Today, Fox announced that Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s fifth season will also be its last. As it turns out, many of us Kotaku and Compete watch the show, and we have some thoughts.
Here’s a lightly edited transcript of how we reacted in our work Slack channel when the news dropped. Also, we found out which of us prefer The Good Place, and which of us is wrong.
Eric Van Allen: Whaaaaat. I’ve been watching through all of Brooklyn Nine-Nine on Hulu for the first time and whyyyyyyyy?
Paul Tamayo: Same! I actually just got into that show, too. It’s pretty good. I follow the actor that plays Rosa Diaz on Twitter, and they started a hashtag and everything to save the show.
Seung Park: NOOOOOO! This is super not toit.
Kirk Hamilton: Aw, that’s too bad. I’m on a later season, and it does feel a little like the show’s run its course, but it was so good. When I found out it was a Michael Schur show, I was like, “Oh, okay, I’ll watch that.” And, yup, it definitely shares a lot of that good Parks & Rec DNA.
Maddy Myers: Unpopular opinion, but I feel like Brooklyn Nine-Nine hasn’t been as funny since Michael Schur started The Good Place and seems to be mostly concentrating on that (very good) show.
Kirk: I don’t know about popularity, but I definitely agree with that.
Eric: Season 5 definitely isn’t as good as some of the middle seasons, but Brooklyn Nine-Nine had some really good moments and plot lines.
Seung: In my opinion, the show’s best episode happened four weeks ago.
Maddy: I feel bad about it being canceled, but I also have had serious trouble getting through the most recent season. It is kind of dragging. I’m trying so hard to get to the “Rosa comes out as bisexual” storyline (Episode 10), but... it’s rough, guys.
Kirk: Right, it’s run its course. I’ve been watching whatever later season I’m on in fits and starts, because it feels like it’s repeating itself.
Eric: I’d like to see a proper finale for it though, ‘cause I’m a sucker for good finales.
Maddy: I also feel like the show jumped the shark once they sent Jake to jail and tried to get quippy about the prison industrial complex. It was more just depressing.
Kirk: The part where they went to Florida in witness protection felt like a surprising shake-up, but after that is around where I’d say I started losing interest.
Maddy: Yeah. I don’t feel like they recovered from that, starting with the jail storyline.
Kirk: Those Florida episodes cracked my shit up though. Especially the gun shop. There’s this one line that Emily and I quote all the time: “Coolcoolcool, our country is broken.”
Seung: Aw man, those Florida episodes were dope. Plus the New Girl crossover was right after that too… another show I’m devastated is over.
Kirk: One thing I’ve always liked about BK99 is that for all their buffoonery, the 99 are all really good cops who take pride in being good at their jobs.
Maddy: Well, they’re also detectives, which is a pretty specific kind of cop that I find more bearable.
Kirk: Except Scully and Hitchcock, they’re bad at their jobs. But it’s kind of anti-The Office in a way. They’re all excellent at their actual jobs, where that kind of show had generally prepared me to watch a bunch of underachievers/underdogs.
Maddy: It’s more like Parks & Rec.
Kirk: Yeah, and even in Parks & Rec, the parks department lost a lot more than it won.
Paul: RIP Lil’ Sebastian.
Kirk: He lives on.
Dennis Young: Here’s an unpopular take, Maddy. The Good Place isn’t that good.
Maddy: Wow.
Eric: Woah.
Gita Jackson: Dennis, leave.
Dennis: When have you ever laughed loudly watching that show? Name one time. Show me your values now.
Gita: Every time I watch it!!!!
Maddy: Same???? When don’t I laugh at it!
Kirk: Yeah… though it’s not a gags-every-second kind of comedy, also.
Eric: I sensibly chuckle, but I do it a lot.
Gita: “Who died and left Aristotle in charge of ethics” still makes me laugh.
Dennis: The Good Place is good for like four titters an episode.
Gita: I do not understand you.
Maddy: Is that how we measure what is good?
Dennis: Comedies? If they’re funny?
Maddy: It is funny, though! Do I need to measure the decibels?
Dennis: That joke was as good or better than peak Good Place.
Gita: Can I write a post about how Dennis is wrong? We probably should post this.
Maddy: I stand by everything I said. My Slacks should win a Pulitzer. It’s cowardly not to publish them, in my opinion.
Dennis: Again, in a way, that was significantly funnier than The Good Place.
Maddy: I also choose to take Dennis telling us we’re funnier than The Good Place as a compliment to us rather than what he intends it to be, which is a slight at The Good Place.
Dennis: It’s both.
Kirk: If The Good Place had been designed, pitched, and greenlighted entirely to deliver the first season finale twist, it would’ve already been a worthwhile show.
Eric: The Good Place did a live-action adaptation of Haruhi’s endless eight, and I will love it forever for that.
Dennis: You’re getting close to why The Good Place is not that good. Its plot is way better than its jokes. It’s much more focused on good cliffhangers (which are actually good) than being funny.
Maddy: No, it isn’t, Dennis. For heck’s sake, the entire show is setups for jokes. The cliffhangers are meaningless excuses to continue jokes.
Kirk: I think Maddy and Dennis should do a one-on-one on The Good Place as a separate thing. Shrimp vs. Frozen Yogurt, a contest for the ages.
Maddy: I don’t see how I could do it when Dennis is just spouting misinformation.
Dennis: The point of Slack is to keep your dumbass takes off the public internet!
And then, none of us listened to him. The End.