Brooklyn Nine-Nine: The Set Up (8x06)

Repeating myself here, but it is a tough pill to swallow, watching this show try and muddle its way through these serious topics.

Cons:

I think one of the things that's started to rub me the wrong way more and more is how... gleeful Jake is about his job. He's excited about a bomb on a bus because it's like a movie. His whole childish delight in the potential for disaster is supposed to be an immaturity thing, and I get that, but it's also kind of gross. Because they're trying to show the corruption in the system, the fact that Jake is so eager for a "cool" case that he ends up arresting an innocent man is... well, I know the episode paints it as a problem, but for me it was hard to root for Jake at all in this episode, and I do think that's an issue.

Pros:

That said, this is probably the strongest episode of the season thus far, at least in terms of addressing corruption in a real way and also being funny. O'Sullivan is cartoonishly evil in his desires, so the moment when he's offering Jake help really shines a light on how anyone can get pulled into the corruption. I like hating this character; the delivery was excellent, I loved the repeated blackmail attempts that didn't work.

Rosa and Amy getting drunk and having to double up to try and outdrink O'Sullivan was also pretty great. It's a simplistic comedic device, just get characters drunk or high or whatever, but for whatever reason, it can be really effective when the actors are actually charismatic and have good comedic timing. These ones really do, and so I got a kick out of them changing places, Rosa imitating Amy's voice, Amy showing up to tell Jake the situation and then laughing about losing Rosa down some subway stairs.

The B-plot was really nothing special, with Charles and Terry competing over who got to sell candy to Scully, but the moment when we learned that O'Sullivan was the saboteur honestly made it all worth it to me. That crossing of the two plots made me smile and was genuinely unexpected. I also liked Charles clocking Terry in the face with an apple. So random, so funny.

That's all I've got. This episode... well, it kind of worked? I like that Jake gets real ramifications for his actions, several months of suspension. I hope we get to see that play out. What does it mean for him? What is he thinking about in terms of his future career? This stuff should matter to him, and I think the show is taking it in that direction but I'm just not 100% clear. We'll see!

7/10