So Why Aren't You Watching: Brooklyn 99?

I went into this year's fall TV season with a lot of enthusiasm; for the first time in years there were a wide number of things I wanted to watch, and I dove into them with delight.  Some disappointed me (the sadly odious "Back in the Game", which contains the wonderful Maggie Lawson but recycles its plot verbatim from the Bad News Bears with extra dollops of homophobia and racism; "Reign", which takes the compelling tale of Mary, Queen of Scots and adds ghost and the woefully miscast Megan Follows as Catherine Medici.).  But one absolutely soared to surprise me with its humor and humanity.

So why aren't you watching it?

A single-camera comedy set within a New York precinct, Brooklyn 99 follows a group of police officers at their jobs and on various cases.   Think the basic attitude and premise of Reno911! meeting the warmth and character depth of Parks and Recreation, minus Reno's pointed police-related satire and Parks' occasional, bracing draughts of bitterness.

Our lead is Andy Samberg's Jake Peralta, who is both a brilliant cop and an immature rulebreaker, yet deep down is a scarred, lonely kid putting on a front.  Other shows would  simply form the lives of the supporting characters  around Jake, with him being an enfant terrible at the center of the proceedings, but instead the show not only acknowledges his childishness but it even dares to point out that it's an unflattering quality.   Though the show's about Jake's learning to buckle down ostensibly, its also an ensemble comedy, and never does it forget that.

Jake's boss is Captain Ray Holt (played by the talented Andre Braugher), whose stone-faced demeanor makes him hard to read.  Captain Holt is gay and has been with his partner for years and this, he presumes is why he's never been given a higher rank and command even though he's qualified for it.   It's impossible not too root for him to both succeed and help Jake pull himself together.

They work with

* Suburbanized tough guy Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews) who, thanks to a breakdown in the line of duty has opted for a desk job.  Terry is both very comfortable within his new life and yet wants to break through his psychological block and rejoin the force.  He dotes on his daughters, and now he gets intense about farmers markets and impossible to put together toys instead of drug busts and police line ups.


* Charles Boyle (Jo Lo Truglio , who was actually on Reno911 in its dying days), the precinct's wide-eyed nice guy (And not a Nice Guy; he's the sort of guy who actually tries to accept it when Diaz tells him she's not interested), who has a crush on Diaz and hero-worships Jake.


* The straight-laced Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero), who is highly qualified and tries to do the Right Thing but is often defeated by her attempts at following the rules, setting up a natural conflict between her and Jake; the show isn't hitting any romantic anvils immediately for them, which is nice.  She desperately wants Captain Holt to mentor her but often finds herself tripping over her own words around him.


* Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz), the tough cop who never met an action flick she didn't like and refuses to smile on cue.


* And Gina Linetti (Chelsea Perettti), the lazy, sarcastic counterpoint to Diaz' violence and Santiago's more mild-mannered personalities.


This show is wildly diverse and guess what?  It avoids stereotypes, drawing richly from the character's established backstories to form plots and season-long threads.  All of the women on the show are distinct and definably different, an accomplishment in of itself; there's effort and thought put into them that makes the show shine comedically.  Captain Holt is a terrific character, and Terry - dealing with his PTSD the only way he knows how - is a lovable guy, an easy-to-root for one, too.

If you love this sort of workplace comedy - one that somehow harkens back to Barney Miller without losing any of its modern edge - then try to catch up before the Superbowl; if it fails that test, then it won't be long for this world.