Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-star Andre Braugher said the way police officers are presented on television needs to change in the wake of Black Lives Matter calls for reform.
Braugher told Entertainment Weekly's The Awardist podcast, "It's a very complicated subject, but I think they have to be portrayed much more realistically, in terms of this: The convention ... that police breaking the law is okay because somehow it's in the service of some greater good, is a myth that needs to be destroyed."
He continued, "We're going into an eighth season with a new challenge which is that everyone's knowledge and feelings about police ... have been profoundly affected. What we have from [creator] Dan [Goor] is a commitment to write a smart show that will not attempt to hide itself in a fantasy. So the Nine-Nine is going to have to deal with what we know about the New York Police Department."
Braugher co-stars as Capt. Raymond Holt, the straitlaced moral center of a band of goofy detectives. Brooklyn Nine-Nine moved to NBC in 2019 after five seasons on Fox.
Created in 2013 by Dan Goor and Michael Schur, Brooklyn Nine-Nine stars Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher, Stephanie Beatriz, Joe Lo Truglio, Terry Crews, Dirk Blocker and Joel McKinnon Miller. The show will air its eighth season on NBC at a yet-to-be-determined date.