Advent 2014: Favourite Characters Day #5: The 99th Precinct (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

The fifth day on my favourite characters advent column goes to the crew of the New York’s 99^th Precinct, which encompasses the main characters on Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Let’s get this stuff out of the way first:

"As you’ve probably noticed from above, this is a new blog series dedicated to showcasing my favourite characters from 2014. I will draw from a wide variety of sources but the conditions are simple – I have to have either first encountered that character in 2014, (or a different iteration of that character in 2014, for example, If I were to use, Steven Moffat’s Sherlock Holmes, I would be allowed to as even though I discovered the character before the year of me writing the Advent list, I did not discover Moffat’s take on the character until 2014. Of course, I watched BBC’s Sherlock before 2014, but that’s just a standard example). I can also refer to groups of characters, for example, on a variation of a list last year, I used the Clone Club from Orphan Black, and the main cast from Stargate Atlantis. This will be used multiple times this year when talking about TV show characters – as they are generally better as an ensemble piece as opposed to an individual group.

And also, as is evident from the first character that I have used this year, Raylan Givens, I am allowed to pick characters from previous years as long as I have discovered them in this year. By discovered, that obviously means I have to have watched the first episode of the TV series in 2014, or alternatively, I am also allowed to include characters who I have become more attached to in this year that I weren’t necessarily so keen on before, for example, If a character did something awesome this year to raise their game and turn him or her into a new fan favourite than these characters would be allowed to be included."

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is probably, along with Silicon Valley and You’re The Worst, one of the only live action comedy that I’m watching but also the only comedy that I’m 100% caught up on. It’s constantly funny and one of the few series that I can laugh out loud more than once per episode. A large part of this is mainly due to the fact that unlike most comedies, every single member in the cast is likeable. Sure, you wouldn’t want to work with these characters, but they’ve been one of the most fun since their introduction and it’s great to see that they’ve continued that form and become even funnier in 2014, hence their inclusion in this list.

The characters included in Brooklyn Nine-Nine are great. They’re a bunch of immature and diverse (and flawed) Detectives and each have plenty of awesomeness going for them. Andy Sandberg leads as Jake Peralta, the most immature cop in the Precinct, constantly making wisecracking jokes. Then there’s his best friend, Boyle, (Jo Lo Truglio), and the two have excellent chemistry together. Boyle’s one of the weirdest characters in Brooklyn Nine-Nine (and that’s saying something), and it’s great to see what happens when these two characters interact.

Andre Braugher’s Ray Holt the Commanding Officer of the 99^th Precinct. Stern, tough, he’s the complete contrast of Peralta and this clash of personalities allows for some great jokes and drama. Terry Crews also plays Sergeant Terry Jeffords, and gets some great one-liners, and we also get workaholic Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero), eccentric Gina Peretti (Chelsea Lin), badass Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz) and the slightly less featured but still awesome in their own way characters of Hitchcock (Dirk Blocker) and Scully (Joel McKinnon Miller). Not a single one of these characters will put you off and each of them have delivered laughs at some point over the course of the series runtime,

These characters are part of what makes Brooklyn Nine-Nine the best non-talk show comedy on television. It’s superb, and each episode is fantastic. Everything from the pre-credit title sequences to the post-credit gags rock and even though the show, admittedly, takes a while to find its feet, does really knock it out of the part in 2014, in the latter stages of Season 1 and Season 2 has been stellar since the start. So if you haven’t caught up on this series then what are you waiting for? You’re really missing out on something great.

Here’s the trailer.

·         Day 1: Raylan Givens (Justified)

·         Day 2: The Mikealson Family (The Originals)

·         Day 3: Nolan and Irisa (Defiance)

·         Day 4: Godzilla (Gareth Edwards' Godzilla)

·         Day 5: The 99^th Precinct (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)