being an interesting character, but I didn’t quite get anything other than superficial characteristics to him, there was almost no depth to the guy. I know that it’s a sitcom, but I still expect a little more out of the main character.
Andre Braugher in his role as the Captain was as commanding as ever. You see this guy, and immediately feel that he has a sort of presence to him. The man is certainly a great actor, but again I didn’t feel much of a depth to him. Maybe it’s that this is a sitcom, or that the writing doesn’t quite develop these characters into fully three-dimensional people, but it’s something that is lacking. An actor can only do the best they can with the writing they’re given. The way his character says that he’s gay; it’s like there was no emotion to it. Someone that has gone through the hardship of coming out in a profession that wasn’t quite as accepting as it should have been would have had more depth to it that I didn’t feel. It was more like he was a little surprised about it, like he was just saying his name or something.
When it comes to sitcoms, I tend to be more a fan of ones like How I Met Your Mother, Cougar Town, and Friends. It’s not that I need the laugh track to find it funny; it’s more that I’m not a fan of the documentary type feel of a sitcom. Not that I’ve ever watched it for longer than five minutes, but the cinematography for this show felt like that of The Office, and I have yet to be able to sit through that show. There were some good laughs to this show, but if it keeps up the way it is, it might be one of the first shows I cut off my schedule. I just don’t really feel the documentary-style filmmaking is necessary to make an interesting sitcom. It almost feels sloppy to me, like otherwise the audience would be unable to become immersed in the series. But that may just be my own feelings toward it.
I think that’s about all I can say about this episode except for a couple of small things. I absolutely loved the scene where Terry Crews character Jeffords freaks out and shoots a mannequin. It was definitely one of the funnier scenes. I also liked the frictional dynamic between Peralta (Samberg) and the Captain; I’d like to see that escalate. They can certainly learn to respect each other, but I don’t want to see their bickering not included in future episodes.
My rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Best Lines:
“Ah man, my muffin. Ah! Ah, my head. My muffin, my head, and I stepped on- on my muffin. And my muffin, my head, my muffin…” – Charles, after dropping his muffin on the ground.

“Ah, that went well.” – Peralta.
“No, it didn’t.” – the Captain.
“He’s got, like, super-hearing.” – Peralta, in one of their many comical banters.

“Do you think it’s the same dude that left that bong there on the floor?” – Peralta, after a guy says someone broke into his apartment to smoke weed, to which he answers a quiet yes.

“Humility over, I’m amazing.” – Peralta, demonstrating how modest he is not.

“Never took off the speedo. Big mistake. It is inside me.” – Peralta. Anyone else seeing the pattern that this guy gets the best lines?

All right, that’s it for now. Check back here in a couple hours for my review of the third season premiere of New Girl. I’m now off to shower and then watch the episode.

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