The fact that Brooklyn Nine-Nine comes from the same creators as Parks And Recreation is enough to give it at least a few episodes to find its footing.  Go back and watch the pilot for Parks and Rec.  I’ll wait.  Pretty rough, isn’t it?  But it turned into something absolutely beautiful about midway through its second season and is now anchoring all NBC comedies because it’s wonderful.  This show boasts an ensemble cast not to shake a stick at: Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher are the heavy hitters, but having Terry Crews, Chelsea Peretti and Joe Lo Truglio in supporting roles only enhances the comedy.

Braugher is awesome as new police chief Ray Holt.  Which, fucking duh.  If you’ve ever seen Andre Braugher on a television or movie screen before, you should have expected nothing less.  (RIP Men Of A Certain Age).  And I think he may have invented a new television trope tonight.  The tough as nails gay man who doesn’t make a big deal out of it.  That’s refreshing.  Outside of SNL Digital Shorts and the Lonely Island stuff, I’ve never been a fan of Samberg’s whole schmucky manchild thing he has going on.  To his credit, he doesn’t mug to the camera too often, but just a couple minutes into the episode, he was doing the robot voice to tease his new captain, and I couldn’t help but recall Bill Hader’s dig at the Comedy Central Roast Of James Franco.  “I forgot the rape kit!  Schmorgy Dorg!”  I sincerely hope we can do better than that headed on down the line.

Samberg’s Jake Peralta’s partner is the smokin hot Amy Santiago, so we’re sure to get a lot of will they-won’t they stuff as the season continues, but the most aggravating thing to me was their ongoing little bet system.  Don’t rip off Super Troopers.  Be your own brand of funny.  I laughed out loud more than once, which is more to be said than most anything airing on CBS.

4/5