Brooklyn 99’s Backlash & Criticism Explained

As 2020’s Black Lives Matter movement ramped up, the hit police workplace comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine began receiving backlash for its subject matter. While Brooklyn Nine-Nine is generally well-received, in a time where American police officers have been making headlines in some of the worst ways possible, the general public start cooling toward a television show that portrayed the profession in a positive light.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine takes co-creator Mike Schur’s signature workplace-comedy style and sets it at a New York police precinct. While the show tends to focus on the antics and the relationships of the squad, it of course dives into their work as police officers. It’s this core aspect of Brooklyn Nine-Nine that has caused some fans to grow increasingly uncomfortable with the subject matter of the series.

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Brooklyn Nine-Nine mostly keeps a goofy and lighthearted tone throughout its episodes, which is where much of the criticism stems from. Critics of the show are concerned that the tone sanitizes the deep-seated issues within the American law enforcement system. Here’s a look the show’s backlash and how Brooklyn 99 season 8 will play a pivotal role in the future of the show.

Why Brooklyn Nine-Nine Has Been Criticized

Criticism of Brooklyn Nine-Nine considers the show to be pro-cop propaganda. Every officer in the precinct, save for a few supporting characters, are depicted to be good and fair people – that tends to be another trademark of Schur’s shows. Critics believe that supports the divisive idea that some hold that the American law enforcement isn’t what’s flawed, but simply a handful of bad cops are bringing the profession down.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine hasn’t done much to remove itself from that idea. It’s true that the core group of cops on the show are fair and just people. But as they are the protagonists, the audience sees everything through their eyes — they are protecting their city and the real danger lurks outside of the precinct, not within. Brooklyn Nine-Nine was on its summer hiatus when American headlines became littered with stories of cops murdering Black citizens in cold blood and essentially attacking peaceful protesters. The forthcoming Brooklyn 99 season 8 will have to change its tone to reflect what’s happening in the real world.

How Brooklyn Nine-Nine Has Addressed Problems With Police

Brooklyn Nine-Nine has areas where it can improve, but it has previously addressed problems with the police in multiple episodes. The most prominent example of this is the season 4 episode “Moo Moo.” In this episode, Terry (Terry Crews) is stopped by a white police officer who sees him as a threat, simply as he’s out searching for his daughter’s lost toy around his neighborhood one night. Terry was horrified that he was stopped, simply because he is a Black man, and he even later respectfully confronted the office who stopped him. That officer never really owned up to being in the wrong, he just simply told Terry he should’ve been carrying his badge. The episode was absolutely an important one and vital to include in Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s run, but the incident doesn’t compare to what Black Americans so often face at the hands of police officers.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine season 6’s “He Said, She Said” also lightly touched on problems with the police. After investigating a sexual harassment case, Amy (Melissa Fumero) confides in Jake (Andy Samberg) that she too experienced sexual harassment at the hands of an older cop when she was still a rookie. Sexism and sexual harassment is an issue in many fields, but as law enforcement tends to be dominated by men, it’s one deeply ingrained within the American law enforcement system.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine has taken steps to show the problems with the police, but needs to take it further. At the end of the day, the cops are always the good guys on Brooklyn 99. Season 8 is an opportunity to show that this isn’t necessarily the case. Samberg has stated that the show is taking a step back to carefully examine how it can morally move forward as a police comedy, and the writers of Brooklyn Nine-Nine trashed scripts amid the BLM protests, but it’s going to be a difficult balance to redress in season 8.

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