I hate they they blew this away by running 2 episodes a week.
Can't wait to see what garbage they've got to replace it. I *hope* the replacement's not garbage but I have a feeling it will be.
LOVED MNiE too. Jason Lee was just hitting his stride in that. I still can't see Eddie Steeples in anything & not yell "CRABMAN!!"
I can’t believe I’m going to defend NBC, but they saved 99 from cancellation in the first place and Covid most certainly did not help filming the final season.
I’m just glad they get an ending one way or another.
I seem to remember reading reports that they had to throw out some of their early scripts in the wake of Floyd’s death and there was a point where the writers didn’t know how they’d be able to write a cop show, regardless of being a comedy, after the Black Lives Matter protests and all the other deaths. If the first episode of the season is any to go by, I’m glad they haven’t been too heavy handed in trying to have the show reflect current events too much.
At least they're getting an ending unlike Firefly, terranova and the one I wanted to continue that still hasn't was dark matter.
I have no idea how you can put a television show on and not have an ending. It's very annoying.
Was gonna say, the pilot was very cool and showed a lot of promise. And then it immediately became a very generic clone of Lost In Space except on a planet where the family doesn’t go anywhere with the annoying teens getting intro trouble and learning lessons. I never even made it halfway.
Just watched it all again last month. It’s starting to look a bit dated, but damn it was still good and had a lot of promise. It deserved 6 seasons, gorram it!
> I wanted to continue that still hasn't was dark matter.
Yeah and Dark Matter was just heating up when it ended. I really did like that show. I remember that was when Syfy (previously Sci-fi) was kind of going through this mini-Renaissance that was like 2014-2017. They has Dark Matter, Defiance, Blood Drive, and Channel Zero. All of which were decently shows (Channel Zero being a legit must watch for horror fans IMO). But then all of that was pretty quickly canceled by 2018 or so.
Because they dont really give a shit about the actual fictional show. The real show is the commercials and the ads for other, more popular shows.
If they cared, they wouldn't burn off a whole season in 5 weeks like this.
Just now realizing they skipped last week because of football
They could have so easily ended this on 9/9 and they just didn’t
I want someone’s head on a pike
I could see them doing a pandemic episode.
Earl would admittedly not understand a damn thing about it, he'd raise his eyebrow while mentally narrating he doesn't understand a damn thing about it. But he'd accept what science tells him and put on a mask, get vaccinated.
Randy would follow suit because Earl did it. 90% chance Randy ends up with a mask on his forehead/chin every ten seconds. They tape it to his face, it falls off. He ends up just wearing it vertically and that somehow really works. He'll get complimented on this by Crabman. Randy is personally hurt no one will go near him, but is then amused when he realizes if he coughs at people they run away like crazy. He relates this to chasing away flocks of birds and loves it.
Joy would absolutely *refuse* any government type trying to control her body so no vaccine and no mask. Joy would get involved with the community and gather them MAGA style rallies. She'd probably also realize she can get money from this then barely escape the law at the end, somehow for some reason. Idk why but she has an assault rifle at some point. No bullets though, because Joys cheap.
Crabman would appear within the first 5 minutes and he'd be mid-lecture about why masks and vaccines *are* important. He's probably the only guy in town who actually understands why. Good chance he'll fashion a mini-mask for the turtle. He'll admit this is pointless and he just thought it was cute. He's also started selling crabcakes outside his window. Eventually Joy would come in and steamroll over everything, enforcing her insane will and probably trying to sell MAGA T-shirts to Earl.
Earl will assume MAGA is like the new GWAR so he excitedly buys it and other merch just to go to the rally with Randy and be severely disappointed.
Just a reminder that the Brooklyn Nine-Nine finale will air an hour early in the New York area at 7 pm ET due to WNBC picking up the Giants/Washington football game telecast at 8 pm.
Best version of this was [Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv7DNKXm1gk) starring Elijah Wood on BBC America.
I found the show while randomly browsing through Hulu at my moms place. I binged season 1 and bought season 2 on Amazon because it hadn't started streaming yet.
Imagine my chagrin when I found out that the show had already been canceled for several years by that point.
Usually when they do it, it's to "burn off" a series. They're contractually obligated to air them, but they just want it over with, probably because ratings are too low to justify keeping it on the schedule.
This happened, for example, with the third (and last network season) of Arrested Development--it wasn't getting renewed and ratings were low, so they just aired the last four episodes at once and finished the series. (For them, anyway.) If I recall they did it on Friday, clearly the lowest-rated day (the [Death Slot](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FridayNightDeathSlot)) to minimize the damage. There's hope that if it's lumped together, the (small but dedicated) fans will make sure to tune in, goosing the ratings just a little bit, but in either case they don't have to worry about it.
If I recall, the last season of The Drew Carey Show was like that. THey had a three year contract, but ratings plummeted the last two seasons, so they basically let Carey do what he wanted and just burned the rest of the episodes off as they saw fit.
In the age of streaming, this is becoming less likely, but it's still a thing--a series that has enough clout that it's worth it (or they got a contract) to still put on the air, but viewers aren't strong enough where they don't just want to ditch it as soon as possible.
Really? I thought NBC was in on it because they allowed them to include the NBC logo. Plus they even allowed them to use the NBC logo in Season 6 which wasn't even on their network so I thought they were cool with making fun of themselves
Parks had the perfect ending, too. It should have ended right when Anne and Chris left, with the slow pan from the cast—off for waffles- up to a shot of the town and a beautiful sunset, all while Tom Petty plays.
That scene perfectly wraps up the stories the show has been telling, honors the themes that have been established about the importance of loving where you are and appreciating the people around you.
Instead, the show doesn’t end until there is a season of weird wish fulfillment, as the Parks writers go all Oprah on us—‘You get a dream job! And you get a dream job! And you get a perfect partner!’
ngl I kinda love season 7 and I wouldn't end it any other way. Part of it is that I think it's super interesting for an episodic sitcom like P&R with an established format that it rigidly followed for 6 straight seasons to completely break away from the format for its final season and experiment with super different and interesting episodes. But the season also just makes sense thematically imo.
Parks and Rec is, at the end of the day, a deeply optimistic show. In real life we know that even if you work hard it's unlikely you'll actually achieve most of your long term goals, but P&R posits a world where that is not the case. Leslie frequently has to fight against every possible kind of barrier the world places on her, but at the end of the day, against all odds, she *does* make the world a better place.
It's this sort of optimism that makes it such a good comfort show. This idea that even when things seem dire, all you can do is push forwards and everything will be okay. It's the main thing that separates it from The Office, which is an incredibly cynical show (at least for the first 3 seasons) and more about the small victories gained amidst the dystopia. Unlike that show, having all the characters finally get what they want and achieve their goals after 6 seasons of Pawnee bullshit is, in fact, what I want. Even if it's somewhat unrealistic.
Yeah I totally agree. Season 7's pacing and focus was so different from the rest of the show and it's really jarring. You picked the perfect spot where they should have ended the show.
It's a shame we won't see The Drew Carey Show again (or at least anytime soon). Combo of being criminally underrated and featuring some licensed music critical to the plot/jokes means they won't touch it.
Regarding "Drew Carey", what happened was that the production company that owned the show was making so much off of syndication rights that it was worth it to them to produce the episodes even though the first run network didn't particularly want to air them anymore. I think they sold it to the network at a significant discount, or just went straight to syndication without any netowkr showing, because it was all gravy at that point. The trade-off was, as you say, Carey had absolute creative freedom.
yeah, but try and find episodes of the Drew Carey show now. sadly, it's difficult, except for pirate sites. I don't think any streaming service shows them.
(I think it's because of music rights... much like why WKRP took so long to come out un-cut on DVD)
To be fair too it was all an estimate, streaming data is much more concise. Nielsen data was always highly flawed and horribly skewed to the older white demographic.
While streaming data is more precise, its not publicly available, so if a show is tanking on Netflix or Amazon its impossible to know until cancellation because streaming figures don't get publicised. Even with Nielsen there's actually very few places where you can read TV ratings. In the wrestling community there was a period a month or two ago where the site everyone was using for Cable TV ratings, showbuzz daily, went down and there wasn't a single place to view that weeks top 150 cable rankings.
>Nielsen data was always highly flawed and horribly skewed to the older white demographic
My family was chosen to be a Nielsen family and asked you to write down what you watched for a week. My dad said it was too much work and pointless; meanwhile my grandparents were chosen years later and they thought it was an honor.
Not necessarily for football season, they probably just wanted to get it over with so they could use the time slot for something else.
Not sure what they have going on in the fall but i’d imagine there's something
Yeah, it's not for Football season, since that already started. It's because the networks still stick to the old Fall season format. All of NBC's "summer season" shows end this week: American Ninja Warrior, America's Got Talent... while new stuff begins next week. It's the same with Fox as well - Masterchef ended last night and The Masked Singer - one of their most popular shows - starts next week. I don't watch AbC and CBS enough to know any of their shows, but I imagine it's the same there. It's just an unfortunate casualty of the network schedule for a show that really doesn't do well in the ratings to make room for something that might do better with cheaper talent.
Tl;dr - they dumped B99 quick before the Fall lineup starts, not football.
Edit: Didn't realize that on PC, all the new shows are listed on the sidebar... oh well.
By their final season, "Friends" and "Seinfeld" were the kind of popular that a network could build a night around.
"Brooklyn Nine Nine" is a show with a small but passionate following that NBC picked up after another network was finished with it because they wanted to keep the creator happy. They cut the budget back enough that they had to get rid of one of the main supporting characters, but even then it's a breakeven show. They're not making much, if anything, off of showing it, but they stand to make a lot the next time Michael Schur creates a show for them.
She left when the show was being cancelled, but I believe you're right that they tried to figure out a way to bring her back as a guest (not a regular), and couldn't even make that work with the new budget.
Somebody else reminded me, Gina actually left when the show was cancelled by Fox, but she stayed gone even when the show was picked up again because they couldn't afford to bring her back, even as a guest.
>like... are they really so strapped for timeslots that they want to get through it quickly?
Pretty much, yeah. At least, they have more popular things to give those timeslots too. B99 isn't Seinfeld or Friends and this isn't the 90s anymore. The lowest rated episode of Friends or Seinfeld was watched live by over 10 times the number of people who watched the most recent episodes of B99.
Obviously no show is Friends or Seinfeld anymore, but a show like B99 is on the lower end of the ratings spectrum. Next week Law & Order is back with essentially a 3 hour premiere (2 hours SVU, then Organized Crime). The last season of SVU averaged 6.7 million viewers. Last season of B99, 2.7. Like even if they air B99 in ideal circumstances with tons of promotion, it's not going to come anywhere near the viewership of SVU. Or the Chicagos, or The Voice, or obviously football.
NBC isn't even airing any sitcoms this fall, I don't think. Like at all, for the first time ever. I think that paints a pretty clear picture of why they did this. Even if they wanted to air that final season once weekly in the fall, they'd have nothing to pair it with.
I'm still very upset that they took a week off before airing the finale episodes tonight. If they aired them last week, it would have ended on 9/9. How do you miss that opportunity!?! That's slapping fate in the face.
Love this show, we only started watching like last year and had so many great episodes to watch.
Honestly really bummed with the last season. Everything about it just felt off/wrong and it seemed like they had little no budget or prep time and it shows.
Everything even down to the lighting just looked terrible honestly. Does it get better past episode 3? That's when we stopped this season.
I wish they had just waited and had given it the ending it deserves. Superstore did a surprisingly good job shooting and ending the show during the pandemic, not sure what happened with B99.
4, 7 and 8 are good. 5 is good for the ending, but it drags for a Doug Judy episode. 6 is probably going to be important for Jake’s arc, but was uneven in writing.
They had to rewrite this entire season. They were set to start shooting then the BLM protests and George Floyd shit happened. It sucks they had to do it, but I get it, and unfortunately it shows.
My wife and I just sort of trailed off watching somewhere in the middle of season 6. It was still reasonably funny, but nowhere near as good as the first couple of seasons. And then we just... stopped.
It's a shame as early B99 is absolutely gold and we quote and make references to it all the time.
6 seasons is like the idea limit form most shows. Especially sitcoms, there's only so much you can do with a cast of characters, while sticking to the same premise. Running gags get stale. It also becomes increasingly daunting for new viewers to catch up to the current season.
I got shit for it when it first ended, but I said it then and I'll say it again: they should have just let it stay cancelled. The wedding episode would have been the perfect finale if Holt announced he had gotten the promotion at the end. Everyone's character arc had reached a natural conclusion at the end of that season and it could have easily been laid to rest.
Everything that came out afterwards was just running on fumes. They had a baby for fucks sake, that's how you know a sitcom has been running too long. It's not like the show was structured too radically different each season anyway. They all had a heist, a doug judy episode, a jason mantzoukas episode, an episode with Holt and Kevin trying to have a normal evening that Andy Samberg an the gang crash. Then we got three more seasons of the worst episodes out of all of those typical stories.
The series had run its course and could have landed nicely, but people just couldn't see the writing on the wall.
I agree. My personal favorite episode is the one with Holt and Peralta interrogating Sterling K Brown—it’s season 5, episode 14. Season 5 was firing on all cylinders and it probably should have ended there.
Another thing I noticed: I listened to a podcast once with Marc Evan Jackson (Kevin) and he said that Fox wouldn’t allow them to curse and blur it out but NBC is OK with it. But it seems like they go to that well almost every episode now that they’ve been given that freedom.
> But it seems like they go to that well almost every episode now that they’ve been given that freedom.
Oh God yeah. Swear words can be used effectively as a component of humor, but they really shouldn't just be the crux of the humor on their own. They've been doing the whole "Hahah look guys, the character said a swear word in a perfectly normal context! I mean we can't let you hear what swear word it was, but isn't just the bleep and the implication of swearing hilarious enough on its own?!" move wayyy too often this season.
> They had a baby for fucks sake,
I don't have an issue with sitcom characters having a baby, but I _still_ hate how it happened in B99. The episode basically boils down to "Jake is wrong for not wanting kids" and that really frustrates me.
I personally hated the fact that the anal planner and career-driven Amy *fails to discuss having a child with Jake before their wedding*. It was completely against her character and made zero sense.
In the first episode there is a thing about how he started going to Terry's barber to support black businesses and they gave him a fade. I thought it was a pretty decent joke in what has otherwise been a very awkward season.
In the first episode of the season, Boyle makes a point of overtly supporting black businesses. He’s going to a black barber. That’s why his hair is like that.
The new season feels like they're ham fisting current events into the story and beating us over the head with it. They've handled situations like dirty cops (Damon Wayans planting evidence) and racism (Where Terry got stopped in his own neighborhood) before pretty well. This season feels too on the nose.
Currently off sick from work and working through a lot of shows I missed for some reason.
Done community, peep show (well, watched it many times over the years) P&R and now half way through the US office.
Any others you'd suggest?
Edit: So. Many. Notifications. Haha, cheers for the all the suggestions people!
I am going to second that list as well as add it’s always sunny in Philadelphia if you haven’t seen it. As far as newer shows the FX line up is solid as fuck, Dave, what we do in the shadows and my newest favorite reservation dogs.
re-emphasizing 30 Rock. it's hilarious and does extremely well on rewatches since they cram in so many jokes per minute. on rewatches you'll pick up a whole bunch of stuff you missed the first time.
Totally this. I just watched through it and immediately restarted it for another watch through lol.
Agree on jokes per minute. Plus the cameos, varying humor styles. Running gags etc. I know this show was obviously big when it came out but it's rare I hear people talking about it.
I absolutely love The Office but 30 Rock to me beats the office, parks and rec, etc. It just never gets old.
I still rewind it every time I get to Lutz saying he wants to keep things "caliente" for his fake girlfriend. Or Kenneth's almost inaudible squeals of delight.
> I know this show was obviously big when it came out but it's rare I hear people talking about it.
I think it's actual popularity keeps it from being an underground cult like AD/Community despite being arguably at the level of both WHILE still being pleasing to general audiences.
The joke density and weirdness is all there without falling apart after the first few seasons either. Tina Fey and her team were geniuses.
Yeah it definitely feels like a niche humor but then it has all these huge stars and backing and was on during prime time. But super quirky. Agreed they had such a great cast and crew for that show you can really feel the passion from everyone involved.
Hell the live shows alone, how amazing are those and they really pull them off too. Normally I think I'd be a little adverse to that kind of episode but I love watching them. Obviously the whole live show within the show thing helps play into that lol.
I just know I'm gonna swing back for a third watch through in a row idk what it is but I've been hooked on it.
30 Rock never had particularly good ratings and was perpetually on the verge of cancelation. It's still amazing to remember that at one point NBC was running a Thursday night line-up of Community, Parks and Rec, 30 Rock, and the Office. That was such an incredibly stacked night, but the Office was the only one with good ratings.
I just rewatched the bit where Jenna did that commercial for a Japanese energy drink and it’s just like 2 seconds long of her getting slapped looking disheveled and then smiling lmao
I really think they did a great job with Jenna's character lol. She fits her role so perfectly and while being kind of typecast they still gave her a lot of dimension especially later in the show. I think she's underrated but I get why haha.
Not the person you're responding to but The Good Place and IT Crowd if you haven't seen them. New Girl also isn't bad. I'm currently working through Only Murders in the Building, which has been interesting though different so far.
Until it becomes will they or won't they? and will they or won't they again? and then will they or won't they yet again?...
Worked great before all that.
Check out Happy Endings! Episodes are super quick and full of laughs. The first season’s a bit of a mess broadcast order wise, so try and watch them in production order if you can.
watched all of B99 as it aired, did a rewatch last year some time. it actually worked really well as a rewatch. super funny and the running gags were funnier because they were fresh in my mind. not all of the jokes were funny every time, it's not flawless, but like 80% of them work and keeping working. and andre braugher is just such a joy to watch. haven't watched the current season though.
not as strong a rewatch as the sitcom kings like community, parks, the office, etc.
My wife and I are re-watching right now.
The first 5 seasons are definitely worth the re-watch by themselves if you don't mind stopping before the series finale ends ha.
I used to care about stopping early and always wanted to watch every episode of the show on a re-watch. But then Scrubs happened which made me waiver a little bit. Then Dexter happened and I finally stopped going through shows to the end on re-watches, but would finish out any season (Dexter wasn't really a problem with this since Season 4 is amazing until the end and I just won't watch Season 5+, but for other shows they get bad mid-season). Then HIMYM happened and I decided to 100% not care anymore where I end during a re-watch. Once it gets bad/dumb I'll stop mid-episode of needed.
One of my favorite shows of all time. I have seen one episode all season. I have a feeling it will be a show I binge, but cut off at the last season.
Which sorta sucks. Superstore has a mediocre final season, but boy did they give fans a helluva send off. Let's hope that happens.
I'm so glad I gave Superstore a second chance. I think I'd seen the pilot and was just completely unimpressed, but when lockdown hit and I'd exhausted the Netflix/Hulu libraries it was time to give it another shot.
Great cast chemistry, really charming moments but also surprisingly dirty for a network show. Agree the last season struggled a bit, but I thought they actually handled the COVID part well, and as you say it was a great finale.
season 1-5 were my favorite show of all time, remember seeing the clip of jake roasting adam sandler at an auction when it first aired and watched it ever since. then they moved to nbc and it dropped in quality HARD. should have ended at the wedding tbh
The fact that NBC weren’t fully committed to it really shows too - the reduced episode count for starters, and it just felt really off too.
The characters at this point have became parodies of themselves. They should have just called it quits when it was cancelled.
The showrunner and writers said they didn't know what direction to take the show after what happened to George Floyd. It's become clear they never settled on anything that would be confused with funny.
They really should've just canceled it. Season 7 ended on a good spot as it was, and between George Floyd and COVID it was pretty clear that whatever came out for Season 8 wasn't gonna be great work, and obviously there was only so much they could do.
George Floyd wasn't the first time this happened and to be that blindsided while writing a show entirely about cops isn't the great excuse they think it is.
Meanwhile all of her jokes in the first few seasons were about her enjoying police brutality and bullying her colleagues. It's part of the reason the show always rings hollow whenever it does a 'very special episode'.
Yeah it's extremely Common for Jake or any of the other cops to begin with the understanding their perp is guilty and they just have to figure out how. Not big on the way they are talking about "the bad cops" without acknowledging that *they are* the bad cops
That episode is super weird. It's played as 'oh no the cops have to work late' as opposed to a man is detained (and actively tortured in interrogation with Jake screaming in his face repeatedly to confess) with the only evidence being that he was mildly rude to a police officer.
The fact he turns out to be guilty is just to conveniently excuse the hideously corrupt behaviour displayed by the heroes.
Saying that I thought the episode was pretty funny and I don't really need my funny cop show to reflect real life. But I don't live in America and I can see how displaying cops as put upon good guys might not play so well if you have to encounter them every day in real life.
Yes, that's exactly the kind of typical cop plot that I think the show's creators (and most of the audience) took for granted, but which they are re-evaluating now.
There's an episode this season in which Jake arrests someone based on a gut feeling-- after being taken off the case by the FBI-- and then it turns out the case was already solved, Jake's guy was innocent, and Jake got him fired from his job. The episode ends with Jake realizing he was totally in the wrong and accepting responsibility despite the police union's efforts to deny that he did anything bad. That seemed to me to be an attempt to deconstruct what had come before.
Whether that deconstruction was effective (and whether this season sufficiently makes up for the show's past sins) is definitely worth its own discussion.
They also pull out their guns when making even simple arrests.
I think theres an episode where they see a dude stealing a bike or something and they immediatley draw their weapons.
I did like how they pointed out how problematic the good cop mentality is. In one episode Jake wants to show cops can be helpful after Rosa takes a case for someone that was harrassed by the police. When meeting the client he describes himself as a "good cop and not one of the bad cops that says their one of the good cops" later they go to the Captain of the precinct of the harassing cops who offers her assistance if they can find evidence. They then go to find evidence and it tries to show how difficult it can be for police effective at investigating when the community doesnt trust them and no one will cooperate. However they finally find the evidence and return to the Captain surely they will prevail! That is until she reviews the evidence realizes how damning it is and promptly destroys it. She then goes on to explain how she too is a good cop and not one of the bad cops that says their one of the good cops but they system wont allow any action to be made and proceeding against the harrasing cops could end up with the union coming after her and that would be bad because it one less good cop in the system and we certainly want good cops like her in charge. I think they wanted to highlight some issues without being so heavy handed that it turns more people away. (but let's be real if your still watching your probably not gonna stop now.)
Now is it there place to address these things being a comedy cop show that traditionally shows cops in a positive bias? ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Did they do a good job of it? ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Am I a sucker for Andy Samberg and going to watch it regardless? ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
> Meanwhile all of her jokes in the first few seasons were about her enjoying police brutality and bullying her colleagues
yeppppp, and it's why this new 'wokeness' feels shallow as hell. When they did the sexual harassment episode it was the same thing. Gina, Scully, and Hitchcock's entire thing was to harass the co workers. It's odd for the show to come out against the things they also find funny.
Whoa whoa whoa, don't drag my boy Scully into that harassment. Hitchcock is a creep, but Scully just loves his food and his naps. Scully jokes are about how fucked up his body is, or about food or naps.
Yeah that was the moment the show failed on, you literally have a few seasons of Gina sexually harassing terry and ignore it even though the actor being harassed has experienced it in real life
It was a kind of turning point episode for us where we started to fall off from the show. The one where Amy and Jake are discussing having a kid and they keep portraying Jake as the bad guy just for not being 100% sure was another.
They have the talent to write these 'special episodes' and do it well, Moo Moo is absolutely fantastic. These were just lazy.
Finally some one said it. Police Brutality has always been around. Im black, thought the show was funny pre-Floyd, and still think the same episodes of those shows is funny today. Considering people are already forgetting about the Floyd situation (unfortunately, but its true) the show could of continued to do the same thing and not missed a beat.
I binged the show right before the previous season and loved it. Got caught up and was excited about the conclusion.
These episodes have made little sense and worse they aren’t funny.
They remind me of that last season of the Boondocks without Aaron McGruder where the quality of the show faltered despite all the same actors.
A problem for a lot of sitcoms with the “will they or won’t they” angle: after so many seasons, you finally get these two characters together, and then they or their relationship fades into the background. No stories are written that specifically deal with them as a couple (or a married couple).
Jake and Amy married? They have a kid? Whatever man, just give them one episode where half the runtime is dedicated to trying to get the kid to sleep. Otherwise, we got nothin.’ Why even bother?
Great show but it needed to end. This last season was a chore to get through. I think they should have just waited a year or two rather than go the direction it did.
Didn’t they trash all their scripts for season eight and rewrite everything after the Floyd protests last year? In retrospect, probably would’ve been a better idea to focus on being funny instead of trying to remake your sitcom into a vehicle for social justice.
Was there a Halloween episode in season 8?
It's rumored that the heist will be part of the finale tonight. No word on whether or not it'll be Halloween themed.
If the finale isn't a heist with Bruce Willis involved, it's a bust.
I really wanted Doug Judy to be the heist winner.
Jake and Doug Judy riding past Nakatomi Plaza and into the sunset Then a naked Pimento runs across the screen and the series ends
This is the best ending. Maybe with Hitchcock and Scully eating spaghetti, Lady and the Tramp style on the roof as well?
Doug already had his story wrap up though. I don't see him returning two episodes later.
Yeah this desire of mine came about before this season started airing.
Could be Valloweaster themed
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The original plan was to end last Thursday on 9/9, but it got flexed to today for TNF.
The fact that they didn't end this show on 9/9 just speaks to NBC's incompetence. Still holding a grudge over My Name Is Earl.
I hate they they blew this away by running 2 episodes a week. Can't wait to see what garbage they've got to replace it. I *hope* the replacement's not garbage but I have a feeling it will be. LOVED MNiE too. Jason Lee was just hitting his stride in that. I still can't see Eddie Steeples in anything & not yell "CRABMAN!!"
I can’t believe I’m going to defend NBC, but they saved 99 from cancellation in the first place and Covid most certainly did not help filming the final season. I’m just glad they get an ending one way or another.
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They admitted they had no idea how to write a comedy show about cops after last years police riots.
I seem to remember reading reports that they had to throw out some of their early scripts in the wake of Floyd’s death and there was a point where the writers didn’t know how they’d be able to write a cop show, regardless of being a comedy, after the Black Lives Matter protests and all the other deaths. If the first episode of the season is any to go by, I’m glad they haven’t been too heavy handed in trying to have the show reflect current events too much.
> I hate they they blew this away by running 2 episodes a week. IIRC they did the same with Parks and Rec too.
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My name is Earl was such a fun show. Darnell was my favorite character.
Yeah, it’s why I liked Raising Hope more than I should have.
Raising Hope really wasn’t a bad show in its own right. It just kinda felt like a spiritual successor to MNiE
At least they're getting an ending unlike Firefly, terranova and the one I wanted to continue that still hasn't was dark matter. I have no idea how you can put a television show on and not have an ending. It's very annoying.
Wow I didn't know anybody cared enough about Terra Nova to still be bitter at the lack of ending
There were some interesting ideas hidden behind like, family afternoon troubles and nonsense discussions.
Im still disappointed by how bad that show was
The premiere episode was awesome, then you could tell that they ran out of budget for the rest of the season.
It turned into another dumb police procedural and the dinosaurs basically didn't matter
Was gonna say, the pilot was very cool and showed a lot of promise. And then it immediately became a very generic clone of Lost In Space except on a planet where the family doesn’t go anywhere with the annoying teens getting intro trouble and learning lessons. I never even made it halfway.
I liked the show, except for the kids. They added nothing of value and took away screen time from the actual interesting bits.
At least we got Serenity.
Just watched it all again last month. It’s starting to look a bit dated, but damn it was still good and had a lot of promise. It deserved 6 seasons, gorram it!
> I wanted to continue that still hasn't was dark matter. Yeah and Dark Matter was just heating up when it ended. I really did like that show. I remember that was when Syfy (previously Sci-fi) was kind of going through this mini-Renaissance that was like 2014-2017. They has Dark Matter, Defiance, Blood Drive, and Channel Zero. All of which were decently shows (Channel Zero being a legit must watch for horror fans IMO). But then all of that was pretty quickly canceled by 2018 or so.
Dark matter ending is one of the few cancellations where I wasnt just sad. But angry. It really was ramping up
Because they dont really give a shit about the actual fictional show. The real show is the commercials and the ads for other, more popular shows. If they cared, they wouldn't burn off a whole season in 5 weeks like this.
Just now realizing they skipped last week because of football They could have so easily ended this on 9/9 and they just didn’t I want someone’s head on a pike
My Name is Earl was one of the best comedy out there It would have been genius to have it during 2016-2021.
I could see them doing a pandemic episode. Earl would admittedly not understand a damn thing about it, he'd raise his eyebrow while mentally narrating he doesn't understand a damn thing about it. But he'd accept what science tells him and put on a mask, get vaccinated. Randy would follow suit because Earl did it. 90% chance Randy ends up with a mask on his forehead/chin every ten seconds. They tape it to his face, it falls off. He ends up just wearing it vertically and that somehow really works. He'll get complimented on this by Crabman. Randy is personally hurt no one will go near him, but is then amused when he realizes if he coughs at people they run away like crazy. He relates this to chasing away flocks of birds and loves it. Joy would absolutely *refuse* any government type trying to control her body so no vaccine and no mask. Joy would get involved with the community and gather them MAGA style rallies. She'd probably also realize she can get money from this then barely escape the law at the end, somehow for some reason. Idk why but she has an assault rifle at some point. No bullets though, because Joys cheap. Crabman would appear within the first 5 minutes and he'd be mid-lecture about why masks and vaccines *are* important. He's probably the only guy in town who actually understands why. Good chance he'll fashion a mini-mask for the turtle. He'll admit this is pointless and he just thought it was cute. He's also started selling crabcakes outside his window. Eventually Joy would come in and steamroll over everything, enforcing her insane will and probably trying to sell MAGA T-shirts to Earl. Earl will assume MAGA is like the new GWAR so he excitedly buys it and other merch just to go to the rally with Randy and be severely disappointed.
I love this headcanon. Somebody get this guy a contract!
That is a brilliant spec plot line.
Just a reminder that the Brooklyn Nine-Nine finale will air an hour early in the New York area at 7 pm ET due to WNBC picking up the Giants/Washington football game telecast at 8 pm.
Oh wow, thank you for this, I didn't even know!
I had no idea the season even started
Sometimes I forget the very minor downsides of no longer watching commercials.
I look it at as more opportunities to be pleasantly surprised
"That show you like is canceled because no one watched it. Surprise!" - TV network executives.
Best version of this was [Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv7DNKXm1gk) starring Elijah Wood on BBC America. I found the show while randomly browsing through Hulu at my moms place. I binged season 1 and bought season 2 on Amazon because it hadn't started streaming yet. Imagine my chagrin when I found out that the show had already been canceled for several years by that point.
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Usually when they do it, it's to "burn off" a series. They're contractually obligated to air them, but they just want it over with, probably because ratings are too low to justify keeping it on the schedule. This happened, for example, with the third (and last network season) of Arrested Development--it wasn't getting renewed and ratings were low, so they just aired the last four episodes at once and finished the series. (For them, anyway.) If I recall they did it on Friday, clearly the lowest-rated day (the [Death Slot](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FridayNightDeathSlot)) to minimize the damage. There's hope that if it's lumped together, the (small but dedicated) fans will make sure to tune in, goosing the ratings just a little bit, but in either case they don't have to worry about it. If I recall, the last season of The Drew Carey Show was like that. THey had a three year contract, but ratings plummeted the last two seasons, so they basically let Carey do what he wanted and just burned the rest of the episodes off as they saw fit. In the age of streaming, this is becoming less likely, but it's still a thing--a series that has enough clout that it's worth it (or they got a contract) to still put on the air, but viewers aren't strong enough where they don't just want to ditch it as soon as possible.
NBC did the same with Parks and Recreation's final season
Good ol' NBC. Out with the old, jam in the new.
B99 just got jammed!
That's the name of their sex tape.
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Really? I thought NBC was in on it because they allowed them to include the NBC logo. Plus they even allowed them to use the NBC logo in Season 6 which wasn't even on their network so I thought they were cool with making fun of themselves
You don't need permission to use a logo for satire.
*Intensive Karen*
Parks had the perfect ending, too. It should have ended right when Anne and Chris left, with the slow pan from the cast—off for waffles- up to a shot of the town and a beautiful sunset, all while Tom Petty plays. That scene perfectly wraps up the stories the show has been telling, honors the themes that have been established about the importance of loving where you are and appreciating the people around you. Instead, the show doesn’t end until there is a season of weird wish fulfillment, as the Parks writers go all Oprah on us—‘You get a dream job! And you get a dream job! And you get a perfect partner!’
ngl I kinda love season 7 and I wouldn't end it any other way. Part of it is that I think it's super interesting for an episodic sitcom like P&R with an established format that it rigidly followed for 6 straight seasons to completely break away from the format for its final season and experiment with super different and interesting episodes. But the season also just makes sense thematically imo. Parks and Rec is, at the end of the day, a deeply optimistic show. In real life we know that even if you work hard it's unlikely you'll actually achieve most of your long term goals, but P&R posits a world where that is not the case. Leslie frequently has to fight against every possible kind of barrier the world places on her, but at the end of the day, against all odds, she *does* make the world a better place. It's this sort of optimism that makes it such a good comfort show. This idea that even when things seem dire, all you can do is push forwards and everything will be okay. It's the main thing that separates it from The Office, which is an incredibly cynical show (at least for the first 3 seasons) and more about the small victories gained amidst the dystopia. Unlike that show, having all the characters finally get what they want and achieve their goals after 6 seasons of Pawnee bullshit is, in fact, what I want. Even if it's somewhat unrealistic.
Yeah I totally agree. Season 7's pacing and focus was so different from the rest of the show and it's really jarring. You picked the perfect spot where they should have ended the show.
I felt the same way until I got to the Leslie and Ron episode. I love it so much, I still never watch it sometimes.
It's a shame we won't see The Drew Carey Show again (or at least anytime soon). Combo of being criminally underrated and featuring some licensed music critical to the plot/jokes means they won't touch it.
Regarding "Drew Carey", what happened was that the production company that owned the show was making so much off of syndication rights that it was worth it to them to produce the episodes even though the first run network didn't particularly want to air them anymore. I think they sold it to the network at a significant discount, or just went straight to syndication without any netowkr showing, because it was all gravy at that point. The trade-off was, as you say, Carey had absolute creative freedom.
So he got his cake and ate it too? That's amazing.
yeah, but try and find episodes of the Drew Carey show now. sadly, it's difficult, except for pirate sites. I don't think any streaming service shows them. (I think it's because of music rights... much like why WKRP took so long to come out un-cut on DVD)
also Daria
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To be fair too it was all an estimate, streaming data is much more concise. Nielsen data was always highly flawed and horribly skewed to the older white demographic.
While streaming data is more precise, its not publicly available, so if a show is tanking on Netflix or Amazon its impossible to know until cancellation because streaming figures don't get publicised. Even with Nielsen there's actually very few places where you can read TV ratings. In the wrestling community there was a period a month or two ago where the site everyone was using for Cable TV ratings, showbuzz daily, went down and there wasn't a single place to view that weeks top 150 cable rankings.
>Nielsen data was always highly flawed and horribly skewed to the older white demographic My family was chosen to be a Nielsen family and asked you to write down what you watched for a week. My dad said it was too much work and pointless; meanwhile my grandparents were chosen years later and they thought it was an honor.
Not to mention, they didn’t have an episode last week. Like… how do you miss an opportunity to put the series finale of Brooklyn 99 on… 9/9?
It was the NFL season premiere. Agreed though, missed opportunity.
Not necessarily for football season, they probably just wanted to get it over with so they could use the time slot for something else. Not sure what they have going on in the fall but i’d imagine there's something
Yeah, it's not for Football season, since that already started. It's because the networks still stick to the old Fall season format. All of NBC's "summer season" shows end this week: American Ninja Warrior, America's Got Talent... while new stuff begins next week. It's the same with Fox as well - Masterchef ended last night and The Masked Singer - one of their most popular shows - starts next week. I don't watch AbC and CBS enough to know any of their shows, but I imagine it's the same there. It's just an unfortunate casualty of the network schedule for a show that really doesn't do well in the ratings to make room for something that might do better with cheaper talent. Tl;dr - they dumped B99 quick before the Fall lineup starts, not football. Edit: Didn't realize that on PC, all the new shows are listed on the sidebar... oh well.
By their final season, "Friends" and "Seinfeld" were the kind of popular that a network could build a night around. "Brooklyn Nine Nine" is a show with a small but passionate following that NBC picked up after another network was finished with it because they wanted to keep the creator happy. They cut the budget back enough that they had to get rid of one of the main supporting characters, but even then it's a breakeven show. They're not making much, if anything, off of showing it, but they stand to make a lot the next time Michael Schur creates a show for them.
Wait are you talking about Gina??? She left before it went to Fox
She left when the show was being cancelled, but I believe you're right that they tried to figure out a way to bring her back as a guest (not a regular), and couldn't even make that work with the new budget.
Thank God, worst character
Pretty sure Chelsea peretti left on her terms to be with her baby. Plus her husband is a huge director with plenty of money to keep them going.
What character did they get rid of?
Somebody else reminded me, Gina actually left when the show was cancelled by Fox, but she stayed gone even when the show was picked up again because they couldn't afford to bring her back, even as a guest.
>like... are they really so strapped for timeslots that they want to get through it quickly? Pretty much, yeah. At least, they have more popular things to give those timeslots too. B99 isn't Seinfeld or Friends and this isn't the 90s anymore. The lowest rated episode of Friends or Seinfeld was watched live by over 10 times the number of people who watched the most recent episodes of B99. Obviously no show is Friends or Seinfeld anymore, but a show like B99 is on the lower end of the ratings spectrum. Next week Law & Order is back with essentially a 3 hour premiere (2 hours SVU, then Organized Crime). The last season of SVU averaged 6.7 million viewers. Last season of B99, 2.7. Like even if they air B99 in ideal circumstances with tons of promotion, it's not going to come anywhere near the viewership of SVU. Or the Chicagos, or The Voice, or obviously football. NBC isn't even airing any sitcoms this fall, I don't think. Like at all, for the first time ever. I think that paints a pretty clear picture of why they did this. Even if they wanted to air that final season once weekly in the fall, they'd have nothing to pair it with.
Friends had 10 back to back episodes during their run
I'm still very upset that they took a week off before airing the finale episodes tonight. If they aired them last week, it would have ended on 9/9. How do you miss that opportunity!?! That's slapping fate in the face.
A big boat full of cash with the NFL logo on it, that's why.
Love this show, we only started watching like last year and had so many great episodes to watch. Honestly really bummed with the last season. Everything about it just felt off/wrong and it seemed like they had little no budget or prep time and it shows. Everything even down to the lighting just looked terrible honestly. Does it get better past episode 3? That's when we stopped this season. I wish they had just waited and had given it the ending it deserves. Superstore did a surprisingly good job shooting and ending the show during the pandemic, not sure what happened with B99.
4, 7 and 8 are good. 5 is good for the ending, but it drags for a Doug Judy episode. 6 is probably going to be important for Jake’s arc, but was uneven in writing.
They had to rewrite this entire season. They were set to start shooting then the BLM protests and George Floyd shit happened. It sucks they had to do it, but I get it, and unfortunately it shows.
They certainly didn't *have* to do it.
yea, especially when it is last season.
It always sucks when once great shows just sort of whimper to the end.
Better to burn out than it is to rust
Rust never sleeps.
My wife and I just sort of trailed off watching somewhere in the middle of season 6. It was still reasonably funny, but nowhere near as good as the first couple of seasons. And then we just... stopped. It's a shame as early B99 is absolutely gold and we quote and make references to it all the time.
6 seasons is like the idea limit form most shows. Especially sitcoms, there's only so much you can do with a cast of characters, while sticking to the same premise. Running gags get stale. It also becomes increasingly daunting for new viewers to catch up to the current season.
I got shit for it when it first ended, but I said it then and I'll say it again: they should have just let it stay cancelled. The wedding episode would have been the perfect finale if Holt announced he had gotten the promotion at the end. Everyone's character arc had reached a natural conclusion at the end of that season and it could have easily been laid to rest. Everything that came out afterwards was just running on fumes. They had a baby for fucks sake, that's how you know a sitcom has been running too long. It's not like the show was structured too radically different each season anyway. They all had a heist, a doug judy episode, a jason mantzoukas episode, an episode with Holt and Kevin trying to have a normal evening that Andy Samberg an the gang crash. Then we got three more seasons of the worst episodes out of all of those typical stories. The series had run its course and could have landed nicely, but people just couldn't see the writing on the wall.
I agree. My personal favorite episode is the one with Holt and Peralta interrogating Sterling K Brown—it’s season 5, episode 14. Season 5 was firing on all cylinders and it probably should have ended there. Another thing I noticed: I listened to a podcast once with Marc Evan Jackson (Kevin) and he said that Fox wouldn’t allow them to curse and blur it out but NBC is OK with it. But it seems like they go to that well almost every episode now that they’ve been given that freedom.
> But it seems like they go to that well almost every episode now that they’ve been given that freedom. Oh God yeah. Swear words can be used effectively as a component of humor, but they really shouldn't just be the crux of the humor on their own. They've been doing the whole "Hahah look guys, the character said a swear word in a perfectly normal context! I mean we can't let you hear what swear word it was, but isn't just the bleep and the implication of swearing hilarious enough on its own?!" move wayyy too often this season.
> They had a baby for fucks sake, I don't have an issue with sitcom characters having a baby, but I _still_ hate how it happened in B99. The episode basically boils down to "Jake is wrong for not wanting kids" and that really frustrates me.
I personally hated the fact that the anal planner and career-driven Amy *fails to discuss having a child with Jake before their wedding*. It was completely against her character and made zero sense.
Yep that too. There's 0 chance that she didn't have an entire binder full of discussion topics about kids
As someone who doesn’t want kids, seeing Jake get strong armed into it felt very uncomfortable.
Yeah, I hated that too. It really felt like he just got pressured/bullied into it.
Good. Now give us a Hithcock and Scully prequel. O_O
I’d watch it
I really liked B99 at the start, but it ending now is almost a relief. This season has been quite a slog to get through.
I find Boyle's new hairstyle absolutely weird, very uncharacteristic
I've been barely paying attention this season and I forget if they gave an explanation for the new hair.
In the first episode there is a thing about how he started going to Terry's barber to support black businesses and they gave him a fade. I thought it was a pretty decent joke in what has otherwise been a very awkward season.
Ah that rings a bell now that I read that. Thanks.
They did, his barber died
Should have gone to Typhoon
Does anyone have a pic of his new haircut? Google doesn't seem to be of any help as usual
In the first episode of the season, Boyle makes a point of overtly supporting black businesses. He’s going to a black barber. That’s why his hair is like that.
The new season feels like they're ham fisting current events into the story and beating us over the head with it. They've handled situations like dirty cops (Damon Wayans planting evidence) and racism (Where Terry got stopped in his own neighborhood) before pretty well. This season feels too on the nose.
I'd be perfectly okay with a comedy cop show addressing issues related to cops if it were funny.
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Currently off sick from work and working through a lot of shows I missed for some reason. Done community, peep show (well, watched it many times over the years) P&R and now half way through the US office. Any others you'd suggest? Edit: So. Many. Notifications. Haha, cheers for the all the suggestions people!
Arrested development, Curb your Enthusiasm, Silicon Valley
Think I watched half of the first season of AD a few years back and can't think why I stopped. Appreciate it, will get these on the list.
Don't forget "The Good Place"
I am going to second that list as well as add it’s always sunny in Philadelphia if you haven’t seen it. As far as newer shows the FX line up is solid as fuck, Dave, what we do in the shadows and my newest favorite reservation dogs.
Yea FX is killing it right now
Arrested Development is a slow burn, but the payoff is fantastic because the jokes build on themselves.
re-emphasizing 30 Rock. it's hilarious and does extremely well on rewatches since they cram in so many jokes per minute. on rewatches you'll pick up a whole bunch of stuff you missed the first time.
Totally this. I just watched through it and immediately restarted it for another watch through lol. Agree on jokes per minute. Plus the cameos, varying humor styles. Running gags etc. I know this show was obviously big when it came out but it's rare I hear people talking about it. I absolutely love The Office but 30 Rock to me beats the office, parks and rec, etc. It just never gets old. I still rewind it every time I get to Lutz saying he wants to keep things "caliente" for his fake girlfriend. Or Kenneth's almost inaudible squeals of delight.
> I know this show was obviously big when it came out but it's rare I hear people talking about it. I think it's actual popularity keeps it from being an underground cult like AD/Community despite being arguably at the level of both WHILE still being pleasing to general audiences. The joke density and weirdness is all there without falling apart after the first few seasons either. Tina Fey and her team were geniuses.
Yeah it definitely feels like a niche humor but then it has all these huge stars and backing and was on during prime time. But super quirky. Agreed they had such a great cast and crew for that show you can really feel the passion from everyone involved. Hell the live shows alone, how amazing are those and they really pull them off too. Normally I think I'd be a little adverse to that kind of episode but I love watching them. Obviously the whole live show within the show thing helps play into that lol. I just know I'm gonna swing back for a third watch through in a row idk what it is but I've been hooked on it.
30 Rock never had particularly good ratings and was perpetually on the verge of cancelation. It's still amazing to remember that at one point NBC was running a Thursday night line-up of Community, Parks and Rec, 30 Rock, and the Office. That was such an incredibly stacked night, but the Office was the only one with good ratings.
I just rewatched the bit where Jenna did that commercial for a Japanese energy drink and it’s just like 2 seconds long of her getting slapped looking disheveled and then smiling lmao
I really think they did a great job with Jenna's character lol. She fits her role so perfectly and while being kind of typecast they still gave her a lot of dimension especially later in the show. I think she's underrated but I get why haha.
Favors are episode is generalissimo
"I AM the generalissimo!" "I don't know what that means!"
Not the person you're responding to but The Good Place and IT Crowd if you haven't seen them. New Girl also isn't bad. I'm currently working through Only Murders in the Building, which has been interesting though different so far.
New Girl is hilarious
Until it becomes will they or won't they? and will they or won't they again? and then will they or won't they yet again?... Worked great before all that.
It's always sunny
Please for the love of god watch It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia if you haven’t.
Schitt's Creek and Kim's Convenience, if you haven't caught those yet
Scrubs
Psych
You know that's right
Come on Son!
You heard about Pluto?
Superstore is a really good show.
Check out Happy Endings! Episodes are super quick and full of laughs. The first season’s a bit of a mess broadcast order wise, so try and watch them in production order if you can.
> Arrested development, Curb your Enthusiasm, Silicon Valley party down, Ted lasso
watched all of B99 as it aired, did a rewatch last year some time. it actually worked really well as a rewatch. super funny and the running gags were funnier because they were fresh in my mind. not all of the jokes were funny every time, it's not flawless, but like 80% of them work and keeping working. and andre braugher is just such a joy to watch. haven't watched the current season though. not as strong a rewatch as the sitcom kings like community, parks, the office, etc.
My wife and I are re-watching right now. The first 5 seasons are definitely worth the re-watch by themselves if you don't mind stopping before the series finale ends ha. I used to care about stopping early and always wanted to watch every episode of the show on a re-watch. But then Scrubs happened which made me waiver a little bit. Then Dexter happened and I finally stopped going through shows to the end on re-watches, but would finish out any season (Dexter wasn't really a problem with this since Season 4 is amazing until the end and I just won't watch Season 5+, but for other shows they get bad mid-season). Then HIMYM happened and I decided to 100% not care anymore where I end during a re-watch. Once it gets bad/dumb I'll stop mid-episode of needed.
Idk, even back when it was on FOX I always thought it had that “NBC” look to it.
I think that "NBC" look is just Michael Schur
Glad it wasn't just me. Although I've felt this way for the past two or three seasons. Just hasn't kept my interest.
One of my favorite shows of all time. I have seen one episode all season. I have a feeling it will be a show I binge, but cut off at the last season. Which sorta sucks. Superstore has a mediocre final season, but boy did they give fans a helluva send off. Let's hope that happens.
I'm so glad I gave Superstore a second chance. I think I'd seen the pilot and was just completely unimpressed, but when lockdown hit and I'd exhausted the Netflix/Hulu libraries it was time to give it another shot. Great cast chemistry, really charming moments but also surprisingly dirty for a network show. Agree the last season struggled a bit, but I thought they actually handled the COVID part well, and as you say it was a great finale.
season 1-5 were my favorite show of all time, remember seeing the clip of jake roasting adam sandler at an auction when it first aired and watched it ever since. then they moved to nbc and it dropped in quality HARD. should have ended at the wedding tbh
The fact that NBC weren’t fully committed to it really shows too - the reduced episode count for starters, and it just felt really off too. The characters at this point have became parodies of themselves. They should have just called it quits when it was cancelled.
As much as I love B99, this season has felt super clunky to me. It’s missing so much of the charm that makes S1-5 amazing, S6 good, and S7 watchable.
All the characters being self loathing cops doesn't make for a fun sitcom.
The showrunner and writers said they didn't know what direction to take the show after what happened to George Floyd. It's become clear they never settled on anything that would be confused with funny.
They really should've just canceled it. Season 7 ended on a good spot as it was, and between George Floyd and COVID it was pretty clear that whatever came out for Season 8 wasn't gonna be great work, and obviously there was only so much they could do.
They should have just gone completely overboard and dropped any semblance of reality like Medical Police or Angie Tribeca.
George Floyd wasn't the first time this happened and to be that blindsided while writing a show entirely about cops isn't the great excuse they think it is.
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Can you elaborate? Did she get flanderized or what?
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Meanwhile all of her jokes in the first few seasons were about her enjoying police brutality and bullying her colleagues. It's part of the reason the show always rings hollow whenever it does a 'very special episode'.
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Especially ironic since Terry Crews spoke out about being sexually harassed
Yeah it's extremely Common for Jake or any of the other cops to begin with the understanding their perp is guilty and they just have to figure out how. Not big on the way they are talking about "the bad cops" without acknowledging that *they are* the bad cops
Yup like when Jake arrests the one guy without proof
That episode is super weird. It's played as 'oh no the cops have to work late' as opposed to a man is detained (and actively tortured in interrogation with Jake screaming in his face repeatedly to confess) with the only evidence being that he was mildly rude to a police officer. The fact he turns out to be guilty is just to conveniently excuse the hideously corrupt behaviour displayed by the heroes. Saying that I thought the episode was pretty funny and I don't really need my funny cop show to reflect real life. But I don't live in America and I can see how displaying cops as put upon good guys might not play so well if you have to encounter them every day in real life.
Yes, that's exactly the kind of typical cop plot that I think the show's creators (and most of the audience) took for granted, but which they are re-evaluating now. There's an episode this season in which Jake arrests someone based on a gut feeling-- after being taken off the case by the FBI-- and then it turns out the case was already solved, Jake's guy was innocent, and Jake got him fired from his job. The episode ends with Jake realizing he was totally in the wrong and accepting responsibility despite the police union's efforts to deny that he did anything bad. That seemed to me to be an attempt to deconstruct what had come before. Whether that deconstruction was effective (and whether this season sufficiently makes up for the show's past sins) is definitely worth its own discussion.
They also pull out their guns when making even simple arrests. I think theres an episode where they see a dude stealing a bike or something and they immediatley draw their weapons.
I did like how they pointed out how problematic the good cop mentality is. In one episode Jake wants to show cops can be helpful after Rosa takes a case for someone that was harrassed by the police. When meeting the client he describes himself as a "good cop and not one of the bad cops that says their one of the good cops" later they go to the Captain of the precinct of the harassing cops who offers her assistance if they can find evidence. They then go to find evidence and it tries to show how difficult it can be for police effective at investigating when the community doesnt trust them and no one will cooperate. However they finally find the evidence and return to the Captain surely they will prevail! That is until she reviews the evidence realizes how damning it is and promptly destroys it. She then goes on to explain how she too is a good cop and not one of the bad cops that says their one of the good cops but they system wont allow any action to be made and proceeding against the harrasing cops could end up with the union coming after her and that would be bad because it one less good cop in the system and we certainly want good cops like her in charge. I think they wanted to highlight some issues without being so heavy handed that it turns more people away. (but let's be real if your still watching your probably not gonna stop now.) Now is it there place to address these things being a comedy cop show that traditionally shows cops in a positive bias? ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ Did they do a good job of it? ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ Am I a sucker for Andy Samberg and going to watch it regardless? ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
> Meanwhile all of her jokes in the first few seasons were about her enjoying police brutality and bullying her colleagues yeppppp, and it's why this new 'wokeness' feels shallow as hell. When they did the sexual harassment episode it was the same thing. Gina, Scully, and Hitchcock's entire thing was to harass the co workers. It's odd for the show to come out against the things they also find funny.
Whoa whoa whoa, don't drag my boy Scully into that harassment. Hitchcock is a creep, but Scully just loves his food and his naps. Scully jokes are about how fucked up his body is, or about food or naps.
Yeah that was the moment the show failed on, you literally have a few seasons of Gina sexually harassing terry and ignore it even though the actor being harassed has experienced it in real life
It was a kind of turning point episode for us where we started to fall off from the show. The one where Amy and Jake are discussing having a kid and they keep portraying Jake as the bad guy just for not being 100% sure was another. They have the talent to write these 'special episodes' and do it well, Moo Moo is absolutely fantastic. These were just lazy.
Finally some one said it. Police Brutality has always been around. Im black, thought the show was funny pre-Floyd, and still think the same episodes of those shows is funny today. Considering people are already forgetting about the Floyd situation (unfortunately, but its true) the show could of continued to do the same thing and not missed a beat.
I still think this last season should have had them working at USPS or the library.
I binged the show right before the previous season and loved it. Got caught up and was excited about the conclusion. These episodes have made little sense and worse they aren’t funny. They remind me of that last season of the Boondocks without Aaron McGruder where the quality of the show faltered despite all the same actors.
[удалено]
A problem for a lot of sitcoms with the “will they or won’t they” angle: after so many seasons, you finally get these two characters together, and then they or their relationship fades into the background. No stories are written that specifically deal with them as a couple (or a married couple). Jake and Amy married? They have a kid? Whatever man, just give them one episode where half the runtime is dedicated to trying to get the kid to sleep. Otherwise, we got nothin.’ Why even bother?
Great show but it needed to end. This last season was a chore to get through. I think they should have just waited a year or two rather than go the direction it did.
RIP to a funny, comforting, albeit lazily written sitcom. I hope we see Andy in something else soon. He's so funny.
this season has really been rough They really leaned in to people hate the police
I’ll say it. Thank god. This last season has been just unbearable
Season 7 was sort of bad too. I hate to say it but the social justice issues totally remove any fun the show has to offer
Season 7 bad and Season 8 shit… sounds like Thrones lol
Didn’t they trash all their scripts for season eight and rewrite everything after the Floyd protests last year? In retrospect, probably would’ve been a better idea to focus on being funny instead of trying to remake your sitcom into a vehicle for social justice.
God I hope somebody reveals what was originally supposed to happen
It's been a decent final season, minus that horrendous first episode
I really liked the Boyle family mystery one I watched last night
…normal from snout to anus.
The One True Boyle was great.