The sixth season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and the first one to be broadcast on NBC, is eighteen episodes long. It’s business as usual for the team, continuing straight off from the previous season’s finale. We find out whether Captain Holt is able to be promoted to Commissioner or not, and the fallout from that. While Jake continues on his shenanigans with his fellow colleagues at the precinct.
One thing that is definitely missed are the funny and outlandish, yet endearing cold opens. It’s not that this season’s openings are bad, it just doesn’t feel like the writers tried to do anything too much, and rather just made the opening part of the episode, so it can be dull and bland without a bit of fun to spice things up. Despite that, the gang is still as fun as ever, and the chemistry between the characters are tip top.
The blandness does spill over to the scenarios of each episode. They feel… so normal. Well, normal in the sense that it could kind of happen, rather than the clearly slight over-the-top nature of previous seasons. While familiar characters make their return, like Doug Judy, all in all, it feels like the show has lost some of its spark. It doesn’t quite capture the charm as well as it used to. It’s still daring at places, with dialogue that’s toeing the line, but lacks originality.
Another noticeable thing is that the writers have put in a lot more effort for the series to tackle some issues, such as women in the workplace and a person’s sexual references. These themes were present before but is a lot more prevalent here. It isn’t smashing it into your face, but it is not subtle either. On the one hand, it’s realistic to show that just because Rosa came out, doesn’t mean everything is okay afterwards. On the other hand, it's like, isn’t there another more subtle way of showing this instead of making a huge deal out of it.
Despite the weaker opening, one you’re one-third in, the remaining episodes of the season starts to improve. It returns to the quality of previous seasons and is a lot more fun to watch. The characters feel like they’re getting back into their grooves again and you start to enjoy yourself. One big factor is how the episodes focuses on cases again. It was always interesting to see the wacky and over-the-top ways in which Jake, and to a degree, Amy, tries to solve a case and find the culprit, and there are some inventive and clever scenarios here.
With the shortened season length and lack of motivation to move forward, nearly all the characters remain at status quo. There are little major developments or progression to anyone’s situation. We’ve had Jake and Amy’s marriage or Captain Holt’s attempted promotion or Boyle with his adoption in previous seasons, but here, nothing compares. The best that we get is something happening with Gina so that she’s out of the picture but that’s already been done before.
With that said, it isn’t a bad thing that we get the same kind of vibe for most of the season. It’s where the show is at its best and it tries to top itself in the season finale. It does a great job, since it built up this arc in the background over the course of the season. Coupled with Jake’s penchant for crazy schemes that somehow works, and it’s a great close. Surprisingly, it doesn’t leave a cliffhanger.
Overall, the sixth season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine had a rocky start. It felt misguided and was taking a path that might not have been consistent with your expectations based on prior seasons. However, it does manage to turn around in the second half of the season and gives us some stronger episodes that’s on par with some of the better episodes of the show, although not some of the best ever episodes we’ve had.
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