Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Episode 1.15 & 1.16 - Operation: Broken Feather & The Party - Review

We got a double dose of the Nine-Nine this week, with an extra special, post-Superbowl episode, which was certainly more interesting than the football. Although, to be honest, that’s not really saying much.

The first episode, “Operation: Broken Feather” played off a little of the Amy/Jake dynamic from the previous episode, “The Ebony Falcon.” Amy considers taking a promotion and transferring into the Major Crimes division; a traitorous move considering the Vulture steals all their cases. In order to convince Amy to stay, Jake plays up all the “fun” aspects of their job, like dancing with Mlepnos (?) and dumpster diving. He meets her at her interview with a letter of recommendation, saying that he didn’t want her to leave because the hard parts of the job are easier with her as a partner. Overall this was a nice story, though it does highlight one of the show’s flaws, its level of realism. Jake and Amy have a more realistic relationship than some of the other characters, and sometimes when they’re together in a story, their lack of ridiculousness clashes with the goofiness of the other stories.

The most recent episode, “The Party,” once again jacks up the goofiness, and Amy is crazy and snoopy as she always gets regarding the Captain, while Jake is trying to mask his dumbness with The New Yorker. Between the two episodes there is a shift in the characters from more realistic to more heightened, a odd jump if you happen to see them back to back. It’s not a major problem, and the transition between “real”-feeling moments and over the top moments is deftly handled over on Schur’s other show, Parks and Recreation, so given a bit of time they should be able to sort it out over here as well. The clashing tones can be clearly felt in “The Party” where the oddness of the Nine-Niners is highlighted by putting them in a setting with, what appeared to be, relatively normal academics.

For Holt’s birthday in “The Party,” the wonderful Marc Evan Jackson came on to play Holt’s husband, Columbia professor of Classic Literature Kevin Cozner. Rather prickly to the Nine-Niners at first, Jake solves the “case,” and realizes that Kevin’s animosity comes from the ill treatment of his husband by other police officers because he’s openly gay. Although “Kev” doesn’t warm up to the precinct entirely (after all, they are pretty weird), he’s appreciative of the substitute birthday celebration that they throw for Holt - a dinner for the two of them at a nice restaurant, with Scully singing opera.

These past two episodes have a little more Holt in them than usual, which result in some interesting new knowledge. In “Operation: Broken Feather,” it’s revealed that Holt gets emotional about statistics and loves efficiency. It makes sense that as a robot with no human emotions, the things about which he would get “emotional” (in a robot manner), would have to do with facts and procedures. However, although statistical analysis seems to move him more than any hug ever could, he does seem to have a bit of a soft spot for his precinct, even convincing his husband to invite them to the party. Careful there Holt, don’t let those potential feelings get in the way of your day-to-day efficiency.

Just a shout out to Boyle, as he finally got a little action this week! His food expertise help him to enchant a food-centric academic named Vivian, and they got all the way to making out, umami-style, in the coat closet. Although he may have a crush on Rosa, it’s nice to see that he’s not clueless enough to the reality of the situation, and that he still wants to have fun. Though he might be the only one who has gotten any action on the show… There are very few romantic relationships in the Nine-Nine, pretty much just Holt and Terry’s respective marriages. It’ll be interesting to see if Boyle moving on at all will change his relationship with Rosa - I’m sure we’ll see.

Both of the episodes this past week were pretty fun, though it always feels like the show might be missing one extra story.

What did you think of this week’s episodes? Did you prefer the Nine-Nine to the Superbowl? Let us know below!