Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 4: The Full Collection

BROOKLYN NINE-NINE SEASON 4: THE FULL COLLECTION, EPISODES 1-22

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x01 "Coral Palms Pt. 1" (premiere episode)

"Jake and Captain Holt, under their aliases Larry and Greg respectively, while they hide from Mafia boss Jimmy Figgis in Florida. They've been there six months and Jake is still struggling to adapt - but is he even trying or is his secret venture threatening to expose them both?"

Drawing parallels to OITNB's Piper-centric second-season premiere, Andy Samberg (Jake) and Andre Braugher (Holt) took centre stage in an episode solely focused on their Florida exploits, but with that extra time the writers were able to play with their characters more intricately - especially Holt, whose deadpan and emotionless response to everything was thrust into being forced to play the role of a stoner searching for an assistant manager job at an arcade. That is, until, he discovers Jake is secretly trying to locate Figgis and forces him to give it up and get a job. The assistant manager job. Which increases the hilarity as Jake forces deadpan Holt to dance at a kids' party, don a hotdog outfit and clean a particularly disgusting crazy golf hole. Perfection.

   In the end, Jake and Holt rushed to retrieve a video of them getting run over by go-karts to prevent the video going viral and exposing them - only to realise it may actually be the best way of drawing Figgis out. Thus they release it themselves. (Also, Jorma Taccone, Rhea Perlman and Maya Rudolph all guest starred!)

   In every aspect the humour was brilliant, and even when not laugh-out-loud it was entertaining and (I'm going to use this phrase a lot I imagine) "comfortingly familiar". An episode of Jake and Holt that played with the characters of Jake and Holt in all the right ways.

   VIEWERS: 2.39m (A solid start taking B99's ratings above what it achieved in the back third of season 3, but I will be hoping they don't fall too far - or at all - below the 2m line)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.1 (Shot up from the back third of season 3; solid start. Needs to be held)

VERDICT: The premiere was deliberately lacking on the other main cast members but anything else would not have worked as effectively. And now the stage has been set for this seemingly three-part opening arc to continue (perhaps the next episode will conclude with Figgis's arrival in Florida and the third will conclude with his arrest). 8/10

Brooklyn Nine Nine - 4x02 "Coral Palms Pt. 2"

"The result of putting the go-kart video online is that Figgis phones to let Jake and Holt know he has kidnapped their WitSec marshal and is coming for them, but that phone call is made to a police precinct after Jake and Holt, trying to be discreet, are arrested for having unlicensed guns and bullets in their car. To save themselves, they instigate a jailbreak. Meanwhile, the new captain of the Nine-Nine causes a stir when he allows the team to do whatever they want."

After the Jake/Holt-centric episode last week, Brooklyn Nine-Nine showed with "Coral Palms Pt. 2" just why having the whole ensemble feature delivers a bucketful of laughs bigger than the bucket of guns Jake and Holt illegally purchased - and definitely more than having Jake and Holt alone. Of course, that isn't to say that Jake and Holt didn't offer some of the best moments of humour (they had plenty, including Jake telling Holt he can urinate in his hottub and the WitSec marshal calling them to a meeting to discuss her sex life) but with the whole cast featuring there was (ironically, given how the extra time with Jake and Holt last week saw their characters played with more closely), more to play around with.

Screenshot of Captain Stentley playing the bongos

   And Ken Marino, who dropped by to guest star as new dim-witted Captain, Jason "CJ" Stentley, acted as the catalyst for most of the Nine-Nine-based gags. Not only was his slowness a great source of fresh punchlines, in his allowing the team to do what they wanted Charles Boyle bought a treadmill desk, Gina got an assistant so she could avoid work and not have to bother insulting Amy herself, Terry got a yoghurt fridge and Rosa built a wall around her desk so Hitchcock couldn't stare at her. Only Amy stalwartly declined CJ's offer of whatever she wanted, so she could try and fight his poor captaincy.

   In the end, their lessons to CJ about saying no to people backfired when he refused to let the team head to Florida to help Jake and Holt, who are on the verge of a visit from the mafia boss, Jimmy Figgis. That was the greatest irony of all, and the writing earned that twist.

   I don't begrudge what was done with CJ's character, but if one opportunity was missed it was seeing him interact with Scully and Hitchcock. It was an oversight not to take that chance, but there is still next week and it didn't detract from the quality of the episode.

   VIEWERS: 2.40 (.01 higher in overnights than last week, continuing its decent start)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.0 (Equals its premiere score [before final adjustments]. Performing steadily)

VERDICT: Another fantastic episode. The laughs were there in abundance and the return of all our main characters felt earned after their absence from the premiere. The guest stars were spot on in every aspect - now can B99 wrap up this arc next week with an equally satisfying end? 8.5/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x03 "Coral Palms Pt. 3"

"Jimmy Figgis comes to Coral Palms to kill Jake and Holt. The Nine-Nine detectives arrive against Captain Stentley's orders to help arrest him."

The third and final part of the fourth season's opening arc concluded, as expected, with the arrest of mafia boss Jimmy Figgis. But it took jumping through some hoops to get there. Jake and Holt, presumed escaped prisoners by Coral Palms police, had their faces splashed across TV and thus had to run from a number of venues; Holt received a leg wound that incapacitated him for Figgis's arrest; and the Nine-Nine's ambush went to pot when Figgis held Jake at gunpoint.

Holt (to Gina): 'BOOST MY BOTTOM! BOOST IT!'

   However, it all came together in the funniest episode of the series yet. Among Jake's childish squeamishness, Jake and Amy's inability to reconnect after being apart from each other for so long, Rosa accidentally reading Figgis a raunchy love letter instead of a threat (see quote of the week), and Hitchcock asserting that "college girls" were the best part of Florida, we had the best line of them all: Holt, determined to help arrest Figgis despite his leg injury, being pushed by Gina into the truck (see image).

   There were a few surprises here too. I hadn't expected to see the Coral Palms Sheriff or the meth-addicted prisoner again but they made superb cameos, and the episode, as packed as it was, was oddly short at less than 21 minutes (compared to a usual 23-24). The show did, in the end, miss the opportunity for Stentley's slowness to pair with Hitchcock and Scully's own combined idiocy, and that's a criminal oversight. However, the cliffhanger in which Stentley punishes the team by banishing them all to the night shift perfectly sets up the show for the New Girl crossover next week.

   VIEWERS: 2.40m (B99 keeps registering stable ratings. There's a long way to go but the signs are promising)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.0 (Levels out with the previous two episodes. Stability all around)

VERDICT: B99 writers need to look at what they did here and emulate it more often. The humour was precise, the guest stars were utilised perfectly and the plot, packed into a shorter-than-usual timeframe, felt decidedly tight and full. 8.5/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x04 "The Night Shift" & New Girl Crossover Conclusion

"The team are moved to the night shift. Jake returns enthusiastically but discovers a number of things have changed since he left."

Boyle (right) turns up sporting the same frosted-tip haircut the
other officers are forcing Jake (seated) to remove

Brooklyn Nine-Nine's writers are still on form. Without an overlong arc to condense into three 20-minute episodes, they filled out an excellent and funny singular episode dedicated to a simple, easy-to-manipulate plotline: our characters being out of their depth on a night shift where very little crime occurs. Without too much in the way of actual crime plots, the writers had time to keep playing with the characters: Holt became the morale-raiser despite knowing nothing about morale raising, Terry became "night sassy" and snapped at everyone, Boyle's priority became how his working nights would affect his adopted son, and Rosa's vulnerability was shown when she kept going off to wait for her fiancé Adrian Pimento to return - and he didn't (although the suggestion is he will return at some point).
   The New Girl "crossover" that would expand two episodes and conclude on New Girl was an outright lie: instead of a crossover, Zooey Deschanel was pasted into a small, Brooklyn Nine-Nine daytime scene with Jake; in New Girl, she just met a few other characters for a few small scenes. There was no plot to conclude and there was little about this that didn't feel forced, out of place and jarring. Thankfully, this barely affected B99's episode quality for more than a minute.

   VIEWERS: 2.13m (B99's first real downtick of the season. No concerns here)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.9 (Likewise, only down a tenth from the previous episodes)

VERDICT: It's hard to move past the writing problem that taints the entire episode: that if Holt had replaced CJ as captain, why are all our characters still stuck on the night shift? But once you do (and if you ignore Zooey Deschanel's awkward appearance), this is an excellent episode with a well-executed plot. 8.5/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x05 "Hallowe'en IV"

"Jake, Holt and Amy go head-to-head-to-head to win the fourth instalment of the Hallowe'en Heist."

The Hallowe'en arc began in season 1 when Jake bet Holt that he could steal his Medal of Valour before midnight. Each succeeding season featured another Hallowe'en episode: in season 2, Holt beat Jake when Jake bet he could steal Holt's watch before midnight; and in season 3, Amy outwitted both of them by secretly running the show from the background. The latter two were good episodes but not up to the standard of the first; in contrast, "Hallowe'en IV", in which Holt, Jake or Amy must steal a plaque reading "The Ultimate Detective/Genius" by sun-up (smartly proving the current night shift arc remains), might even be better.

The winner: Gina Linetti

   There is almost nothing to criticise the episode for. Pairing up the competing individuals (Amy with Rosa, Holt with Boyle and Jake with Gina) explored different relationships. We were reminded of Jake and Gina's childhood friendship; Rosa pairing with Amy meant she played quite willingly along with all of Amy's booksmart wants (which Rosa usually sneers at); and Holt with Boyle took away the predictability that would have been the Jake and Boyle pair-up. That left Terry - who refused to join in - insistent he wanted to get on with his work, with Hitchcock and Scully minding him in case he was deceiving everyone.
   The eventual winner? Gina Linetti, her position as Holt's assistant enabling her to create copies of the prize plaque and, following a smart distraction, switch them out for the real one. I should have seen that coming really, but regardless, it was superbly written and there were too many laugh-out-loud moments to count.

   VIEWERS: 2.05m (A fair dip from the previous 4 episodes, but shouldn't be troubling)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.9 (Stable, but fractional)

VERDICT: A practically flawless episode up there with season 3's "Ava". The only question is: if B99 gets a fifth season, will Jake or Holt ever win again? 9.5/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x06 "Monster in the Closet"

"Pimento returns from his time on the run and he and Rosa decide to get married."

At Amy's request, Holt reluctantly pops his balloon arch

No word on whether our characters are now off the night shift (the lighting of the episode doesn't give us a clue), but the return of Adrian Pimento breathed some life into already revived proceedings. His utter insanity makes for great hilarity when it's used properly (he kind of fell off during his arc in season 3), but now that he's here to stay (in some sort of semi-permanent capacity), the writers have started to adapt the way he affects the group dynamics. Most notably today, we learn he shares a sort of kinship about the universe with Gina whilst simultaneously being terrified of her.
   Along the way to a wedding that he and Rosa decide they actually don't want to go ahead with, Amy oversees Hitchcock and Scully perfect the seating arrangements (an actually perfect use for their characters; it's ironic their best use isn't even the police work that is the actual premise), Boyle's cooking (which he somehow manages to get wrong?), Terry sorting out hair, Holt taking care of decorations (because decorations is his thing ...) and Rosa's relaxation. In the end, Rosa gets the whole team drunk and sabotages her own wedding because neither she nor Pimento were actually ready to get married.
   Pimento's return to the Nine-Nine was a hilarious one, and I'm keen to see how his relationships evolve in the future. He seems to be a creditable addition to the ranks, and if he nails down his spot he could single-handedly freshen up this season.

   VIEWERS: 2.18m (Rises slightly after a three-week break)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.9 (Stays level)

VERDICT: Pimento is back with his terrifying outlook on life. A brilliant way to come back from a long absence. 9/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x07 "Mr Santiago"

"Jake tries to impress Amy's father as the team gather for Thanksgiving. While Pimento and Holt get caught up in a televised dog show, the others struggle over who will kill the turkey."

Boyle ready to catch and kill the turkey

Jimmy Smits was a great casting choice for Amy's father, just one part of an episode that worked. All three plot arcs melded together despite Holt and Pimento's largely being separate from the other two, and the usual (and usually dull) boyfriend attempts to impress girlfriend's father trope was actually very good because the writers characterised Mr Santiago much like Amy: uptight, booksmart and attentive to every tiny detail. Spending time having Jake focus on a trait that typically defines Amy in order to impress her father was great - even if the outcome (that Jake would only get Mr Santiago's approval once he had solved a decades-old unsolved case with him) was as obvious as is a Hawaii Five-0 season 8 renewal.
   Quotibles were abound, but the strongest compliment is that they were so much about characters bouncing off each other that they don't work as single, understandable quotes - except perhaps some of Pimento's unhinged ramblings. Beyond that, there isn't much else to say about an episode that was just another (very good) day at the office (and it was a day; no news on the night shift arc's conclusion yet).
   VIEWERS: 2.19m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.9
   (The only difference between this week and last was last week's viewers were 2.18m)

VERDICT: If you have to pick episodes to really explain what the show's about, you wouldn't pick this for premise - but as an episode it displays B99's capability in every other area. 8.5/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x08 "Skyfire Cycle"

"Jake and Terry protect Terry's hero, author DC Parlov, when he begins receiving death threats. Amy and Rosa get caught in Holt's argument about maths with his husband Kevin. Gina and Boyle fight to convince the Boyle clan where to holiday."

The first thing about this episode was its reminder that our cast are still vegetating on the night shift: the clarification was what this arc needed (and even if the episode was actually out of order [this should have been episode 6], the two which came before seemed to be night shifts too, so this wasn't affected even slightly).

Terry and Jake go undercover to try and identity
who has been sending Parlov death threats

   After that, "Skyfire Cycle" just became 20 minutes of utter hilarious stupidity. Terry was starstruck upon meeting his hero, the author of a Game of Thrones-style fantasy book series, and his and Jake's antics trying to discover who was sending Parlov death threats was full of insight into Terry's past and appropriate reminders to audiences about that saying about meeting your heroes. Amy and Rosa getting caught between Holt and Kevin's argument over a maths statistics quandary was the best part of the episode: not only did Holt firing Amy after she took Kevin's side make me spit out my breakfast in laughter, but there's nothing quite like seeing Andre Braugher stand in a doorway yelling "BOOOOOOONE!" after Rosa pointed out Holt was sexually frustrated because being on the night shift meant he had little time to spend with his husband.
   The weak link was arguably the C-plot, as Gina and Boyle fought each other by trying to manipulate the Boyle clan into choosing their preferred holiday destination: the Caribbean island of Aruba - or Iowa. Gina remains the weakest character of the bunch (she's there to present sarcastic obliviousness, but her remarks are always hit and miss), and Boyle/Gina family plots remain equally temperamental, but perhaps I'm being too harsh: the C-plot was still very funny and it's probably more likely that the other two outstanding plots of the episode are just overshadowing it a little.

   VIEWERS: 2.36m (Back up again!)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.0 (And this!)

VERDICT: Season 4 has made significant improvements to its writing, especially its punchlines. The only blip on the radar of a season in which almost every episode has been standout (with many of those comparable to season 3's "Ava"), was the New Girl crossover - and even that was negligible. "Skyfire Cycle" alone was one of those I could compare to "Ava". 9/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x09 "The Overmining"

"Captain Stentley returns to get help in a drug case after he loses a bag of evidence. Terry feels incompetent after failing his lieutenant's exam, and Boyle treats Rosa to a night shift secret."

Jake's stony face when Boyle tells a
terrible joke

Captain CJ opened the night shift arc in episode 3 and returned to close it in episode 9, only this time his utterly shameful incompetence became the spearhead for the episode's primary plot, rather than a Brooklyn-based sideline while the WitSec arc ran its course. CJ was unashamedly open about losing a bag full of evidence in a big drugs investigation (and shockingly unaware of the potential ramifications), leading to Jake and Holt offering to help capture the drug baron, Falco, with him. And capture him they did, with the credit for it going to CJ who, in a live press conference, managed to basically ruin his career by proudly admitting the loss of the bag of evidence in the "one question I can answer". Hilarious (if an outrageous break from plausibility) and witty, it was nice to see Ken Marino back again (for what will be the final time), as the outcome was that Holt put everybody back on the day shift.

Boyle struggles to contain himself
following his terrible joke

   Elsewhere, Terry's failure to pass his lieutenant's exam knocked his confidence and he struggled to prove to himself he had sufficient authority over his underlings when he demanded the precinct save on energy costs, with Amy unable to prevent herself from laminating things and Gina simply defiant in her love for space heaters. It produced some good lines, but the conclusion was rushed and it wasn't up to the high standard of season 4 overall.
   And in the C-plot, Boyle introduced Rosa to one of his guilty pleasures: a foot massage parlour. It simply wasn't funny or engaging and was going absolutely nowhere until it suddenly became a money-laundering front. And while I moaned that they weren't turning it into a storyline, I'm also going to moan because they did: the storyline they chose was awful, predictable and made a hash of an already deplorable C-plot. C for effort here, ungraded for execution.

   VIEWERS: 2.31 (Back up to the mid 2m)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.0 (Stable)

VERDICT: Weak overall, as only the primary plot was on par with season 4 quality: the other 2 were either bad or indefensible. 7/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x10 "Captain Latvia"

"Charles worries when the rare toy he purchased for adopted son Nikolaj over a month ago hasn't arrived yet. The rest of the Nine-Nine battle the MTAs in a Christmas carol competition."

"Captain Latvia" suffered from the aftershock of the quality downshift that severely damaged "The Overmining" last week, but some of that was dispelled by the writers choosing to dispense with the C-plot and focus on two tighter, longer storylines. The A-plot was arguably Boyle's hunt for the Captain Latvia figurine that was being held up by the import company, which transpired to be a front for Latvian gun-runners. A police twist was necessary here since otherwise neither plot would have had anything case-related involved, but it felt like a similar trick to the Boyle plot last week in the massage parlour, and only bested it by virtue of being funny. The Jake-Boyle dynamic doesn't produce the strongest laughs, but it does produce laughs; add in feisty-dad Boyle and you have a fresh twist on a relationship which hasn't lose what was previously built. Also, props to the writers for actually giving Boyle's recently faceless partner Genevieve some screen time to remind us she is a real person.
   But the struggle to shake off "The Overmining"'s issues weighed down the B-plot, which was the rest of the Nine-Nine (bar Gina) battling it out in a carol competition with a rival police group, the Metropolitan Transit Authority. After delegating roles within the group (such as Amy to do basically nothing because she's talentless), and after realising that only Scully could sing well, the Nine-Nine hired one of their drunk prisoners to be their lead singer, only for it to go predictably wrong when he got stagefright when sober, and then insulted New York when drunk.
   In the end, both plots concluded heart-warmingly at Boyle's house when Scully, singing carols alone, was joined by the rest of the Nine-Nine, who promptly began to belt out a tuneless version of a carol I do not remember because my ears hurt. It wasn't very funny and didn't really play to many strengths of the characters, but it served the show's cause by digging out a fairly decent Christmas episode, and brought everyone together right at the end.
   VIEWERS: 2.19m (Hovering between 2m and the 2.3m it usually gets is stable and the best it's gonna get)

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.9 (Fractional, but not for the first time and has good stability)

VERDICT: Somewhere between the top episodes of season 4 and "The Overmining" in terms of quality. Isolating Jake and Amy in completely separate storylines just felt way too problematic here, where Christmas should have brought them together. 7.5/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x11 & 4x12 "The Fugitives Pt. 1 & 2"

"Nine fugitives escape when a prison bus is involved in a crash. Jake and Amy bet their living situation on who can capture the most escaped convicts, before Jake enlists the help of an old ally to capture the sole remaining escapee. Meanwhile, Terry struggles to deal with 'getting old' and Boyle is taught how to text properly."

Brooklyn Nine-Nine hyped up two things in the lead up to this two-part midseason finale: firstly, a guest star from NFL player Marshawn Lynch; and secondly, Doug Judy's return. Neither worked, although in fairness the punchlines given to Marshawn Lynch (his pronunciation of "quesedilla" and being over-talkative despite a closed-off image, which were seemingly unsurprising to audiences because they are already punchlines about Marshawn Lynch) went way over my head simply because I'd never heard of him.
   Doug Judy on the other hand ...
   I seem to dislike a lot of fan favourite characters on a lot of shows I watch (Michonne and Daryl, The Walking Dead; Carter, Person of Interest) and Doug Judy is no different. He's a Hallowe'en-esque guest-star-per-season special, but unlike the Hallowe'en episodes which can make interesting, funny and varied heists, the only facets to Doug Judy's character are A) he'll sing really annoyingly with Jake (which ironically proves Andy Samberg can't actually sing) and B) he'll probably betray them and maybe it'll turn out he'll unbetray them and actually be on their side. Which was what the writers tried to do here - again - and didn't manage to make it any more interesting than the first three times. And on top of that, the first part of the two-parter felt like filler to lead up to Doug Judy's introduction.
   The sideplots weren't much better either. Terry's concerns over his way of life and growing old at least represented a smooth cross-episode subplot, but didn't translate into humour very well and I imagine are probably just a way for the writers to incorporate Terry Crews' glasses so he has less trouble on set (I presume. I don't know if Terry Crews wears glasses).
   Boyle's text subplot - in which he was evicted from the Nine-Nine's group chat because of his over-texting - was the highlight of the episode. It was hilarious and I'm actually shocked it wasn't done sooner. Great punchlines, great interaction. While the rest of the episodes had punchlines in and around each seen, they weren't nearly as well-executed, and the text subplot will get lost in the quagmire of shit that was the season 4 winter finale.
   At least we had a surprising cliffhanger though as Gina, caught in the middle of the road reading one of Boyle's texts, was hit by a bus. Like it will have any real effect on her character anyway. An idiotic tease.
   Oh, and well done for remembering Jake and Amy are together. Fucking finally.

   VIEWERS: 3.44m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 1.3
   (Season highs by a huge margin. The New Year's Day/Doug Judy combination jump won't fool FOX executives, but it's still a plus for the season average and a season 5 renewal!)

VERDICT: Horseshit. 4/10 - and that's doubled from the original 2/10 only by virtue of Boyle's hilarious texting subplot.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x13 "The Audit"

"News arrives that due to lowering crime rates one Brooklyn police precinct will be closed following audits, however the Nine-Nine is audited by Amy's ex-boyfriend Teddy."

Brooklyn Nine-Nine returns to its brilliant fourth season after 3 months by having Gina return in the cold open after 2 months’ recovery, following her being hit by a bus. For the final week of her recovery she has to continue wearing a head and back brace, though she contends that her prior capabilities remain unimpaired, going so far as to prove this by dancing – and screaming in pain while she does so. It’s a funny scene, and a welcome piece of hilarity that clears up the shocking, uncharacteristic cliffhanger.

Gina tries to prove she is fine by dancing
despite being in traction

   Then into the next arc of the series: Brooklyn police precincts will be audited and one selected for closure. Unfortunately for the Nine-Nine, the auditor is Amy’s ex-boyfriend Teddy (last seen in season 2), who she maintains is the most boring man in America. Hijinks ensue as she and Jake try to sweet talk him round, but continually mess up by insulting him; oddly and despite this, Teddy tries to propose to Amy when he imagines her and Jake’s fake argument was real – directly in front of his own girlfriend. The inappropriateness was incredible; meanwhile, sidebars included Terry trying to fix a $21,000 photocopier CJ had bought and Boyle trying to get rid of the Nine-Nine’s rat problem using wolf urine and quickly getting stuck in the ventilation shafts, but both of these received very little attention.

   All of these hijinks culminated in Teddy recusing himself for lack of impartiality, only to be replaced by an ex of Terry’s, one who plays nice with the team but secretly promises Terry she will shut down the Nine-Nine.

   VIEWERS: 1.93m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7

VERDICT: You don't know you love something until you lose it, which is why Brooklyn Nine-Nine's return felt even better. It was a well-crafted episode too, if the side plots were a little rushed. 9/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x14 "Serve & Protect"

"Jake and Rosa investigate a theft on the set of their favourite TV show Serve & Protect. Meanwhile, Terry is questioned over why Veronica dislikes him, and Boyle and Holt attempt to blackmail the Deputy Commissioner."

Devereaux rejects the accusation he was the thief

Nathan Fillion's quite a big name. Booking him for a guest spot is quite a big deal. Having that guest spot consist of just 3 scenes in a 20-minute episode which professes that his character will disrupt the police investigation with his delusions of being a detective simply because he plays a detective on a canon show is ... well, it's nothing short of a travesty. How do you book a big name like Fillion and give him nothing to do?
   Props though for the twist that Devereaux, the character Fillion plays, was the thief: he was trying to have his female co-lead ousted from the show and thus stole her laptop so he could leak compromising images. Hmm. Fillion plays a character trying to get his female co-lead ousted from a show he stars in? Art really does imitate life.
   Beyond that, Veronica Hopkins continues to grade the 99 with a hateful bias stemming from a feud with Terry based on their break-up years ago. This creates a hilarious cold open and then an above-average B-plot where Amy and Gina interrogated Terry until they worked out why Veronica was mad. This was the funniest segment of the episode.
   The worst was Boyle and Holt's C-plot of blackmailing the Commissioner. It was cringeworthy for the odd instructions from Boyle on how Holt should insinuate blackmail, and really disrupted the episode's flow.

   VIEWERS: 1.91m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7

VERDICT: Boyle and Holt's C-plot was largely terrible, but the A- and B-plots were very good. I'll give it an 8.5/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x15 "The Last Ride"

"Jake and Boyle try to make their last case the best case ever. Holt tries to complete his 9-year mentoring plan for Amy. Terry is appalled when he realises Hitchcock holds the Nine-Nine record for most solves. Gina spends the final day pranking everyone by spiking drink and food with cement."

When you have an A. B. C and D plot to fit into 21 minutes of TV it's probably difficult to pull off, and with "The Lat Ride" there's an odd sense that it both did and didn't quite work. Sure, Amy's rushed mentoring by Holt didn't need any extra screentime devoted to it, but the rapidfire one-liners scene was a golden opportunity to really hit Holt's rigid disciplinarian notes and I feel like the writers instead went for some mid-range punchlines. Likewise, Terry's horror at discovering Hitchcock holds the Nine-Nine solve record and then Hitchcock adding to it was full of good Hitchcock-related gags, but the plot had more potential than time allowed.

The tattoo Hitchcock purchased, in which he "triumphantly
blows smoke from a fired gun".

   Typically, Jake's A-plot was the weakest for the simple reason it heavily featured Jake and Boyle, the pairing with perhaps the most chemistry but the least funny of all the pairings. That's not to say their plot wasn't good, but when every other plot was much funnier and more interesting it was hard to miss the divide in quality. It was also the only plot not troubled by Gina's cement drink pranks (the final scene does not count), a D-plot that really connected the precinct-based B- and C-plots.
   But perhaps crucially, we got more than just send-off plots, we had important backstory into the entire tenure of the Nine-Nine (mainly when you consider the fact that Hitchcock has the record for most solves). It was refreshing to delve a little into the Nine-Nine's history, even if we saw a horrifying truth.

   VIEWERS: 1.88m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7

VERDICT: An example of how Jake's centrality can detract from impressive plots. What we had was good but more could have been done. 8/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x16 "Moo Moo"

"When Terry feels racially profiled by a white police officer, he considers how he should handle it."

Brooklyn Nine-Nine's racially charged "Moo Moo" was everything the writers wanted it to be - aside from being funny, which is a thing they claimed they managed to achieve in the midst of sensitively handling their commentary on a pervasive and contemporary issue: racial profiling. That sensitive handling was exactly what they could have hoped it to be, with Holt eventually backing up Terry's decision to file a complaint against Officer Maldack (played by Desmond Harrington, Dexter).

Terry is arrested by Officer Maldack

   But elsewhere, Jake and Amy's side plot in looking after Terry's kids was just ... what? Sure it had a couple of hilarious moments, but Boyle's constant references to Jake and Amy making babies was annoying and if you wanted to know why Jake and Amy needed to babysit Terry's kids at all (which was because his wife was away), then you need to look to the press release because the episode completely ignores that that's a thing it should have explained.
   Oh, and if Charles is an unlicensed doula, that's new! So I guess the whole Nick Offerman as Holt's doctor ex-boyfriend thing in 3x08's "Ava" could have been averted by just having Charles present - which he was. Huh.

   VIEWERS: 1.71m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.6

VERDICT: Without trying to detract from a necessary message, the episode overall was poor. It wasted Desmond Harrington on two scenes, didn't explain it's side plot and forgot about how throwaway punchlines can create frustrating character inconsistencies. 6/10 is generous.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 2x12 "Beach House". Wait, I mean 4x17 "Cop-Con"

"The Nine-Nine head to a police convention and try to party under Holt's nose."

There's very little to say about "Cop-Con". It was a poor rehash of 2x12's "Beach House", where Holt comes along to an out-of-town location and the rest of the Nine-Nine try to party under his nose. It even made a nod to "Beach House" (in which Gina tried to find out what six-drink Amy was like), by revealing that eight-drink Amy was very into equestrianism. (Now we just need to know what seven-drink Amy is like.)
   But "Cop-Con" lacked the typical B99 belly laughs, proved why Jake is often the weak link in creating said belly laughs and failed to remember that Scully is married and therefore why is he getting a She-Scully? Admittedly, the episode stayed true to character, and that does make it a good advert for the show, but when the funniest part of an episode is Scully and Hitchcock (who are criminally underused and funnier than half of the main cast), you've put a pretty poor effort forwards.
   VIEWERS: 1.83m
   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7

VERDICT: Twenty minutes I felt I'd already seen. A rare blip on the season 4 scoresheet. 5/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x18 "Chasing Amy"

"Amy disappears hours before her Sergeant's exam. Terry and Holt war over whose model train set would be preferable to children. Gina is banished from the Boyle family."

Given B99's issues over the past two episodes with character continuity, it's fun that they've eased that somewhat by throwing in a number of hilarious throwbacks. Here, we had a reminder of Boyle and Gina's romantic tryst (a plot arc that simply can't be disliked), and mentions of the Boyle family trip to Aruba in 4x08. Holt and Terry's sideplot once again provided the main humour, as usual through Holt's unique love for everything insanely boring.
   Jake and Amy's main plot was typically Jamy: good but not great. Rosa provided the humour for that, with her constant remarks about Jake and Amy's character traits whilst Jake tried to find Amy in time for her Sergeant's exam. I hope they continue this along the road, and Amy passes and becomes a Sergeant: that would provide a new and necessary dimension to their relationship, and change things for Amy with everyone else too. I see a fun arc for season 5 if this is followed up on.
   Once again, however, Scully and Hitchcock stole the show. More Scully and Hitchcock, less Jake and Terry please.
   VIEWERS: 1.47
   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.6

VERDICT: Better than before but not by much. 6/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x19 "Your Honour"

"Holt assigns Jake to investigate the robbery of his childhood home. Amy tries to teach Gina how to change a tyre. Terry, Boyle and Rosa redecorate the break room."

Mother Holt!

Laverne and Raymond Holt

   It's been a long time coming but Holt's mother has finally appeared on the show. And while the episode hit all the best moments you could hope for between a mother-son pairing like the Holts (including Holt learning his mother Laverne was in a relationship), it didn't come with the kind of hilarious punchlines that would hurt your stomach. Neither, really, did any of the episode.
   Terry, Boyle and Rosa redecorating the break room gave rise to the Scully and Hitchcock package deal that steals the show every time, but the three decorators had nothing funny between them; likewise Amy accidentally slashing a random person's tyres instead of Gina's was good, but that was about it.

   VIEWERS: 1.70m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7

VERDICT: Wasted the most perfect concept with subpar punchlines and far too much Jake. Failed to land anything in the subplots either. 6/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x20 "The Slaughterhouse"

"Jake and Rosa compete for a position on a taskforce led by their hero. Terry and Boyle mediate Scully and Hitchcock's falling out. Holt loses Amy's favourite pen."

After four consecutive subpar episodes, "The Slaughterhouse" revitalised Brooklyn Nine-Nine just as the season heads towards its endpoint. It introduced the recurring arc of Lieutenant Melanie Hawkins, who after allowing both Jake and Rosa onto her team is, in fact, discovered by Jake as a dirty cop.
   It produced a fabulous and characteristic B-plot for Holt and Amy which not only references both their personalities in a funny manner, but also made sense in its timing: Holt trying to teach Amy to stand up for herself more often against him was good character development four years in.
   And, as ever, Scully and Hitchcock won the night as Terry and Boyle were forced to try to use parenting techniques to get the pair to make up after Scully ditched Hitchcock in favour of spending time with Cindy. I'm not a fan of Cindy since Scully was married in season 1 and there's been no change in that, but the entire C-plot made for the most wonderful of belly laughs.

   VIEWERS: 1.42m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.6

VERDICT: Refreshingly good across the board after 4 straight awful episodes. 8.5/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x21 "The Bank Job"

"Jake and Rosa infiltrate Lieutenant Hawkins' gang. Terry, Boyle and Amy try to figure out who Gina's baby daddy is."

Jake and Rosa go undercover as bank robbers

I did wonder if Brooklyn Nine-Nine could pull off the humour of a dirty cop arc and perhaps they didn't. The main plot was fairly funny but more enthralling simply for how the storyline unfolded. Of course, gambits such as Jake and Rosa talking to Holt at his razzmatazz class or them beating up Pimento to sell the illusion they are also dirty cops were very funny. Pimento added that perfect extra dimension to a plot that perfectly suited him - and coked up Pimento was even funnier. The biggest twist, however, was Hawkins flipping the script and arresting Jake and Rosa for the robberies. Hopefully that will set up a great final episode.
   In the side plot, Terry, Boyle and Amy's search for the identity of Gina's baby daddy was interesting. The necessity of following Gina allowed for some belly laughs from creepy Hitchcock, and the entrance of guest star Ryan Philippe was perfect against the backdrop of Boyle's insults about his character Milton Boyle being a troll. The downside is the leap we have to take from Gina being not pregnant to visibly showing in one episode. I understand they had wanted to answer for Chelsea Peretti's real-life pregnancy on-screen, but this was far too much of a leap.

   VIEWERS: 1.82m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.7

VERDICT: Entertaining, funny, some absolute cracking one-liners and a good cliffhanger as well. 8.5/10

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 4x22 "Crime & Punishment"

"Jake and Rosa are put on trial for bank robbery, but can they prove they are innocent?"

Everything about this episode was practically perfect. A hilarious newsflash cold open that encapsulates the characteristics of Rosa ("There is little to no public information about Detective Diaz") and Jake (who is considered to have been on the wrong side of the law for acting out at a magic show), while setting up the 15-year prison stretch if they are found guilty.

   From then on, it's just hilarity. Rosa plans to flee to Argentina to stay at Pimento's secret ranch, Boyle goes white-haired from the stress of Jake's situation, Terry hires hackers to track the banking info to Lieutenant Hawkins and Jake tries to convince an ex-member of Hawkins' team to help prove they are innocent. All of these plots were pretty hilarious and fit well into the storyline, but Terry's was the funniest, where he continually upset the hackers and so they kept revealing personal secrets. However, the strongest punchlines came from Jake (for once), as he continually made jokes about having robbed the banks within the earshot of the presiding judge.
   And we all knew a cliffhanger ending was coming, as Hawkins' ex-team member, Matthew Langdon, transpired to be in cohorts with her, and his damning testimony saw Jake and Rosa sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Thank God for a season 5 renewal.

   VIEWERS: 1.55m

   DEMOGRAPHIC SHARE: 0.6

VERDICT: Hilarious ending from start to finish. Great conclusion to the season with a compelling cliffhanger. 9/10

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

WEEK THREE --- Rosa Diaz: "Hey Figgis. My fiancé Adrian Pimento said when I caught you I should read you this letter. 'I wanna lick the skin off your body, baby.' Oh, that side's for me. 'I wanna rip the skin off your body, Jimmy'."

WEEK FOUR --- Terry Jeffords (on why night shifts are bad): "It's because you don't get to sleep, see your loved ones, feel the sun or do anything that brings you joy."

WEEK FIVE --- Captain Holt (attempting to psych out his competition): "I will slit you both open from mouth to anus and wear you like jackets."

WEEK TWELVE --- Gina: "Not to brag, but I was name-checked in my kindergarten teacher's suicide note."

WEEK THIRTY
Diaz: “Are [the auditors] gonna be looking in our desks? Also, unrelated, someone left a bunch of swords in my desk.”

Hitchcock: “I have a similar question about browser histories.”

Holt: “Just throw your computer away.”

WEEK THIRTY-SIX --- Hitchcock (on why he likes the film The Fault in Our Stars): "Teenage romance, dying chick, oxygen mask. Checks all my boxes."