Every sitcom focused on humor can only tread the path for so long. Constantly and relentlessly trying to make audiences laugh can make a show monotonous. This is exactly why a show needs to have some element of seriousness or drama. Here we look at the best episodes of the hit show Brooklyn 99:
The Tagger
Norm Hiscock did a splendid job writing the script for this one. When Jake and Holt uncover the dirtbag teen vandalizing NYPD squad cars with wieners”—that solidified not just the characters populating the 9-9, but also their central interpersonal dynamics.
Cheddar
Holt’s epic journey to return home, cut with the whole squad’s epic journey to find Cheddar, cut deeper with Rosa and Pimento’s really weird, really intense paperwork-based flirtation, cut deeper still with Cheddar’s really chill day trotting around the neighborhood, eating leftover soft-serve, all wrapped up with Holt’s moment of emotional epiphany and vulnerability about the state of his marriage, makes for a watch that is both funny and emotionally satisfying.
The Swedes
“The Swedes,” written by Matt Murray and directed by Eric Appel, is a cousin to the intradepartmental competitive tradition of “Sal’s Pizza” and “USPIS,” but is set apart in this list both because the detectives Jake and Rosa are competing with—Anders Holm and Riki Lindhome as creepily close Swedish (“Swedish”) Interpol agents—are from abroad, and because the central conflict is less the case the two teams are working together (sort of) to solve, and more the interpersonal dynamic between Jake and Rosa as friends.
Moments:
