Why Brooklyn Nine-Nine Isn't Doing It For Me

I was finally able to articulate what exactly it was about B99 that made it fall short of my expectations, having been an alumnus of The Office, Parks and Recreation, Community, Arrested Development, and The Good Place.

All these comedies have two kinds of jokes in general: the ones I see coming, and the ones I don't. Unlike the comedies I did not include here, even if I see the joke coming, B99 plus the shows I'm an alumnus of still make me chuckle at the very least. However, B99's predict to not-predict ratio is rather high compared to the other shows.

As for the one's I don't see coming, having seen so many sitcoms, this one's actually a misnomer. I pretty much see 90% of jokes incoming. However, jokes classified under here are referring to those who go even further than I expected.

Take Community. The set-up is the Dean has become susceptible to guerilla marketing by Honda. Frankie walks into his office and you see him and the room adorned in all Honda. Now I saw this joke coming, but the gag just keeps going, wringing every comedic iota out of it as possible.

In Arrested Development, there's a gag involving the recreation of The Creation of Adam (I can't find a clip... weird), but with George Sr. and George-Michael playing God and Adam. Now the payoff is simply that George Sr. uses this to escape prison, but they intertwine this joke with another joke in the episode's B-plot about Tobias being never nude, so when the recreation is unveiled, GM is in full buff Adam getup but he's wearing cutoffs. And as if that wasn't enough, the audience begins to get angry exclaiming "WHERE IS GOD?!" and then this random extra stands up and loudly proclaims "THERE IS NO GOD" almost punctuated with an interrobang.

The last example I'm giving is from The Office, and this one needs a video. Now the scene starts out funny, then it becomes absolutely politically incorrect, but the way people get offended by it in the show makes it curve, like James McAvoy's bullets, back to funny. And then each cast member just becomes the perfect embodiment of their character as each of them gets in a moment with this ridiculous set-up.

I only see B99 go really far in the Halloween episodes. Most of their gags are quick, snappy, and done in one or two beats, which really fits Andy Samberg's style, but personally, I don't like my comedy quick and done with. I like it stretched out for all the comedy you can extract from it and then end it right before it peters out. B99's gags are usually self-contained in each line of dialogue or each scene. Rarely (like only in the Halloween eps) do they really, and I mean REALLY, stretch out a moment for everything it's worth.

Now I'm not too sad, and no, Mike Schur has not "lost" the magic. He's still writing "The Good Place", which also doesn't really draw out comedic sequences. However, TGP makes up for it with truly unpredictable jokes due to the nature of the show. I very rarely see any of the jokes in TGP coming because there simply is no sitcom like it.

Please do tell me if B99 starts wringing out their sequences for maximum comedic impact S3 onwards, because, in the first two seasons, I really don't see anything that makes it worth my time to continue watching if I could, IDK, just pick any of the other five shows I mentioned and rewatch them (except Arrested Development S4+, hot garbage that is.)