The fifth season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine is 22 episodes long. This was the last season before it was cancelled by Fox but was eventually renewed by a different network. The show follows a close knit team of detectives within the fiction District Nine Nine of the NYPD. The central character is Jake Peralta, who while he is a competent police officer, has knack for jokes, pranks and a general attitude that doesn’t take things too seriously. The show focuses on the team’s shenanigans in both their personal and professional lives.
The season begins with Jake and Rosa both in jail after being framed and convicted of bank robbery crimes for diamonds in last season’s finale. The show tries hard but frankly, the jail setting isn’t the best and it feels off. Maybe it is the overexposure to the same type of humor or just that Jake doesn’t have much to work with but it can get quite bland. It is a serious event though as the rest of the Nine Nine continues to try and find a way to take down Hawkins to prove Jake and Rosa’s innocence.
Hawkins is a tough nut to crack as she is very careful and seemed to have covered her tracks extremely well. The Nine Nine is disadvantaged since Hawkins knows that they are looking out for her every move and she proves to be able to easily lead them astray. The way the whole situation is resolved felt a tad bit contrived but then right at the end, there is a revelation which has seriously consequences. This revelation also shows off the strength of Captain Holt’s character.
The season covers many different scenarios in each episode in a bid to keep it entertaining. There’s a road trip with the whole team to the annual Halloween episode which manages to keep surprising you. There are highly exaggerated events, even more so than normal including a randomly exploding vehicle for seemingly no reason. It was so unexpected that you’d probably do a double take and ponder whether the writers really did do that. Several of the episodes touch upon some very sensitive issues. Sometimes these issues feel like they came right out of nowhere with no warning but it handles those themes well.
There was an excellent episode that was effectively spent with Jake and Holt trying to interrogation a murder suspect. This episode merged cleverness and humor perfectly, considering the serious tone to it. The show hadn’t had something like this since it usually just glosses over the details and have the team say they solved it. There was thoughtfulness to the dialogue and tactics used and was something that would have been great to see more of. The biggest draw has always been the characters and the way that they interact. There are plenty of clashes of personalities in a work setting but they will work it out. It constantly reinforces that the team is a family.
Gina was supposedly pregnant in the last season but using that as an excuse for her absence is weird. Not having her interacting with the rest of the characters makes it seem like the team is missing someone important. While her character can be extremely annoying, it’s not the same with her. Boyle continues to be weird but strangely endearing. He has good intentions but seriously cannot read the mood and spouts the oddest of things. Yet when he is left out, whether it is through his own fault or not, you can’t help but feel pity for the guy. Jake can be rash and regularly disobeys his superiors but there is always a lesson to be learnt afterwards. His relationship with Amy is progresses naturally and is a big focus of the season. The usual supporting characters return like Judy and Kevin but sometimes, they’re not interesting enough to keep having episodes centering on them.
The ending was sweet and was perfect in wrapping up some of the characters’ journeys. It’s satisfying to the point where you’re sad if there wasn’t another season but also that it’ll be okay if it ended at this point. It had heartwarming speeches that bring out the emotions. While the humor and one-liners aren’t as strong as the last season there are still some gems. On the other hand, it feels that there are more sexual references or maybe they’re just more obvious this time around.
Overall, despite the lower amount of variety in the episodes, the fifth season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine is still extremely solid. By this point, you are familiar with the characters and the cast has a lot of chemistry. None of the characters are siloed so while Jake does get most of the screentime, all the other characters get their fair share as well. There were many heartwarming moments during the season but the ending takes the cake in terms of the impact. While it is not a goodbye, it was satisfying.
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