TV Recap: Brooklyn Nine-Nine - "The Slump"

Andy Samberg

Welcome to a weekly recap of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which is one of the funniest and freshest new comedies currently airing on TV. Follow us every Thursday as we break down the episode into all of the important beats from the plot to character moments that are worth giving another shout-out. With an all-star comedy cast, this recap series will hopefully give you the information you need as well as reason to watch Fox on Tuesdays.

Left to right: Helen Slayton-Hughes, Samberg, and Joe Lo Truglio

Crime of the Week: Among many other unclosed cases, Helen (Helen Slayton-Hughes) is missing her son.

Peralta's Problem: Detective Peralta (Andy Samberg) is currently in the middle of a slump featuring 20 open cases and bad luck everywhere he goes.

Left to right: Stephanie Beatriz and Melissa Fumero

Subplot of the Week: Detectives Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz) and Santiago (Melissa Fumero) must convince some at-risk teens to become snitches with the help of Gina (Chelsea Peretti).

Chelsea Peretti

Best Joke: After Santiago does an impersonation of a drug dealer that sounds black, it starts a debate on if the accent was perceived as racist. From there, it evolves into Santiago denying it and only raising the question of if black people could sell drugs. This leads Gina to start chanting "Black people can sell drugs!" as Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) comes walking in confused.

Left to right: ? and Scott Michael Morgan

Culprit: A couple who have filed the report of a missing grandmother in five different states with no explained other reason than presumed insurance fraud.

Resolution: Peralta closes the case and finishes his downward slump. Santiago and Diaz finally get the at-risk teens to sign up after Gina does interpretive dance to Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" and says that the police force pays well. Terry (Terry Crews) has trouble building a doll house for his daughter, but with the help of Detective Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio), they manage to piece it together, though it looks more like a police station now. 

Terry Crews

Verdict: After only three episodes, the show has managed to make the cast very promising by pitting them in different ways. While the first two episodes could arguably be seen as the Andy Samberg show, this one manages to take the focus off of Peralta and gives it to the other characters. The results are hilarious as it goes from Gina doing an elaborate weird dance to Terry panicking about his manhood being lost by not being able to build a castle with wheels. The concepts are absurd, but the dynamics are so pure that it would take some serious haphazardness for this show to lose momentum. I even liked that they have someone who looks like Hitchcock (Dirk Blocker) as a regular character, though he's still in need of some fine tuning to match the rest of the cast. Of the early episodes, I would argue that the show's hero so far has been Joe Lo Truglio as Boyle, who seems to be the most innocent character who has gone from police chases to building a dollhouse. Now that is versatile.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5