Brooklyn Nine-Nine Review: Moo Moo (Season 4 Episode 16)

Since Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a comedy, it doesn’t often look too closely at some of the more serious aspects of its main characters’ jobs — at least not without making a lot of jokes at the same time.

Even though there are some jokes, Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 4 Episode 16, “Moo Moo,” takes a more serious turn in both the episode’s A- and B-plots after Terry is racially profiled and harassed by another cop, Officer Maldack.

Terry Crews and Andre Braugher both give excellent performances, as Terry struggles with his pain, fear and frustration, and Holt tries to reason with him, hanging onto the attitude he had to have years ago when he was a young, gay, black cop who had no superior officers to support him.

The scenes are more serious than usual for both actors, especially Crews, but they’re still the Terry and Holt we know and love. Their dialogue isn’t preachy; it’s conversational and real, and the writers cut the tension with jokes without giving viewers whiplash.

Holt’s complaints about Kevin’s friend and his repeated use of the work “besmirch” are just enough to to lighten the mood without undermining the seriousness of the topic at hand, just like Rosa’s comments about slashing tires and Hitchcock’s “get woke, Scully!” line earlier in the episode.

The conversation between Terry and Officer Maldack also manages to not turn Maldack into an over-the-top caricature of a bad cop. He’s not a cartoon villain; he could be anyone, any cop you see on the street. His matter-of-fact attitude is like something straight out of the comments section of a news article — he was just doing his job, Terry should’ve had his badge on him, Terry doesn’t look like he belongs in that neighborhood.

The realistic conversations also extend to the B-plot, where Jake and Amy babysit Terry’s kids.

In any other episode, this could have been a much goofier subplot, maybe more along the lines of the very brief final scene of the episode where Rosa and Gina have somehow been tied up by the twins. But even the B-plot is affected by what happens to Terry, since his daughters naturally have some questions about what’s going on.

It’s still a little lighter and funnier than the A-plot, as Jake and Amy don’t know what to say and they scramble to distract the girls, but it still handles the situation sincerely and seriously, managing again to avoid sounding like a Very Special Episode.

Also, by adding the babysitting plot to this particular episode, the writers manage to do a Jake-and-Amy-with-kids story without really giving them an opportunity to have a serious discussion about the possibility of having kids in their future.

Even without having an actual discussion, it seems pretty clear that they’re both on the same page — maybe someday, but not anytime soon.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is one of the funniest comedies currently on television, and it’s nice to have a weekly escape into a world of cops who are all moral, fundamentally good people. But at the same time, it’s also nice to see the show taking on the responsibility of tackling a real-world problem, one that some viewers might not necessarily want to think about.

“Moo Moo” doesn’t try to wrap the issue up in a bow. Terry files his report, and that may or may not have led to him not getting the liaison job. He’ll probably never know for sure. Holt says Maldack will think twice now before racially profiling someone, but we don’t see Maldack again, and we can only hope Holt is right.

Vote for Your Favorites! The 2017 Tell-Tale TV Awards: Comedy, Musical, and Reality Categories (Round One)

What did you think of “Moo Moo”? Share with us in the comments below!

Reviewer Rating:

User Rating:

 

Brooklyn Nine-Nine airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on FOX.

Follow us on Twitter @telltaleTV_

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!