One Last Ride: A review of the eighth and final season premier of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” centered around flaws in the American police system

It would be an understatement — the size of Andy Samberg’s 2006 hair — to say society has changed drastically since “Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s” season seven finale. Along with a historic pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests of police brutality have prompted discussion of police reform, systemic racism and abolishment of the police.

In the wake of the BLM protests, the cast and crew spoke at length about their discomfort in portraying light-hearted cops and desire to more thoroughly address painful, complicated issues to reflect current events. Creator Dan Goor discarded four scripts for the final season to make sure the show didn’t gloss over relevant conversations around flaws in the American police system. 

“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” has addressed sensitive issues such as racial profiling, sexual assault and LGBTQ+ discrimination, but never as deeply as this season.

Season eight’s first episode — “The Good Ones” — immediately makes it obvious that the Nine-Nine would be tackling issues of police brutality and institutionalized racism head on. While COVID-19 is the first subject addressed in the cold open, Detective Rosa Diaz announces her resignation from the police force, clarifying the intentions of “The Good Ones” — cops who aren’t racist. 

Feeling complicit to the unethical actions of the police force, Rosa intends to become a private investigator to help victims of police brutality. She helps a victim of two officers in her first case, with the aid of Detective Jake Peralta, who hopes to reconnect with Rosa.

Working the case together ends up being more difficult than Jake expected. Not only is there an obnoxious union representative, but Jake’s defensiveness about his decision to remain on the force despite the routinely occurring injustices impacts his ability to support Rosa and her client. 

“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” has already proven their social awareness when dealing with sensitive topics, and once again are incredibly measured with discussions about the responsibility of the “good” police officers. Jake and Rosa learn the intentional difficulty of prosecuting “bad” cops, and many of Jake’s “I’m one of the good ones” arguments are thrown back in his face. We see with Rosa and Jake just how much work needs to be done to ensure consequences for corrupt officers. It’s funny, but in a terribly bleak sort of way.

Even funnier is the subplot of Detective Charles Boyle’s attempt to prove his “woke-ness” to Sgt. Terry Jeffords. Charles perfectly embodies a well-meaning, but misguided “ally,” performatively supporting the movement while still showing signs of cultural appropriation by dropping by Terry’s barber shop for a fresh cut or wearing tribal attire for Juneteenth. It’s a more lighthearted approach to what might be one of this season’s overarching themes that viewers can learn from.

Finally, Sgt. Amy Santiago returns to the force, only to find that her bond with Captain Raymond Holt has suffered in her absence. Eventually, we learn that Holt’s distance has little to do with Amy — he and his husband, Kevin have separated. In one of Andre Braugher’s finest moments of the series, he relays the difficulty of enduring the year as a Black man, police officer and — living through a pandemic — just a human in general.

It’s moments like this that make “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” more than a silly background show to watch while doing homework or scrolling through Instagram. “The Good Ones” commands your attention from the get-go and introduces season eight with an unbalancing status quo to navigate.

“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” doesn’t need to address social issues to be great, but the deeper subject matter adds another layer to off-set the silliness and sitcom trappings in light of current events.