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Sep 17, 2013 By Tyler Huckabee Issue #47 - September/October 2013 - MGMT

The concept has promise. A single-camera comedy taking place in a New York police department. Think The Office, but with cops.

Andy Samberg plays an inexplicably competent detective with a churlish streak. The show would be served better by casting him as his usual wannabe-badass instead of this Fresh Prince of Brooklyn-type (and one can only wonder how a young Will Smith might have handled this role).

With its star power entrenched as the straight man, it’s up to the rest of the cast to provide the laughs, and that goes mostly well. Chelsea Peretti and Joe Lo Truglio work wonders as dim-witted foils, and Stephanie Beatriz’s anti-social grouch is a treat. Sadly, Samberg’s office interest, played by Melissa Fumero, is out of her league, and the great Andre Braugher’s tough-as-nails police chief is too much of a stock character to be engaging.

It works in measures, but the tragedy here is that Samberg’s leash is too short. It’s criminal to anchor one of this generation’s greatest funnymen with such a blasé role. Hopefully, Brooklyn Nine-Nine will rip a page out of New Girl‘s handbook and make its celebrity a more organic part of the cast. Until then, one can only wonder what might have been. (www.fox.com/brooklyn-nine-nine)

Author rating: 5/10