Welcome back to my weekly review and recap of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” To catch up on previous coverage, click here.
First things first: we’re back! I don’t know about you but Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a show a genuinely miss on a week to week basis when it’s on season/sports related breaks. They only sweetened the deal by returning with a fantastic episode, one that’s a little broad and absurd but all ties neatly enough in the end while making sure that no one forgets that the past half hour was dedicated to Jake and Boyle trying to steal back the latter’s sperm from his ex-wife.
This is a bit of a time crunching review. Here are the five best things about “Hostage Situation”
1. Amy kicking Terry’s ass…repeatedly
Amy and Terry are almost always an awesome pairing due to their innate differences but also their surprising amount of similarities. Their similarities range from their shared nerd cred, their type A personalities and they’re complete inability to convince anyone that they’re not uptight. They’re a dynamic duo and two of the most consistently watchable pairings of the Nine-Nine. Their plot is rather thin with Amy trying to get Terry to write her a nice recommendation letter only for her to accidentally injure him with each interaction. Despite this, Melissa Fumero and Terry Crews make the most out of their broadly played humor and their bits are the ones that get some of the biggest laughs of the episode.
2. Gina’s messy priorities
Gina Linetti is a gift and she would be the first one tell you so. Her teaming up with Jake and Boyle in the last episode made sense, what with their shared eccentricities, and both Jake and Boyle being able to see through the Gina-ism’s. Holt and Rosa are another story all together, and the only reason they reached out to her was because the suspect they were interviewing wouldn’t talk unless it was to Gina.
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They apparently went to high school together and rather than ask him the questions that Holt and Rosa need, she grills him about who had crushes on her when they went to school together because, as per the usual, Gina’s prioritizes her self-interest.
Never change Gina.
3. The episode braced it’s absurdity
The episode began with Holt dancing to diffuse a hostile situation and ended with Jake yelling at Charles to not use his father’s sperm to have a child with girlfriend Genevieve. For the most part there was no middle ground for the episode. The consistent tone made for one of the funniest episodes of the season (that hasn’t been lacking in them). Everything from how the characters were partnered off, to the main objective of the episode brought out the silliest in the characters except for one…
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4. Jake/Andy Samberg get’s to play it straight
I love Jake. Jake is my favorite male character on television at least half of the time because of how well meaning he is about nearly everything and Andy Samberg imbues the character with a heart on his sleeve sweetness that makes him lovable even in his more trying moments. Despite his function as the class clown in a large amount of the series though, Jake has always been more interesting when he get’s to either take on some more serious, adult notes (when his father returned) or when he get’s to play the rational character opposed to someone else, this week that someone else being Boyle.
He tries and fails to be the voice of reason as Boyle almost risks his career to get what’s rightfully his back from his ex and while he ends up succeeding it takes a lot of effort and exasperated Jake is one of the best versions that Samberg plays.
5. Kahryn Hahn should guest star on everything all the time
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Who does guest starring roles better than Hahn? Her roles in Park and Recreation, Transparent and Brooklyn Nine-Nine have all been so vastly different from one another but all hilarious and/or moving. She’s such a contrast to Joe Lo Truglio’s performance as Boyle that you almost wish we’d gotten to see more of the two acting off one another.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is now airing on Tuesdays instead of Sundays, so make sure to tune in, especially if the season continues on it’s hot streak.
9/10
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