Fox originally ordered 13 episodes of the single-camera comedy for its first season, eventually expanding it to 22 episodes. Brooklyn Nine-Nine premiered on September 17, 2013. On May 10, 2018, Fox cancelled it after five seasons; the next day, NBC picked it up for a sixth season, which premiered on January 10, 2019. The seventh season premiered in February 2020. The 10-episode eighth and final season premiered on August 12, 2021.[1][2]
Set in the fictional 99th Precinct of the New York City Police Department in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Nine-Nine follows a team of detectives headed by the serious and intellectual Captain Raymond Holt, who is assigned as their new commanding officer in the pilot episode. The station's exterior is based on Brooklyn's 78th Precinct.
Andy Samberg as Jacob "Jake" Peralta: Jake is a skilled detective, but often acts immaturely. His favorite film is Die Hard, which he references frequently and even attempts to relive. He is also a fan of Taylor Swift's music and Nicolas Cage's movies. Jake is unrelenting in his confidence, even in the face of failure, and refuses to take things seriously most of the time. He dates and later marries Amy in season 5 and they have a son in season 7. He often references his hard upbringing due to his father leaving him as a child. He sees Captain Raymond Holt as a father figure. He often seems to not care about precautions and the job, but he is very skilled and constantly takes down criminals. In the final episode he leaves his job to look after his son, Mac, giving him the upbringing his father denied him.
Stephanie Beatriz as Rosa Diaz: Rosa is an intimidating detective; most of the 99th precinct is afraid of her. She takes pride in being very private and her colleagues know almost nothing about her, including what she likes or where she lives. This is shown by her referencing moving house after Amy visits. She used to do ballet and gymnastics as a child and is skilled with various weapons. She also went to medical school, as well as business school, and even has a pilot license. New, unexpected information which is uncommon to Rosa's tough nature, is commonly revealed about her. At the police academy, she was classmates with Jake and the two became close friends. In season 2 she dates Holt's nephew Marcus (portrayed by Nick Cannon). In seasons 3 and 4, she dates fellow detective Adrian Pimento (portrayed by Jason Mantzoukas) and she comes out as bisexual later in season 5. In the final season she has left her job, in the wake of BLM, becoming a private detective and helping those targeted by crooked cops.
Terry Crews as Terrence "Terry" Jeffords: Terry is a family man with a wife, Sharon, and twin daughters, Cagney and Lacey, having a third daughter in season 3 on Thanksgiving named Ava. He works out frequently and is very strong, but used to be extremely overweight and still has some issues with food displayed through his almost obsessive love of yogurt. For the first five seasons, he is a sergeant, being addressed as "Sarge" frequently. In season 6, he passes an exam to become a lieutenant, referred as "Loot". In the series finale, he becomes the captain of the Nine-Nine. He cares deeply about the Nine-Nine and is always there for his detectives, stating Jake is "uncle Jake" to his twins, and makes Jake godfather to Ava in season 3.
Melissa Fumero as Amy Santiago: Amy is a neurotic, competitive, "nerdy" detective who desperately seeks Captain Holt's approval. She obsesses over mistakes and is eager to prove herself worthy, which stems from her having 7 brothers and parents who rank them. She becomes a sergeant in season 5. Although very different people, she and Jake begin to date in season 3, get married in season 5, and have a son named Mac after the fictional John McClane at the end of season 7. In the final episode she becomes a chief and heads a new police reform program with Holt.
Joe Lo Truglio as Charles Boyle: Charles is Jake's best friend who is obsessed with strange and unusual food. He most often partners with Jake, whom he holds in high regard, and tends to over-share personal and intimate information with him. Early in season 1, he has an intense crush on Rosa and often tries to ask her out but fails. After a brief engagement to food author Vivian Ludley, he later begins a relationship with an artist named Genevieve and the two adopt a son named Nikolaj from Latvia at the start of season 4.
Chelsea Peretti as Regina "Gina" Linetti (main seasons 1–6; special guest season 8):[a] Gina is Captain Holt's assistant and Jake's childhood friend. She acts cool and uninterested in the people around her, instead focusing almost entirely on her phone and social media. Gina is over-confident to the point of arrogance and holds an unproven amount of respect for her peers. She loves dancing and making fun of Amy. As shown in season 1 episode 16, "The Party," she is a kleptomaniac. She also has a short-lived sexual relationship with Charles, which she is incredibly ashamed of, though she later goes public with the relationship, without consulting Charles. In season 5, she has a child named Enigma/"Iggy" with Charles' cousin Milton Boyle. Gina departs temporarily at the start of season 5 for maternity leave to care for Iggy (this was written to coincide with Peretti's real-life pregnancy), and for good in season 6 to build an online brand, but she returns in the series finale.
Andre Braugher as Raymond Holt: Captain Holt is the captain of the 99th precinct who takes pride in being the NYPD's first black gay police captain. He is known for his stoic and deadpan demeanor and he frequently criticizes Jake's immature behavior, though he eventually develops a strong, familial relationship with all his detectives, who in turn hold him in high esteem. Both Amy and Jake view him as a father figure. He is married to Kevin Cozner (portrayed by Marc Evan Jackson), a professor of Classics at Columbia University, and has a Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Cheddar. He is rivals with Deputy Chief (Commissioner) Madeline Wuntch. In the final episode he is promoted to Deputy Commissioner to run a police reform program with Amy in the wake of BLM and the behavior of cops over lockdown.
Dirk Blocker as Michael Hitchcock and Joel McKinnon Miller as Norm Scully (recurring season 1, starring seasons 2–5, main season 6–8): Hitchcock and Scully are two aging, accident-prone, lazy, and non-proficient detectives whose careers peaked in the 1980s. They are best friends and state their ideas are each others'. They now focus more on paperwork, which they are good at, making coffee, and eating junk food. Because of this, they are often disregarded by the rest of the precinct, but they are quite skilled and brave when they put their minds to it, occasionally being used for missions and helping out. Hitchcock is vulgar and crass, especially towards women, has numerous ex-wives and lives in a van; Scully is much more kindhearted and sweet and can sing opera well despite suffering from numerous medical maladies. Their personal lives are rather disturbing and random including affairs, frequent hospital visits and depressing familial dynamics. Despite this they form a funny and sweet comedic duo and are always there to help their co-workers and case victims. This is shown when they give a drug dealer's ex-wife money, and cover up an illegal immigrant's status.
Production
Development
Writers and producers Michael Schur and Dan Goor, who had known each other since they were students at Harvard University, and had collaborated on the sitcom Parks and Recreation, conceived the idea to set a comedy in a police station, a setting they felt had been insufficiently used in television comedies since Barney Miller. They pitched the idea to production company Universal Television, where Schur had a development deal. Although Universal signed on to produce the series, its parent company's network, NBC, passed on airing it, so the duo sold it to the Fox Broadcasting Company.[4]
The exterior view of the fictional 99th Precinct building was the actual 78th Precinct building in Brooklyn.[8] If the 99th Precinct were real, it would be considered a Brooklyn police precinct (where numbers can theoretically range from 60 to 99), but no precinct has yet been assigned number "99".[9]
Cancellation and renewals
Police cars parked on the sidewalk at the NYPD 78th Precinct building in Brooklyn: An exterior image is used as an establishing shot throughout the show.
Fox canceled the series after five seasons in May 2018.[10] Negotiations to revive the series for a sixth season began shortly afterwards with TBS and NBC, as well as streaming services Hulu and Netflix.[11] After fans launched a social-media campaign calling for a renewal, and only thirty hours following the show's cancellation by Fox, Goor announced that NBC had picked up the series for a sixth season comprising 13 episodes.[12][13] In a statement, NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt expressed regret for originally passing on the series to Fox and was "thrilled" at its addition to the network.[14] NBC subsequently announced that the series would premiere midseason in the 2018–19 television season.[15] In September, the network ordered an additional five episodes for season six, bringing the order to 18.[16] The sixth season premiered on NBC on January 10, 2019.[17] Peretti, who portrays civilian administrator Gina Linetti, departed as a series regular during the season, but returned for a guest appearance.[3]
In February 2019, NBC renewed the series for a seventh season,[18] followed by an eighth season renewal in November prior to the airing of the seventh.[19] The seventh season premiered on February 6, 2020, and concluded on April 23.[20][21]
In February 2021, NBC announced that the eighth season of 10 episodes would be the last,[22] and further announced that the eighth-season premiere would be delayed until August 12, 2021.[23][24][2] Two episodes aired back-to-back each week for five weeks and the series concluded on September 16, 2021.[25]
Writing
In June 2020, Crews said that the planned direction of the eighth season was being altered in response to the murder of George Floyd, with Goor cancelling four "ready to go" episodes as a result.[26][27] Samberg also stated that the series would be "striking a balance" between addressing police brutality and maintaining its comedic style.[28] It also incorporated the COVID-19 pandemic during the season.[21] Although initially announced as part of NBC's fall schedule, the eighth-season premiere was pushed back to 2021 due to the pandemic.[29]
Goor called ending the series "a difficult decision, but ultimately, we felt it was the best way to honor the characters, the story, and our viewers",[30] with the cast also expressing sentiments for having been a part of the series.[31]
Rotten Tomatoes gave season one a score of 89% based on 57 reviews. The consensus is: "Led by the surprisingly effective pairing of Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a charming, intelligently written take on the cop show format."[39] For Season 2, it received a score of 100% based on 17 reviews. That season's consensus is: "Brooklyn Nine-Nine's winning cast, appealing characters and wacky gags make it good comfort food."[41]Metacritic gives the first season of the show a weighted average rating of 70/100 based on 33 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[40]
Alyssa Rosenberg of The Washington Post deemed Brooklyn Nine-Nine "one of the funniest, most important shows on TV" and highlighted its "ability to find unpredictable routes into a wide range of issues in contemporary policing."[50] Writing for Vanity Fair, Grace Robertson regarded the series as "a well-made exemplar of [...] the workplace sitcom" that confers "straightforward pleasures".[51]Slate's Aisha Harris called the series "a well-crafted fantasy, with hardly any discernible connection to current cultural attitudes about law enforcement" but complimented its "talented" ensemble cast.[52] It was ranked No. 24 in Rolling Stone's 50 Best TV Shows of the 2010s list, in which its curator, Alan Sepinwall, praised "the comedic yin and yang" of Samberg and Braugher's characters.[53]
Brooklyn Nine-Nine has received praise for its forthright portrayal of LGBTQ people and the serious issues that affect them while retaining its sense of humor.[54] Portraying Captain Raymond Holt, a lead character, as an openly gay, no-nonsense black man in a same-sex interracial marriage is unprecedented in cinema and television.[55][56] The storyline on detective Rosa Diaz coming out as bisexual in episodes "99" and "Game Night", the 99th & 100th episodes of the series, has been described as an important representation of sexual orientation.[57][58]
Ratings
Viewership and ratings per season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is broadcast in Canada on Citytv. After the second episode of the second season, it was replaced on Sunday nights by Rogers Hometown Hockey for the duration of the 2014–15 NHL regular season; after the NHL season concluded City resumed airing Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and has continued to broadcast the show simultaneously with the American broadcast since the third season (Hometown Hockey was moved to Sportsnet in 2015). The series also aired on TBS and sister channel TruTV from 2018 to 2021.[81]Brooklyn Nine-Nine aired on Comedy Central from 2022 until 2023.[82] In the United Kingdom, the show premiered on E4 in January 2014.[83] The second season debuted on January 15, 2015,[84] the third began on January 7, 2016, and the fourth on January 5, 2017. The fifth season aired on March 8, 2018, the sixth on March 28, 2019, and the seventh on March 26, 2020. The series airs on RTÉ2 in Ireland. In New Zealand, Brooklyn Nine-Nine premiered on TV2 on February 13, 2014.
In New Zealand, Brooklyn Nine-Nine airs on Comedy Central India. In South Africa, the series premiered on SABC 3, in the 19:00 timeslot, airing Mondays to Fridays, where repeats aired on Sunday In Australia, it premiered on SBS on July 28, 2014, and airs repeats on Universal Channel from January 7, 2015.[85] It moved to SBS 2 in 2015[86] commencing with the second season, which premiered on March 3, 2015.[87] It has now moved to SBS Viceland, currently airing on Fridays at 8:30pm. In December 2014, Netflix UK added the first season to its listings, with Netflix Australia following suit in March 2015. Since 2016, Netflix UK, Australia, Germany, Austria, Latin America, and Switzerland have carried seasons 1 to 6 of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The seventh season was added to Netflix UK on March 26, 2021.[88] In South East Asia and Sri Lanka, Brooklyn Nine-Nine airs right after the U.S. on Diva.[89]
A French Canadian adaptation of the series, titled Escouade 99 (translates to "Squad Ninety-Nine"), debuted on the Québec streaming platform Club Illico in 2020. Set in Quebec City, Escouade 99 has a budget of 4 million for the first season of the series,[90] which is approximately the same budget as a single episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.[citation needed] Following the release of the first trailer, Fumero criticized the casting, specifically that of white actresses in the roles based on Amy Santiago and Rosa Diaz.[91] Escouade 99 is also already casting a second season.
Home media
DVD releases of Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Season
DVD release date
Special features
Region 1
Region 2
Region 4
Season 1
September 23, 2014
September 29, 2014
December 11, 2014
Deleted Scenes
Season 2
September 8, 2015
September 28, 2015
September 3, 2015
Season 3
August 23, 2016
August 22, 2016
September 29, 2016
Deleted Scenes, Get Your Cop On, The Squad
Season 4
August 22, 2017
September 4, 2017
September 20, 2017
Deleted Scenes
Season 5
August 28, 2018
November 19, 2018
September 19, 2018
Season 6
August 20, 2019
August 26, 2019
August 28, 2019
Season 7
June 30, 2020
August 3, 2020
July 15, 2020
Season 8
March 8, 2022
February 21, 2022
February 16, 2022
The Complete Series
Deleted Scenes, Get Your Cop On, The Squad
Blu-ray releases of Brooklyn Nine-Nine
The Complete Series 1–8
Region A
March 8, 2022
Notes
^Peretti left the main cast in "Four Movements", the fourth episode of season six. She returned as a special guest star in season six's "Return of the King" and in season eight's "The Last Day".[3]
