Brooklyn 99 is dead.
Eh it was probably the least worst copaganda show. It mostly humanized the criminals and even made them likeable characters and it did, albeit very timidly, call out systemic racism in the police force.
It's definitely still copaganda though.
it did, albeit very timidly, call out systemic racism in the police force.
It’s definitely still copaganda though.
Yeah, the show isn't bad because it said cops are bad, pretty much all cops outside of the 99 are shown to be racist and corrupt. The show is bad because it argues the only solution to bad cops are good cops.
Good riddance. Copaganda aside, it's been way too schmaltzy for way too long. American shows have a bad habit of falling in love with their own characters, until the primary driver is feel-goodery & every episode feels like a sanitized fanfic of itself. Chelsea Peretti is a highlight, though
Michael Schurr shows are especially bad at this, too. Gotta make sure every character gets absolutely everything they've ever wanted.
One chapo user made a comment that I haven't got it out of my head about the cop movies/tv making sure there's always a black cop. Just to give an idea that racism within the force is actually a bug not a feature
Also a shame that a show that is so cleverly written had to be about cops, especially when the vast majority of the episodes could be re-written to be about anything else with only 10 mins work.
Especially in the later seasons, the fact that it's about detectives is secondary to the interpersonal relationships of the characters. They could be working in literally any other job and it would still work.
I had to turn it off after the undercover prison episode arc. Jake is beaten by guards but any shred of serious commentary is undercut with his cellmate accidentaly adding a funny Sombrero filter to the video. There's a throwaway line where Jake and the warden acknowledge how difficult it is for Trans people in prison but it's done in a "that sucks but oh well!" kind of way and has no serious implications that something should be changed by the warden or for that matter by Jake, a member of a police department with a horrifying track record with trans women. The show goes out of its way to make it clear that every single character in that prison was comically evil, even the friendly cell mate was only friendly as part of a bit (he was a polite cannibal who ate children). Nobody was there who didn't without a shred of doubt deserve to be and nobody being beaten by guards or other inmates is innocent or for that matter in there for something nonviolent. In the wrapup episode to the arc when he's released and back out on duty, Jake hesitates to make an arrest because what if he's wrong? What if he sends an innocent person to that brutal, horrible place? Just when you think they are about to make a good point about the needless brutality of our prison system his boss has a heart to heart and the audience is fed with some bullshit about it actually helping him to be a better cop because now he's careful.
Another comment said they needed to pick a different setting than police detectives and I wholeheartedly agree. No amount of special lib-woke episodes can justify a feelgood cop comedy like this and even though the writers seem to be aware of the issues with police, their efforts to address them are constantly underwhelming and often times rife with problematic misunderstanding itself.
Before I went hard left I like the show. At least I thought it was funny and the writing worked with the characters. Haven’t watched it in a few years though.
It's still funny and the writing worked with the characters. Honestly I would've been down with them pulling an Archer, just deus ex machina the whole crew into some other line of work that serves as a backdrop. Cause excluding some bad takes on the police and some mllquetoast critique of it, it's not like the Policework was ever anything more than a backdrop to provide ample opportunities for funny things to happen. It's a comedy show against a cop backdrop, not a cop show with some jokes.
Just make them all OSHA Inspectors and have them chase people to hand them their subpoenas for the action scenes in increasingly more slapstick construction zones. It's not like it portrayed cop work in any realistic way.
I liked this show but it really should have ended long ago. There are way too many predictable uninteresting episodes.
