About.com Rating

The Bottom Line:Brooklyn Nine-Nine is the best new sitcom of fall 2013, a funny and heartfelt workplace comedy about detectives in a Brooklyn precinct.

Pros

• Excellent cast playing to their strengths.
• Sharp, funny jokes.
• A range of well-drawn characters.

Cons

• Some of the jokes fall flat.
• Balancing crime-solving with humor may not always work.
• Characters could end up being too broad.

Details

• Stars Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher, Melissa Fumero, Terry Crews, Joe Lo Truglio, Stephanie Beatriz, Chelsea Peretti

• Created by Michael Schur and Dan Goor
• Airs Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. EST starting September 17, 2013, on Fox

Review

The crop of new sitcoms for fall 2013 is pretty dismal, so Brooklyn Nine-Nine stands out as the best mainly by being pleasant and fun to watch. The workplace comedy from Parks and Recreation co-creator Michael Schur and fellow Parks writer Dan Goor bears a lot of similarities to the show they worked on previously, mainly by taking place in a municipal department (in this case, a Brooklyn police precinct) and by focusing on characters who may be goofy or ridiculous, but who are treated with respect and honesty rather than derision.

Not that they can’t be the objects of jokes. Main character Det. Jake Peralta (Saturday Night Live veteran Andy Samberg) is a brilliant detective, but he can also be arrogant and insensitive, and he gets his comeuppance multiple times throughout the first episode (but always in a smart, good-natured way). Peralta’s colleague Det. Charles Boyle (The State’s Joe Lo Truglio) is sort of a pathetic sad sack, and his efforts to set up a date with the intimidating Det.

Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz) are another source of humor in the first episode. But he’s also a nice and genuinely well-meaning guy, and the seemingly mean Diaz ends up appreciating his efforts.

The strongest dynamic in the pilot develops between Peralta and the unit’s new commander, Capt. Ray Holt (Andre Braugher). Braugher is renowned for his intensity in dramatic roles, and the show uses that intensity to great comic effect. Holt’s stone-faced response to all of Peralta’s antics is one of the most entertaining aspects of the show, and although their relationship is antagonistic, it’s clearly informed by mutual respect. It’s not hard to see a relationship developing along the lines of Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation.

Aside from the workplace set-up, the other major element of the first episode involves the detectives investigating a murder, and that’s not quite as successful. It’s hard to keep things light and fun when someone has been killed, but Schur and Goor do a good job of making the murder investigation funny without demeaning it. When someone is killed in a dispute over a $6,000 ham, it seems okay to laugh about it at least a little bit, and the perpetrator who’s eventually caught is clearly just an idiot, not a dangerous psychopath. Still, as the show goes on, the writers will have to keep coming up with cases for the characters to solve, and the balance between silly humor and serious crime may be tough to maintain.

Then again, the show would probably be fine if it just spent its time inside the precinct, watching the detectives goof off or mess with each other. One of the best things about the pilot is the way it doles out small character details for each person in the ensemble, showing their potential to be developed later. Terry Crews as the gun-shy sergeant and Chelsea Peretti as the ditzy civilian administrator only get a few moments each, but there’s clearly a lot of material to be mined for their characters going forward. That more than anything is proof that Brooklyn Nine-Nine will be worth keeping an eye on.

Disclosure: A review screener was provided by the network. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.