One of the most beloved network comedies of recent years, the police office comedy “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” faces its toughest challenge shortly – how do you make shows about cops funny in the wake of the BlackLivesMatter moment.
It has already been made clear the first few scripts for the show’s season were thrown out by showrunner Dan Goor following the protests in June, with the new run being retooled to address events.
The series will fare better than most as it has always been frank, has its heart in the right place, and has tackled issues of systemic racism and corruption within the force right from the get go.
In a new interview with EW, Captain Raymond Holt himself actor Andre Braugher says that the new season is challenge he has faith their writers will be able to handle:
“Now we’re going into an eighth season with a new challenge, which is that everyone’s knowledge and feelings about police and the police force have been profoundly affected. What we have from [creator] Dan [Goor] is a commitment to write a smart show that will not attempt to hide itself in a fantasy. So the Nine-Nine is going to have to deal with what we know about the New York Police Department…I have a tremendous amount of confidence in [the writers] that we’re going to deal with this in a smart and funny way that acknowledges the world as it is.”
Braugher has played cops and other law enforcement types before and so was asked what he thinks needs to change in the media landscape when it comes to including police officers on television. He has one key suggestion:
“It’s a very complicated subject, but I think [TV shows] have to be portrayed much more realistically, in terms of this: the convention in police shows of police breaking the law and that being a good thing, that police breaking the law is okay because somehow it’s in the service of some greater good, is a myth that needs to be destroyed.”
The new season is supposed to air this Fall though could be pushed back to early 2021 depending upon circumstances.
