The television world and Twittersphere was shocked last Sunday night when Fox’s s𒁏truggling cop comedy “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” won awards for both best TV series, musical or comedy, and for its star💮 Andy Samberg, who plays Det. Jake Peralta. But no one seemed more shocked than Samberg himself.
“Oh no!” he said on stage, after mouthing𝓰 the word “wow” when his name was called. “I didn’t prepare anything!”
Samberg sped through an ad-hoc thank-you speech, but the shock was likely real: Not only is his show having trouble bringing in viewers, the “Saturday Night Live” alum has not exactly been as well-revieౠwed as his fellow nominees: Michael J. Fox (“The Michael J. Fox Show”), Jason Bateman (“Arrested Development”), Don Cheadle (“House of Lies”) and three-time Emmy winner Jim Parsons (“The Big Bang Theory”).
So is “Brooklyn” secretly the best comedy on television? Well, no. While it’s certainly less mind-numbingly broad as fellow nominees “The Big Bang Theory” and “The Michael J. Fox Show,” and not as played out as the faux-confessional style of “Modern Family,” it h𓂃as a long way to go to be as holistically charming and clever as “Parks and Recreation” or as groundbreaking as “Girls.”
But it is undoubtedly underappreciated, a💟nd its stellar cast has already provided plenty of opportunities for wacky crime-based🏅 adventures. The diversity of the cast — the eager-to-please Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero), and the caustic, tough and slightly mysterious Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz), the hulking but insecure Sgt. Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews) and the stoic and openly gay Capt. Ray Holt (Andre Braugher) — is refreshing. So is the antic comedy, which is a reprieve from the sitcoms and police dramas on the rest of the dial.
“It always feels like some kind of validation because we won an award,” Dan Goor, the show’s co-creator, tells The Post. “Th♛ere are so many options in television that everything takes a little wh🥃ile to catch on these days.
We’re justඣ grateful to be on TV at all. It’s nice that people already seem to like it and that we’re already winning awards, which is more than we can hope for.”
Critics gaveꩵ the show’s pilot mixed reviews, and it still hasn’t officially been giv♌en a green light for Season 2 yet.
The Post’s Michael Sꦓtarr said: “It’s troubling to see an actor of Braugher’s stature waste his time, and his talent, in such a dumb show.”
Others saw potential: TV Guide’s Matt Roush said the show “earns its badge of distinction with smart irreverence and sharply defined characters in an admira🎉bly diverse ensemble.”
That diversity keeps coming up whಌen people praise the show, says Brad Adgate, media analyst at Horizon Media, which could help it survive.
“It’s a ve𒊎ry ethnically diverse cast,” Adgate says. “That’s kind of ♌the wave of the future.”
“Brooklyn Nin🎶e-Nine” didn’t appear to get a post-Globes ratings boost either: it actually ticked dow𒅌n in demographic ratings in its first broadcast after the ceremony.
Goor says the producers have been adapting the show as the episodes progress after seeing how the characters interact. It’s a skill he learned from Michael Schur, the co-creator of “Brooklyn” and “Parks,” and Greg Daniels, the creator 𝐆of the American version of “The Office.”
“A𝄹s you shoot the show you begin to see the strengths of your cast and write to your strengths,” he says. “The pairings of the cast leads to different types of [episodes] over the second half of the season, it’s blossoming into a goofy but lovable cop comedy.
Fox is giving the series a boost by s🌄howing it after the Super Bowl this Sunday. Goor says the episode will involve a hotel heist case and cameos from Fred Armisen and Joe Theismann, among others.
Adgate says the show is starting to remind him of another Fox sitcom that could ne🌞ver quite find the ratings: “Arrested🌼 Development.”
“That show wo🐻n an Emmy and you would assume that would increase ratings and it would put it more on the radar for viewers and that didn’t happen,” he says.
Schur and Goor were the brains behind “Parks and Recreation” (for which Amy Poehler also won her first Globe this year). But that show also took some time to come into its own: it started as a local government knock-off version of “The Office,” and grew into some♍thing way better than “The Office,” with zeitgeist-grabbing comedy zingers and the development of one of the greatest characters in modern sitcom history, Ron Swanson (played by Nick Offerman).
Like “Parks,” “Brooklyn” is helped along by being an actual workplace comedy: the cops go after real crimes, and, even though the outcome is usually predictable — Samberg’s character screwing up until he brilliantly solves the case at the last minute — the crime scenarios keep it fresh (unlike, say, “The Office,” which reso🅠rted to increasingly lame gimmicks to make office life seem interesting).
For all the award prestige, the cast and crew jumped right back into the grind, hoping the audဣi🐟ence followed along.
“It felt like the worl💜d changed on Sunday night and then 7 a.m. Monday morning was call time,” Gooꦬr says. “All the actors were back there, we were in the writing room, working our asses off to get the script done.”
Best episodes of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”
1. Episode 3: “The Slump”
“The Slump” is a great example of how this ensemble plays off each other. The story i൲nvolves Peralta (Andy Samberg) trying to overcome what he fears are superstitious causes behind his slump in breaking cases, but the side plot between Terry Crews, as the sergeant who can’t figure out how to build a simple dollhouse, and Joe Lo Truglio is the real gem here.
2. Episode 4: “M.E. Time”
Here, the writers established Capt. Ho🎃lt’s stoicism as a running joke. When Santiago (Melissa Fumero) inquires if Holt (Andre Braugher) had a rough weekend, he responds, “I went to Barbados with my husband. We wove 🎃hats of palm fronds. We swam with the stingrays. I’ve never been happier.”
3. Episode 9: “Sal’s Pizza”
This episode plays up the rivalry between the NYPD and FDNY. The fire department is represented by Patton Oswalt, who plays a bumbling fire commissioner resisting an NYPD takeover of an arson case. But the real star is Lo Truglio, who yamm☂ers on abou𓃲t his ranking of Brooklyn pizzerias, and which has the best mouthfeel. He even uses a spit bucket.