Beloved comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine has always been "the little show that could." Originally passed over by NBC, it aired on Fox for five seasons before being canceled in 2018, only for NBC to pick it up shortly after. The misadventures of the goofy yet lovable detectives of Brooklyn's 99th precinct will now end for real with a shortened Season 8, which is set to debut in the 2021-2022 television season. However, although this news is no doubt disappointing for the series' faithful viewers, now is the right time for Brooklyn Nine-Nine to call it a day.
As excited as many people are for Brooklyn Nine-Nine to return, there's a dark cloud hanging over its head. In the wake of George Floyd's death and the global Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests of 2020, many called for an overhaul of the ways films and TV shows portray police officers, especially when it comes to addressing police violence and racism. The Brooklyn Nine-Nine cast and crew quickly responded by donating $100,000 to to the National Bail Fund Network and voicing their support for BLM. What's more, showrunner Dan Goor and his writers threw out their initial scripts for Season 8 to start over from scratch.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine costar Andre Braugher has acknowledged the challenge the series is facing, admitting police need to be "portrayed much more realistically" on television moving forward. Thing is, by ending the show now, Brooklyn Nine-Nine's writers has greater room to truly payoff whatever BLM-inspired storyline they've come up with in a lasting and meaningful way. After all, for all the critical acclaim the series earned when it dealt with racial profiling in Season 4's "Moo Moo," the episode's narrative didn't really have a noticeable impact on the show's characters and was never properly followed up.
By comparison, because there's no longer a need for the series to keep the door open for additional seasons, Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 8 can explore issues related to the BLM movement in a manner that has significant consequences, both in terms of the larger plot and how it affects the lives of everyone's favorite goofball detectives. Helping matters, many of the show's main characters are at a point where their lives are undergoing dramatic changes anyway. Most notably, Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 7 ended with Jake and Amy finally becoming parents after a stressful period in which they spent six months just trying to conceive.
And Jake and Amy aren't the only ones becoming more mature (a little, anyway) on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. In addition to coming out as queer, Rosa has gotten better about being vulnerable with her co-workers/friends and, judging by the way she reacted to her breakup with Jocelyn in Season 7, is more interested in a long-term relationship than she's been in the past. Elsewhere, Terry seems to be growing more comfortable with the fact he's getting older, and even Charles and Captain Holt are becoming (again, a little) more aware of their emotional shortcomings and doing their part to address them.
Obviously, no matter what happens in Season 8, Brooklyn Nine-Nine isn't going to turn into a drama or move too far away from the rapid-fire joke-delivering machine it's been since 2013. All the same, it's getting to the point where the show's formula might not have worked that well for much longer, between its characters' development and its writers making a valiant effort to be thoughtful about their response to the BLM movement's call for police reforms. As such, it's good that Brooklyn Nine-Nine is ending at a point where it can go out with a bang rather than a fizzle. (Title of your sex tape.)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine stars Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher, Terry Crews, Melissa Fumero, Stephanie Beatriz, Joe Lo Truglio, Dirk Blocker and Joel McKinnon Miller.