Brooklyn Nine-Nine had one of the best seasons of any show, new or returning, last year and has been pretty solid so far throughout the beginning of its second season. However, last night’s episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, “Halloween II,” may have been the first clunker the show has had in a while. Don’t get me wrong, there were certainly parts of “Halloween II” that made me laugh and singular scenes that I enjoyed, but overall, the episode was a mess. The mixed results of “Halloween II” should teach Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which is great on a pretty consistent basis, how to avoid more problems like this in the future. Here’s what I hope the show learns from last night’s episode.
Sequels aren’t always the best ideas.
As the title would suggest, “Halloween II” is essentially a sequel to Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s first season classic “Halloween,” so it had a lot to live up to. However, the show essentially just recycled the same Peralta and Holt plot from last year but flipped it, making Holt the mastermind behind the operation instead. While Peralta and the rest of the Nine-Nine working together against Holt in the original “Halloween” was both funny and clever in its unexpectedness, the same story beats here just felt stale. (I did love the fact that Holt had been planning his revenge on Peralta since last year, though.)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is at its best when it’s an ensemble.
Like Parks and Rec, Community, and New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine also features one of the best ensemble casts on TV, and the series can produce a great episode simply by just letting its characters hang around the precinct together and goof off (which is why last week’s episode was so successful). However, “Halloween II” didn’t really give everyone in the cast a lot to do and dropped Amy and Rosa’s candy baskets plotline entirely midway through the episode. (Not to mention, how could we not be given more of Terry and Gina’s dance routine?) Instead, the episode primarily centered on Peralta, which leads me to…
Big is not always funny.
I’m an Andy Samberg fan. I loved him on SNL and will laugh at pretty much anything and everything he puts out with The Lonely Island. However, whenever Brooklyn Nine-Nine solely shines the spotlight on him, it’s usually with material that forces him to go pretty big with his comedy, which doesn’t always lead to the best results. Samberg is at his best when Peralta is a little more muted, like when he’s delivering lines about how he bought a magician’s suit filled with scarves, not when he’s climbing the fence of a junkyard like a crazy person.
Be absurd but not too absurd.
And speaking of crazy, I never thought I’d say this about Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but last night, the show was just too crazy. There was no structure to what any of the characters were doing and a total loss of reality. Peralta gives his shoes to a criminal instead of threatening to arrest him? He loses his badge and wallet on a party bus? Even though these incidents were explained by Holt’s master plan at episode’s end, it all still seemed just a little cartoonish for my liking. Plus, what happened to Halloween being one of the busiest nights of the year for these police officers? You’re telling me that no one got a call when they were helping me Holt? I don’t buy it.
While “Halloween II” was a slight misstep for the show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine easily remains one of the best comedies on television, and I have no fear that it will bounce back. Here’s hoping that next year’s Halloween installment abandons the Peralta/Holt competition and tries something completely different.
Photos via Fox
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