Originally written June 4, 2017

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is back with 22 new episodes in its fourth season! I always feel like this show is criminally underrated, as I don’t hear many people talk about it, and it’s easily one of the funniest shows on TV currently. If you want to know more about the show, just check out my reviews for the first three seasons. I don’t wanna waste time going through all of that again. All that really needs to be said is that season 4 continues the fun.

For the purposes of a review, I find it’s best to just talk about the new episodes that this season brings into the mix, more so than talking about the show as a whole. Just as a general comment on season 4’s episodes, I have to say that I really dug the way the show embraced more multi-episode storylines in this season. It’s not like the show never did it in its first three seasons, but there were a few different arcs in this season, and I really dug it. As a general overview, this season features Jake and Holt in witness protection, the main cast all being moved to the night shift, the precinct being at risk of getting shut down, and an investigation into a dirty police captain. There’s some solid content here.

As far as individual episodes go, this is where I’ll admit the season’s only real problem. I basically felt like I enjoyed literally every episode in seasons 2 and 3, but with season 4, there were certain episodes where I just walked away not feeling as impressed. This makes me a little nervous about the show beginning to go on a downward trend, but as of right now it is still very strong, even if it’s not perfect like the previous two seasons were.

As for distinctive features of this season…I think the frequency of more story arcs is its biggest thing, but there are a few others. For one thing, the season has a crossover episode with New Girl. I don’t watch New Girl, so I’m not sure how the rest of it played out on that show, but I’m sure it’s cool for fans of both. Another thing is that in the beginning of the season the show has a new recurring character with Captain CJ. He is so incredibly funny, and I honestly wish he would have stayed on the show. Finally, I was really surprised to see the series tackle an episode that was more on the serious side with “Moo Moo.” This episode featured Terry getting harassed by another cop when he’s off-duty and simply walking to his house, and he wants to make a case against the cop when he believes that there were racist motives behind him being stopped. I thought it was really well-done, and it was interesting seeing the show tackle the serious issue of racial profiling with law enforcement.

Outside of that, there isn’t much else to say about season 4 except that it’s still really good. I highly recommend Brooklyn Nine-Nine and think that more people should be watching it. This season might have been a slight step down in overall quality compared to seasons 2 and 3, but it’s still hilarious. If you don’t watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine, you don’t know what you’re missing.

4.5/5