Brooklyn 99 is dead.

  • FalunDong [she/her,any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I had to turn it off after the undercover prison episode arc. Jake is beaten by guards but any shred of serious commentary is undercut with his cellmate accidentaly adding a funny Sombrero filter to the video. There's a throwaway line where Jake and the warden acknowledge how difficult it is for Trans people in prison but it's done in a "that sucks but oh well!" kind of way and has no serious implications that something should be changed by the warden or for that matter by Jake, a member of a police department with a horrifying track record with trans women. The show goes out of its way to make it clear that every single character in that prison was comically evil, even the friendly cell mate was only friendly as part of a bit (he was a polite cannibal who ate children). Nobody was there who didn't without a shred of doubt deserve to be and nobody being beaten by guards or other inmates is innocent or for that matter in there for something nonviolent. In the wrapup episode to the arc when he's released and back out on duty, Jake hesitates to make an arrest because what if he's wrong? What if he sends an innocent person to that brutal, horrible place? Just when you think they are about to make a good point about the needless brutality of our prison system his boss has a heart to heart and the audience is fed with some bullshit about it actually helping him to be a better cop because now he's careful.

    Another comment said they needed to pick a different setting than police detectives and I wholeheartedly agree. No amount of special lib-woke episodes can justify a feelgood cop comedy like this and even though the writers seem to be aware of the issues with police, their efforts to address them are constantly underwhelming and often times rife with problematic misunderstanding itself.