Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Season 7 starts off fast, using many of the show's strengths while subverting some standards and taking advantage (for now) of Holt's reassignment. The series will move to its regularly scheduled, once-a-week slot next week, and we’ll see how Holt’s story, and Amy’s potential pregnancy, develop.
Before NBC benevolently saved Brooklyn Nine-Nine from cancelation, a new season of the beloved workplace comedy seemed improbable; after the successful return, the hilarious Season 6, a new season seemed inevitable. Sure enough, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is back for Season 7 on NBC, which seems like it should have been the home of the Dan Goor and Michael Schur series all along. Season 7 will supposedly consist of 13 episodes, but that was the original order of the sixth season as well, before the network ordered five additional installments, so who knows?
If that order sticks, NBC wastes no time burning two, unrelated episodes on the premiere date with “Manhunter” and “Captain.” Fortunately, these are two solid half-hours, but still, if the network insists on airing an hour of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, why not try to execute a longer story? The series has played with light serialization in the past, like Jake’s prison arc, so why not tackle something a bit more narratively ambitious? (Though it’s likely the show’s writers had no idea that they’d have an hour to work with for the premiere.)
Things pick up almost exactly where we left them at the end of last season, with Holt serving as a beat cop once Wuntch discovered that he didn’t spend the mandatory time in uniform before being promoted to detective. Our main cast are called into action when there’s an assassination attempt on a NYC councilman, which keeps everyone mostly together working on the same crime scene. Episodes always work well when they feature what you could call B and C-plots, but all of the action takes place at a central location, with the main cast of characters coming in and out of each other’s stories. It leaves more opportunity for fun character work when all of our characters are dealing with the same predicament.
While Jake leads the manhunt, Officer Holt and his partner Officer Fogle (Vanessa Bayer) are assigned to monitor the perimeter, but Holt can’t help but try to intercede. Holt increasingly steps on Jake’s toes, dragging Fogle along for the ride. Due to Jake’s respect for Holt and his well-noted Daddy issues, he can’t order Holt the way that he’s supposed to and Peralta grows increasingly resentful the more that Holt steals his thunder.
Peralta tries to send Holt on a wild goose chase, but he ends up identifying a second suspect. Unfortunately, the suspect gets the drop on Holt and Fogle and Peralta and the rest of the Nine-Nine have to make the save.
Bayer is an excellent guest star and hopefully we’ll see more of her as long as Holt is working the beat. Fogle is almost like if you crossed Jake and Amy, then made the opposite of that person; she’s unambitious, afraid of danger, and would prefer to do as little work as possible. She also continually reveals incredibly sad, yet hilarious details about her backstory. Even if you find yourself annoyed with Fogle, you can laugh when Rosa roasts her and implies that no one actually cares about her. It’s the funniest moment of the episode, beside maybe Hitchcock and Scully being brought in as hot dog experts or Boyle’s remix of Hall and Oates’s “Maneater.”
What I DIDN’T find funny was Santiago being ruthless and rude to a police dog. No Good Boy deserves to be treated like that, but I guess it’s understandable considering Amy believes she may be unexpectedly pregnant. Rosa steps up and tries to help Amy through the crisis, but the pair’s behavior causes Terry, who’s leading the operation, to feel insecure. Honestly, Terry repeatedly asking Amy and Rosa why they’re acting weird, then suspecting they must be talking behind his back, grows repetitive and tiresome after a while.
The pregnancy storyline thankfully ends on a sweet note though; Amy is pregnant, but when she tells Jake about the day and her feelings about it, the pair decide that they want to start trying for a kid. It’s a sweet moment, and it looks like the writer’s will be making good use of actress Melissa Fumero’s second pregnancy.
