b99 S5E20

[sciatrix]

I've been rewatching Brooklyn Nine-Nine, in part because my beloved baby sister recently agreed to watch it with me, and running through this ep...

God, they literally just had an episode wherein a precinct member is involved in a dangerous situation, everyone is Very Concerned and forbidden to turn up and help, and a senior man just asked a junior man to do the emotional labor of supporting his squadmates in their worry instead of breaking orders to go in guns blazing like he wanted to,

and he chose to listen and successfully got people to talk to him and did the emotional supportive work! And literally none of the show's women had to be involved in any way!

I just. I love this show so much.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Okay, now I know why I have to watch this show.

om

[sciatrix]

Give it a chance if it doesn't suit you in the pilot: it takes a lot of tropes that can be pretty worrying to a sitcom viewer (e.g. a dude with a crush on a Cool Lady who is Not Interested; a young buck with authority issues vs. By the Book boss) and... it takes those tropes and really does good things with them. Some of them it clearly wrongfoots very, very early on (in the pilot itself), and some of them take some time to really trust the show about (e.g. it takes a season or two for the dude with the crush to ease off, but he does and has since become happily married).

But it has consistently gotten better with time, not worse. It's by the same gentleman who does The Good Place, with a similarly diverse core cast (two black men, two white men, two Latina women, one white woman; at least one white man is heavily coded Jewish; two queer people, one who outs themself early on and one much later). And it is really good about showing men engaging in emotional work as work, work that needs to be learned, and helping each other (and showing women helping each other, too--the show passes the Bechdel flawlessly), and showing different people with different strengths.

I LOVE IT VERY MUCH.

Re: om

[jesse_the_k]

So, leap in at season 2 and catch the first season after I’m well & truly hooked!

I’ll admit I saw the first two eps and my thoughts were: ugh! I’ve seen these tropes a few dozen times already.

Re: om

[sciatrix]

Yes! I promise it improves, and they don't go to the obvious places with a lot of the tropes they start with.

And good lord does Boyle improve when he gets over Rosa and goes to date other people--all just as bizarre and weird as he is.

[sasha_feather]

Agreed, it's so brilliant.

[sciatrix]

I just--it's so consistent about this! Probably the most emotionally perceptive people who are usually doing the bulk of touching base and nurturing their team community are Terry and then secondarily Boyle (in his weird-ass way, and usually at Jake); the most emotionally perceptive woman is easily Gina and she does not generally use her powers for good rather than her own amusement, and then Rosa who is the more-butch one between Gina and Amy, and poor Amy tries really hard.

I love how the show handles emotion and relationships. Romantic relationships included, actually, but I think that it's particularly focused on showing us even the romantic relationships on the show through the lens of friendships and chosen familial relationships--for example, the episode I was just watching had Jake's wedding upcoming, and Terry walking him through his insecurities and his desire to be a Good Husband and coaching him on how to get past his fears and anxieties and do a good job. It's so nice.

[siderea]

Whoa. Duly impressed.