“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (7:30 p.m. Central Tuesdays on Fox) has an all-crazy all-the-time vibe that makes it a nice companion to the similarly off-the-wall “New Girl” and “The Mindy Project” in Fox’s Tuesday comedy lineup. Although it’s from “Parks and Recreation” creators Dan Goor and Michael Schur, there’s no similar sense of civic earnestness with “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” It doesn’t aim to remotely resemble a real-world police precinct, and that’s the right choice. (Although it’s clearly a parody, “Parks and Rec” is more grounded due to Leslie’s passion for small-town government.)
If one wanted to take this show too seriously, they could say that the competition between detectives Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) and Amy Santiago (Melissa Furnero) is irresponsible in this era when some police departments have been exposed as having arrest quotas. Jeffords (Terry Crews) crazily shooting up a department-store manikin is arguably in poor taste considering the number of news stories about bystanders getting shot in police chases. And sending three high-ranking detectives on one stakeout of one murder suspect is an inaccurate reflection of reality, which is always on a tighter budget than a TV show.
However — as evidenced by the sequence where Jake and Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio) go after a supermarket owner for a murder where ham was the motive — it’s clear that “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” doesn’t intend to give us serious, realistic cases; it wants everything to be a joke. By that sequence’s end, the clumsy Boyle is covered in food. That’s an example of the simple but effective humor in the pilot episode. A running gag in the pilot is Jake’s refusal to go along with Captain Holt’s (Andre Braugher) dress code. Jake wraps a tie around his stomach, then later is immaculately dressed above the waist — but is wearing a Speedo.
The characters are likable and distinct right out of the gate. The contrast between Samberg and Braugher — essentially reprising his commanding “Last Resort” acting style — is funny even before any lines are spoken. The idea of the mousy Boyle trying to land a classic-movie date with the ultra-tough Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz) is absurd, but the fact that she stunningly says yes makes the gag take off. Diaz keeps Boyle, and viewers, off balance as the joke plays out, telling him she hates “Citizen Kane.” “OK, I’ll just pick a movie better than … ‘Citizen Kane,’ ” Boyle says to himself.
Along with the unstable Jeffords and the wannabe-tough Santiago, the precinct is rounded out by Gina (Chelsea Peretti), the wry office observer with a twisted fantasy life. She imagines the details of a sexual encounter between Jake and Santiago, prompting two deadpan “That’s enough Gina”s from Holt.
“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” has pretty much nailed the tone. Next, it needs to land jokes more consistently, as it’s not yet in the same league as “New Girl” or “The Mindy Project.” (On the other hand, the premiere is actually better than the pilot episodes of those two shows.) Time will tell if “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” rounds out an all-star 90-minute block, or if it goes the way of last year’s promising newcomer, “Ben and Kate,” and fizzles out after a few weeks. Because of the cast’s chemistry and the fact that it knows what show it wants to be, I’m betting on the former.
