Andy Samberg

September 29, 2014

“Sometimes things are just out of your control.”

Last night, Once Upon a Time, Revenge and Brooklyn Nine-Nine came back to our TV screens, and finally, it feels like fall. Those are my Sunday night shows (until next week when Bob’s Burgers returns — should I recap that show? I only discovered it this summer but it’s practically flawless, so I’m considering it) but I don’t feel qualified to cover the first two, mostly because I don’t take them seriously enough to pay close attention. It’d be like if your grandmother was recapping Revenge for you: “And then the one with the pretty hair talked to the tall man who always wears colors, and both of them cried for some reason.” No one wants that.

I’m still not thrilled with Brooklyn’s move to Sunday nights, as they’re already chock full of other well-established shows (and football) on other channels, and I’m worried it’s misplaced in a mostly-animation lineup, but time and ratings will tell. Let’s hope for the best!

True story: I have the first season of Brooklyn loaded on my phone. I take my dog on walks and listen to that show instead of music because that’s just how I roll. I did this all summer. I never got tired of it. I’m still not tired of it. Needless to say, I had high expectations for this premiere, and I’m pleased to report that it did not disappoint. Not even a little.

 

**This post contains spoilers for episode 2.01 of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, “Undercover.”**

We open after a six-month time jump, where Jake’s still deeply undercover. He gets kissed by a bunch of old men, his hair is amazing, he’s got this affecting accent, and really, he seems to be in his element. Vice work can be wearing, and I know it’s only his first job, but Jake’s got the kind of personality that adapts really well depending on the situation, so I’ll be a little surprised if vice isn’t something he seriously considers at some point later on.

It turns out he’s orchestrated a bust on a big family wedding, and after he utters the code words (“dry meatballs”) a joint FBI-NYPD task force invades the wedding and arrests all of the criminals in attendance. Jeffords is the one who apprehends Jake and throws him into the surveillance van, and Jake, with his usual mix of genuine affection and snark, hugs Captain Holt and mutters, “I’ve missed us.” And credits!

 

Boyle is beside himself when Jake returns to the 99, and once again, Jake is adorably unrestrained when he talks about how much he missed everyone. Turns out he only missed three things in his absence: Terry chipped his tooth and had a lisp for a week, Santiago and Boyle wore the same outfit to work one day, and headphones were banned from the office due to “the Gina incident.” They’re all accompanied by flashbacks which are hilarious and make me really glad this show never abandoned the flashback format. Jake recaps his absence in twelve seconds, sans flashback: “Fixed a boxing match, smoked a whole cigar without vomiting, was once in a room with ten guys named Sal, and missed you all so very much!”

But things are tense at the precinct for a number of reasons, and Jake addresses one of them head on when he asks Amy for a private word. He fakes her out at first: “I have to ask, did you arrest a perp named Joe Uterus?” It breaks the tension wonderfully as Amy fills him in on Joe Uterus, but then Jake gets down to business and brings up the thing he said to her at the end of last season, about liking her. She quickly tells him she’s still with Teddy, “romantic stylez,” and Jake immediately retreats and covers his ass juvenile-stylez by saying that he didn’t mean any of it, he was just nervous about going undercover. It seems to break Amy’s heart a little bit, but she also seems to know he’s lying. There’s no way she didn’t spend those entire six months thinking about that night.

 

Meanwhile, the other source of tension at the precinct comes directly from Holt, who is putting his detectives through constant drills. This consists of making Terry wear a dry-erase board around his neck describing a citizen in need of assistance. The examples are hilarious.

 

“Unattended backpack” was my personal favorite because it was just Terry sitting there all curled up, defiantly hissing “tick tick tick!” at the squad. Sometimes I think they misuse his potential for physical humor, choosing to have him Hulk-out and destroy Lego buildings or princess castles, when he’s actually really funny in this context. This humongous guy is curled up next to a trash can at the back of a room, that’s hilarious to me.

These drills have already passed Rosa’s admittedly small threshold of patience, and after Amy successfully solves the case of the Confused Old Woman only to be immediately presented with a 7-year-old boy, she snaps as well. They ask the captain why he keeps running these drills — even Terry doesn’t know why — and Holt gives them the ol’ because-I-said-so.

Rosa and Amy try to comfort the 7-year-old, but Rosa tells Sarge to drop the act when Holt’s not around.

Terry: “You can drop your butt!”
Rosa: “YOU CAN DROP YOUR BUTT!”

Terry wrecks the Lego stables they were building, and Rosa decides to get him a bouncy castle as a giant middle finger to Holt, who is practically snarling when he finds them and deflates the bouncy castle.

Holt demands an apology, but Terry defends his actions, saying the squad is stressed out because they don’t know why they’re doing the drills. It turns out there’s going to be a new NYPD commissioner, which means they’ll be under a microscope. He’s not getting any information from his superiors, and it’s had Holt very stressed out, to the point that his husband hasn’t seen him smile in weeks. Terry points out that his squad feels the same way he does since they don’t know what’s going on, either.

 

The last source of tension is the secret between Gina and Boyle, the one I constantly forget: they slept together at the end of last season. Boyle’s not exactly a vault of secrets — remember last season when he gave away Babylon to Scully and Hitchcock after only a minute of questioning? — but he doesn’t want to tell this one because, “I don’t want to be known as the office slut!” But he admits that he tells Jake everything, so really, it’s just a matter of time. This prompts Gina to go ahead and accept her new social status; she sits with Scully and Hitchcock at lunch, and she dons a naked molerat sweater (“God’s disgusting mistake!”) because that is her spirit animal now.

Unfortunately, Jake finds out that one of the mafiosos, Freddy, got away during the sting, and Freddy’s one of the worst guys: “Extortion, terrible breath, murder! … I put ‘terrible breath’ too high on that list.” He impulsively decides to go back undercover (see? Cut out for vice work) to try to smoke Freddy out, but Holt doesn’t think they’ll trust Jake. But Jake disagrees. “Me and those guys went through some pretty intense stuff.” Cut to Jake and three other guys singing, yep, Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” at karaoke. “Once you Joel together, you’re bonded for life.”

Both Holt and the FBI agent advise Jake to let this go, and Holt adds, “Sometimes things are just out of your control.” But Jake can’t handle that, because he’s on a bit of a spiral. He spent six months working on this case, and in the meantime, deep down, he probably thought Amy was waiting for him. Coming back and seeing that she’s still with Teddy and that Jake spent those six months lonely and missing her (and everyone else), it makes him feel like he’s losing control. He glances back at Amy, then tells Holt, “Not good enough.” He latches onto the one thing he thinks he can control: detaining Freddy Bad Breath.

He enlists Boyle’s help with going back undercover, but Boyle has important questions first: “When you were undercover, did you have a mafia best friend?” Jake says he did a bunch of jobs with a guy named Derek, but his detached tone is lost on Boyle, who can’t hide his jealousy. They plan a ruse to find out where Freddy’s hiding, and it involves Boyle punching Jake in the face, which Boyle is hesitant to do. Jake tells him to just imagine he’s someone Boyle hates, and Boyle growls, “Derek!” and it’s one of the cuter friendship moments they’ve ever had.

Jake successfully gets an address for where Freddy might be hanging out, but Boyle freaks out and punches him and knees him in the balls. He ends up at one of Freddy’s girlfriend’s apartments, played by Jenny Slate, who holds Jake at gunpoint. Boyle busts in like a badass and defuses the situation, and after some questioning, Bianca tells them that Freddy’s heading to catch a flight to Barbados. Jake gets to the airport an hour too late; Freddy’s gone.

He’s dejected, and there’s something about a maggot drawer that seriously grossed me out, and Boyle tries to pep him up by saying “You did everything you could. Sometimes there’s stuff you just can’t control.” Jake likes this new forthright version of Boyle, who insists that Jake should be proud, and that they should go get a drink, “Because there’s a surprise party, and it’s my job to get you to the bar!” Whoops.

At the bar, Jake demands Holt give him a speech, and it’s a sweet thing:

“Your six month absence was noted. Drinks are on me. There’s a two drink maximum per person. It is non-transferable. Your guests will pay their own tab. Valet parking is not included. Tomorrow’s briefing will be fifteen minutes earlier than usual. And I’m very proud of you, Peralta. We missed you.”

Aww. That was so emotional. (I’m imagining that same speech delivered by Craig from Parks and Rec and now I can’t stop laughing.)

Jake brings Amy a drink that is champagne, 30-year-old scotch, top shelf tequila, and olive juice. “Captain set a two-drink max, but he did not set a price limit. Smart!” It’s gross. It sounds gross and it is gross.

 

Heartened by Boyle’s boldness and sage advice that some things are out of his control, Jake confesses that he lied earlier about his feelings. He meant every word he said that night. It gets Amy upset, because what does he expect her to say to that? And he says, “I don’t wanna hold anything back.” Amy accepts this gracefully, so long as they’re clear that “I’m with someone and nothing’s going to happen.” Jake waits a beat, then says, “I’m with someone, nothing’s going to happen, name of your sex tape.”

This sets up an interesting dynamic of having Jake’s feelings out there and Amy’s still repressed. I’m curious how they’re going to play this one out. Ideally, they’ll just fall back into their normal rhythm for a while, and we’ll get glimpses of Jake’s longing looks, but he won’t be pushy or tease Amy about Teddy. I so want this show to get this right, because they seemed to learn from their Boyle/Diaz near-debacle and backed off of that, so they seem to have their finger on the pulse.

Speaking of Boyle, he tells Gina that he didn’t spill their secret to Jake because he didn’t want to hurt her feelings, “because I’m terrified of you and what you’ll do to me!” She’s touched by that, and they clink glasses and say, “Sounds like our nightmare is finally over.”

Cut to them waking up in bed together again. Wacky! And a good change of pace for both characters.

February 5, 2014

“There’s no one funnier than Ray Holt.”

Brooklyn Nine-Nine won the coveted post-Super Bowl spot this past Sunday (after an all new New Girl, brought to you by Prince and the Ford Fusion, apparently) less than a month after the show won two Golden Globes. That kind of means that if you’re not watching this show by now, you’re really missing out.

This post contains spoilers for episode 1.16 of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, “The Party.”

While the post-Super Bowl episode, entitled “Operation: Broken Feather,” gave us a cameos by Adam Sandler and football great Joe Theismann, the focus was mostly on the budding relationship between Jake and Amy. Amy was considering interviewing for Major Crimes, the department where Jake’s archnemesis, The Vulture, works, which offended Jake on a personal level. Ultimately, he admitted to Amy that he’s at his best when he works with her, and we inch ever closer to the inevitable romance between the two detectives. There was also a B-plot involving Captain Holt and Sergeant Jeffords attempting to manipulate the staff into working more efficiently to make quotas, which ended up backfiring. It was a very funny episode, but it wasn’t exactly daring in plot construction or characterization (and note to Adam Sandler: less is more).

Tuesday’s episode, “The Party,” was arguably Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s best episode. It’s Captain Holt’s birthday, and his husband is throwing him a party, and some of the detectives are on a mission: Jake, to get the Captain’s husband, Kevin, to like him; Amy, to do recon on the Captain for future bonding purposes; and Terry, to make sure all of the detectives don’t embarrass himself and Holt in a social gathering. Spoiler alert: none of their missions go well. But they’re all hilarious.

Terry forces everyone into an “Adult Parties” meeting (Jake: “Adult parties? Sergeant, I believe they’re called ‘orgies.’”) where he gives them a set of basic rules: no staring at their phones, be on time, and no sweatpants, jeans, or shorts. “And everyone bring a bottle of wine.”

Cut to that night, as the group waits for Jake across the street from Holt’s house. Amy’s waxing poetic about the neighborhood (Terry: “Keep it in your pants, Santiago!”) when Jake runs up, thirty-five minutes late, because he was buying a bottle of wine.

It turns out, they all brought Arkansas’s finest wine to the party. Scully also wore shorts. (“Sarge, it’s not my fault, you said so many things about shorts, I got confused!”)

 

Amy gets awkward as soon as they get into the party. She takes pictures in Holt’s kitchen, making note that he has ingredients for hummus, but Jeffords confiscates her phone. Her recon proves to be fruitless: later, when she asks Holt’s opinions on hummus, he says he has no thoughts about it. She’s crushed, but she’s so determined to get some inside info that she sneaks into Holt’s bedroom.

That’s not nearly as bad as Jake’s attempts to get into Kevin’s good graces. All police talk is banned in the house, and as Jake later tells Amy, “Gruesome murders are the cornerstone of my charm!” He recalls reading an article in The New Yorker when he was in the dentists chair, so he uses that to try to start a conversation with Kevin, but it becomes clear that Jake didn’t really read the article about human trafficking. He ends up on a quest to find a copy of The New Yorker, which he is convinced is in the master bathroom, aka “the crap library!”

Jeffords fails on his mission too. Boyle spills food on himself in the first four minutes of the party, so he holds an impromptu meeting in the corner of the party, where he gives everyone assignments. Boyle is instructed to talk about food (“That’s great stuff, so boring!”) while Amy is told to talk about art history. Scully, “Opera,” with no further explanation, and Hitchcock: “Nothing. Talk about nothing.” Rosa is to stick with Gina to make sure she doesn’t say anything crazy or steal, and Jake: “Keep a low profile, chuckle at anecdotes, try not to start any conversations.” Jake’s outraged that he’s getting Hitchcocked, so of course he ignores that.

 

Jeffords then goes around the party trying to keep everyone in line (“Stop eating crab wrong!”) before he’s caught hiding in the master bathroom with Jake and Amy. While hiding, they find out the real point of contention between Holt and his husband: Kevin didn’t want to invite any cops to the party, and Raymond had made Kevin invite his employees. Unfortunately, that’s when Gina has an allergic reaction to Holt’s pet corgi.

The only person who actually excels at being a party guest is Boyle, who falls in love with a cookbook author named Vivian. He ends up making out with her in a closet. Who would’ve guessed?

The next day, Jake uses his detective skills to figure out that Kevin resents all cops because of how his husband has been treated by the NYPD over the years. After sixteen episodes of us taking the precinct’s acceptance of Holt for granted, it’s a subtle but poignant reminder that Holt hasn’t had it easy. This new crop of detectives don’t bat an eye at Holt’s sexual orientation (in fact, Jake’s relentless teasing of Holt usually focuses on his stoicism, and no one else takes those sorts of shots at the Captain) but as Raymond’s husband, Kevin’s got a long memory. He dislikes cops, because Raymond has been “marginalized, underappreciated, and disrespected by the NYPD.”

Jake gets the team together to give Holt the birthday he deserved: a nice dinner out at a restaurant with his husband. (Amy picked the restaurant, Boyle picked the menu, Terry picked the champagne, Gina returns the silverware she stole at the party the night before, Scully serenades them with opera music, and Jake promises not to talk about The New Yorker ever again.) It’s good, in hindsight, that Kevin was so relentless with his “needling” of Peralta, because it didn’t come from a place of elitism or derision, it was simply his way of vetting his husband’s top employee. Similarly, it’s nice of Jake to smooth things over for his team and for his captain, because it has to be hard on Holt to love his job and the people he works with, and then go home to someone who has nothing but contempt for it. Hopefully this makes his life just a little bit easier.

Other highlights:

“Oh, man! All the orange soda spilled out of my cereal!”

“In high school, I was voted Most Appropriate.” “Ooh, self-burn! Those are rare!”

Everything regarding how funny everyone finds Holt. “There’s no one funnier than Ray Holt.” / “Needling him a new suit? Even when we’re arguing, you’re hilarious! Stop it!”

“I am flummoxed! That’s a word I learned for this party, and I am it!”

And finally:

 

January 14, 2014

The 71st Annual Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s Lee Daniels’ The Butler Golden Globe Awards

On Sunday night, everyone in the film and TV industry except for Woody Allen gathered together for the 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards. They were hosted by Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, who were hosting for the second year in a row, and they did not disappoint. We here at WWFTP only watch awards in a cursory way; I’m pretty sure Moff didn’t even tune in, Becca only saw a portion of it, and I watched for the Amy-and-Tina of it all. While our Twitter feeds exploded with happiness (Leonardo di Caprio) and rage (something about Jennifer Lawrence not deserving her second GG?) from people who were watching this show for the actual awards (I know, crazy right?!) I will give you highlights of the show itself. Spoiler alert: I loved basically everything.

Let’s start with Tina and Amy’s best jokes:

 

There’s so much truth to that one that it might be the one joke everyone remembers about this show in 20 years.

 

JLaw’s reputation as a good sport endures. But they weren’t done:

 

Can we all agree that the real Amy and Tina look amazing in these gifs? Particularly when they called Matt Damon a “garbage person”:

But that’s probably because I’m not a fan of Matt Damon. They also gossiped about the father of Kerry Washington’s baby.

I kinda can’t wait to use this as a reaction gif one day. But my favorite Amy joke:

 

They also did a gag where Amy dressed up as Tina’s son from a previous relationship. His name was Randy, he was Mr. Golden Globes, and he was not happy to be there.

 

Kevin Bacon was not prepared to handle these two ladies that night.

Also, I can’t find gifs of the various times they messed up Tom Hanks’ name (Tam Honks) but that was one of my favorite bits.

Then there was the joke to cap off the night:

Leo was like:

He was in a good mood because he finally won an award for some movie where the f-word was used a record number of times. People keep repeating that fact like it’s the only notable aspect of the movie so here I am repeating it again.

But before I move on from the night’s hosts, AMY POEHLER WON A GOLDEN GLOBE FOR HER PORTRAYAL OF LESLIE KNOPE ON PARKS AND RECREATION!

 

The Mother of Dragons and that guy who played Robin presented it to her, but Amy was preoccupied with making out with Bono.

And the cast was so happy for her!

Even Larry was excited for her!

You’re always a winner in our hearts, Amy, but it’s nice that you’re finally getting the recognition you deserve.

And finally, Tina took a moment to congratulate her bestie:

 

Awww, that’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.

But for me, there was one obvious snub:

Oh Tatiana. You deserved that award. But at least she went in with realistic expectations, and her nomination has gotten Orphan Black some good recognition. Plus, she was one of us on the red carpet:

@emilyzemler: I asked my favorite @tatianamaslany to take a selfie on the Globes carpet so here’s her and Mike Tyson

But my real hero and idol was Emma Thompson.

Drink in one hand, shoes in the other, PLEASE BE MY BEST FRIEND.

 

Also, two of my favorites were together again.

Speaking of JLaw:

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#GoldenGlobes were a blast

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I was also pleased that some of the Avengers made appearances.

 

Begging the age-old question: Robert Downey Jr, or Tony Stark?

This was Mark Ruffalo in the audience when RDJ first walked out:

But he also presented an award, so that we could have a gif of him making this face:

Weirdly, Cap was the only one rocking facial hair:

And finally, my second-favorite Avenger was there for his nominated movie, Rush.

ADORABLE. He also did the blurb for his movie onstage, but I can’t seem to find gifs of that, so you’ll have to use your imagination.

Not in attendance was Jeremy Renner, even though his movie American Hustle got an award.

There was also this weird moment:

And the part where Diane Keaton got up there and talked about how great Woody Allen was even though he doesn’t attend award shows:

She sang a song we all sang in Girl Scouts, and basically if she wasn’t Diane Keaton we would all think it was weird, but she’s Diane Keaton so we just went along with it.

But perhaps the most surprising part of the night was when Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which I’ve told you to watch, won TWO Golden Globes! Andy Samberg won one for his role as Jake Peralta, and the show itself won for Best Comedy (beating out Parks and Recreation, which made it a double-edged sword for me). Most people were excited about this:

But I was excited to see the whole cast onstage.

Breaking Bad won some stuff too, but we don’t watch that show so all we could do was be happy for the friends who do. Also, this:

That’s about it for our recap. Until the Oscars! (Spoiler: I won’t have watched any of the nominated movies by then, either.)

December 5, 2013

Are you watching Brooklyn Nine Nine?

I have a confession: I have not yet written about my favorite new show of the Fall 2013 season. Part of it was because I was torn between three shows: Back in the Game, Trophy Wife, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Sadly, one of those shows has been cancelled (I’ll miss you, Back in the Game! You were just getting good!) but the other two were picked up for full seasons. Mary is already talking about Trophy Wife every week (she has a thing for Bradley Whitford… but then again, who doesn’t?) so the absence of Brooklyn Nine-Nine on our blog was starting to feel conspicuous. How could I proclaim it as my favorite new show if I’m not even writing about it?

So now, what I want to do is convince you to watch this show. I’ve talked to countless people whose responses are always, “Oh, it has Andy Samberg? He’s funny but I don’t know if I want to watch a show where he’s the star…” I guess Samberg built a reputation as being a bit of a ham, a guy whose characters are always dominating scenes. That’s fair, no one wants to tune in to a show where a guy runs around being cartoonish and talking loudly, but I’m telling you, this show is not like that. I’m a fan of Samberg, and even I was surprised by his restraint in the pilot. If he’s your main reason for not giving this show a shot, I’m begging you, please give it at least an episode. Preferably two. Or all of them, if you have the time.

 

The show is set in the fictional 99th precinct of Brooklyn, one which had been a bit of a zoo before the new captain, Ray Holt, arrives at the precinct to whip everyone into shape. The police work is secondary to the character interactions, but not in a way that demeans actual police officers; rather, it focuses on the lighthearted side of being an investigator. The criminals are often funny, but not too cartoonish, and the episodes never feel too procedural.

Let’s meet the characters!

 

First, there’s Detective Jake Peralta, played by Andy Samberg. He’s pretty young for a detective (so are Santiago and Diaz, for that matter) and he’s good at his job, which also makes him cocky. He’s been pretty open about his father leaving his mother when he was young, which plays into his need to always be the best at everything.

 

Captain Ray Holt (Andre Braugher) is the new captain of the 99th, a rank that took him a long time to attain thanks to prejudice in the department about gay officers. He’s married to a man named Kevin, and besides acknowledging that he’s gay, Holt is very private about his personal life. He’s intent on making the 99 the best precinct in Brooklyn, which means he has to try to rein in Peralta when he gets too ridiculous.

 

Peralta’s direct competition is Detective Amy Santiago, an unapologetic brownnoser who has seven brothers, so she’s always trying to prove how tough she is. Somehow, Santiago is charming instead of annoying, probably because she’s so earnest in her desire to be Holt’s favorite, and she never does it in such a way that she has to sabotage other detectives in order to be recognized. She is played by Melissa Fumero.

 

Detective Rosa Diaz, played by Stephanie Beatriz, is tough-as-nails and no-nonsense. She only smiles when someone screws up, otherwise she goes about her work as a bit of a loner. She’s often abrasive and lacks the people skills to carry on any sort of small talk, but she often shows compassion in small ways.

The hilarious Joe Lo Truglio plays Detective Charles Boyle, who is Jake’s hype man (oftentimes he’ll walk by and cheer “Go Jake!” without any sort of context) and a divorcee who is nursing a major crush on Rosa. He runs a foodie blog, where he ranks Brooklyn’s top pizza places (among other things) and his readership includes Captain Holt himself. He’s teased by Gina, the administrator, for being out of Rosa’s league, but that doesn’t stop Boyle from hoping. His best scenes are with Jake and with Sergeant Jeffords.

 

Terry Crews plays Sergeant Terry Jeffords, who is on light duty for the first half of the season due to a nervous breakdown shortly before the show started. He has twin baby girls, Cagney and Lacey, and ever since they were born, he’s lost his edge. He also used to be overweight when he worked with Captain Holt at another precinct, where he’d earned the name “Terry Titties.” These days, he’s got an alter ego known as “Scary Terry,” who always says what real Terry is thinking. Terry is arguably the most quotable character on the show.

Chelsea Peretti plays Gina Linetti, administrator-turned-assistant. She has a lot of good lines, but she has vocal fry (or her character has vocal fry, it’s hard to tell) which makes her irritating to listen to. She’s frequently mean, and even when she seems to do nice things (like in the Thanksgiving episode) it turns out that she was trying to do something mean and wasn’t expecting a good outcome. The fact that she’s hard to listen to and that she seemingly possesses no redeeming qualities (other than being funny) makes her seem expendable. Her brand of humor is at the expense of other characters, which is effective for bit scenes, but not as a cornerstone of an episode. I think people were fans of her before the show (she has a successful podcast and has worked on other TV shows) so maybe that’s part of her appeal. I hope she grows on me, but I think something’s gotta change.

 

Hitchcock and Sully are two incredibly ineffective (and often disgusting) veteran detectives, played by Dirk Blocker and Joel McKinnon Miller, respectively. They’re both pretty great in their own ways, especially when they’re together.

 

This show decided early on that it was going to rotate the character interactions from episode to episode. The relationship between Holt and Peralta is central, but not dominant, as they deliver some consistently funny and real moments together. Holt was actually a lot like Peralta when he was a young detective–brash, braggy, and overconfident–which is why he works so hard to keep Peralta in line now. Peralta, conversely, works to break through Holt’s professional barrier just because he likes a challenge. It creates an interesting push and pull between the two.

The tentative friendship between Rosa and Amy is my second favorite dynamic of this show. These two ladies are talented, intuitive, and wildly different in personality, but their one shared trait is that they’re both women in a male-dominated profession (and precinct). Early on, Amy competed with Rosa the same way she competed with everyone else (and thank goodness they haven’t competed over a man, I hope this show never stoops to that level) but eventually Rosa pointed out that they should have each other’s backs. I think that’s wonderful, and I look forward to seeing more of their odd friendship.

 

It’s possible that Jake is in love with Amy. The great thing about them is that most of their scenes focus on professional collaboration, and any of their bickering or teasing usually stems from their personal competition. They have some cute scenes together, but it’s nothing too overbearing or bordering on the “will-they-won’t-they” that a lot of other shows would’ve leaned on by now. I think the main appeal of this show is that it’s a half-hour sitcom that doesn’t depend on a central romance to propel the storylines.

Boyle has great interactions with everyone: he’s Jake’s #1 fan, he’s in love with Rosa, he’s a good collaborator with Amy, and his conversations with Terry are highlights.

 

Terry, similarly, has great scenes with everyone, even Gina, who openly lusts after him.

 

Finally, the cases themselves are competent without being too dark or serious. The best part are the callbacks to Holt’s early days as a detective in the 70’s, when he caught killers with great names, such as “The Disco Strangler” and “The Freestyle Killer.” A handful of cases require Peralta to ask the team for help, resulting in some pretty great group scenes.

I can’t recommend this show enough. Have I convinced you to watch it? If not…