I better call Kevin and tell him I won't be attending the opera.
There's someone else I'd rather hear sing.
Oh, dang!
This is Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
It's Andy Samberg's hard-hitting and often absurd
procedural police comedy.
It's fast, it's quick, it's witty.
When this show starts cooking, it's
hard to find anything funnier on primetime television.
Nine-nine!
The show features a star-studded cast
of brilliant comedic performers, like Andy Samberg, Joe Lo
Truglio, Chelsea Peretti, and Terry Crews.
The show was created by Michael Schur, who co-created Parks
and Rec, and Dan Goor, who used to write for Conan
O'Brien and The Daily Show.
Despite Brooklyn Nine-Nine's complete saturation
of comedic talent-oozing out of every pore of this production,
the thing that makes the show work so well
is that it takes itself just as seriously
as any police procedural.
The show is a constant reminder that comedy and drama
aren't just connected.
They're almost siblings.
Today, we're going to take a look
at an episode that exemplifies this concept
to a near perfect degree.
That episode, season five, episode 14, The Box.
The episode starts off with the introduction
of Phillip Davidson, played by Sterling K. Brown.
And if you're familiar with his work,
you know that Sterling K. Brown is
a solid performer when it comes to delivering
a dramatic performance.
In fact, he was nominated for an Emmy award
in his performance in this episode.
This guy understands the assignment.
He's immediately introduced to the audience as--
Hmm.
The dentist who murdered someone.
Spoiler alert.
They think you did it.
--and is escorted to the interrogation room.
In just 40 seconds, the show lets
you know exactly who this guy is, what is going on,
and why we should care about the character.
Its brevity at its finest.
And a good example of how efficient
the writers are at getting an episode started.
In the next scene, we see Andy Samberg's detective Jake
Peralta setting up an interrogation room,
followed by the entrance of Captain Ray
Holt, played by Andre Braugher.
Andre Braugher is an extremely talented dramatic performer.
He has a BA in theater from Stanford University,
and he is a Juilliard graduate.
Hiring actors like this is a huge reason Brooklyn Nine-Nine
is so successful.
Absurdist comedy is like flying a kite.
Without a string, the kite would just
fly off into the wild blue yonder, never to be seen again.
The string allows this comedy kite
to tether itself to something that allows us to control it.
In this case, Brooklyn Nine-Nine's kite
is tethered to rich dramatic performances
from classically-trained actors who
facilitate the execution of well-timed and well-placed
humor throughout the episode.
The way the show introduces stakes is more often than not
a little ham-fisted.
However, it fits with the show's farcical nature.
I mean, they really spelled this out for you
with this dialogue between Peralta and Captain Holt.
But time is precious in a 22-minute show,
and every second matters.
Rather than spending time delivering this dialogue
in some clever or drawn-out way, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
lays it all out there.
As the scene plays out, we get this great line
from Captain Holt.
Do you know what I miss most about being a detective?
A good interrogation, breaking suspects down.
This is an extremely important line
because it cements Captain Holt's motivations inside
of an emotional state of being.
In this case, it's nostalgia for the old days
of interrogating suspects.
Cementing character's motivations inside
of an emotion or philosophy helps drive comedy
because it gives our characters something
to fall back on should something get too out of hand
or too ridiculous.
In the case of Brooklyn Nine-Nine,
it gets ridiculous often.
OK, now we have our characters motivation,
anchored our comedy and emotion, and created some pretty high
stakes.
This episode can finally start cooking,
and it really kicks itself into gear quickly.
It's important to note the setting here as well.
The episode takes place almost entirely inside
of this interrogation room.
This not only saves the production money and time
by not having to move the camera and crew from location
to location.
It also serves the plot of the episode
by placing our characters in an environment
that they can't really leave.
It's essentially forcing these characters
to interact with one another, which serves to heighten
the drama of the episode.
These cops have their man, and all they need is a confession.
The rest of the episode takes place over,
well, let's just call them beats.
In the first beat, Holt and Peralta
enter the interrogation room and set into motion
a three-way power triangle that will continue to rotate
throughout the episode.
Everyone is trying to come out on top
to the point of disrupting existing relationships.
Holt's plan to implement smart cop, dumb cop tugs at Peralta's
insecurity surrounding his skills as an interrogator,
but he goes along with it.
Me want to dumb cop.
I got that.
Yeah.
Well done.
Again, the thing that drives the comedy of Brooklyn Nine-Nine
is the drama, and they pile it on pretty quickly.
Did you kill him?
No.
Ah!
If you would have said yes, I would have had you!
After Peralta's inquisition yields a little bit of success,
Holt and Peralta step outside to have a quick discussion
about the investigation.
This is commonly referred to as "resting."
If we just blaze through the interrogation
and only focused on what's happening in the interrogation
room, this wouldn't be much of an episode.
The writers break it up by resting
the more intense moments of the show
with a little exploration that happens
outside of the primary plot of the episode.
This does a couple of things.
One, it lets the audience take a breather
and catch up with the main character's state of mind.
Two, it builds tension, allowing the moments
we are inside of the interrogation room
to land harder and resonate more with the audience.
Three, it gives our characters time
to make some more promises to the audience.
Peralta wants to lie to attempt to get a confession.
And he also brings up throwing a chair through the interrogation
mirror.
In comedy, taking a break from what's funny about something
is almost equally as important as going for the laughs.
It allows us to regroup, reset, and then resume.
After another brief re-entry into the interrogation room,
beat two, we get another jab at Peralta's insecurities
over oral hygiene before we rest again.
Damn it!
Not only did we not break him, but now I
have to go to the dentist!
But from here on out, it sets into motion a fun and games
section of the episode.
Things start to get pretty ridiculous through a series
of back and forths.
There's this name bit where Peralta
makes the dentist say the victim's name in silly ways
in an effort to get him to break.
And then there's this.
2, 3, 4.
[SCREAMS]
It's really over the top.
But it's important to note that this episode earned its right
to go over the top by taking its time setting up
highly dramatic stakes in a grounded and emotional reality.
In other words, they tethered their kite
to something extremely solid and can now
fly it as high as they want to because they earned it.
The next time we enter the interrogation room, beat three,
the power triangle rotates again.
And now, it's the dentist who is interrogating the detectives.
The dentist takes the detective's repeated failures
as an opportunity to further get under Holt and Peralta's skin,
to the point of Peralta delivering
the promise he made earlier about throwing
the chair through the mirror.
And now, Peralta and Holt are at the height
of their emotional conflicts.
This is the "all is lost" moment where
protagonists are about to concede defeat to the villain.
We see this moment in just about everything we watch.
In Star Wars, there's the point where Vader kills Obi-Wan.
In Lord of the Rings, there's the point where
Helm's Deep is about to fall.
In Brooklyn Nine-Nine, it's where
Captain Holt is telling Peralta that there's nothing left
to do.
Sure, it's much lower stakes than an orc army launching
boulders into a castle built into a mountain,
but the ingredients are the same.
It's another example of how the show uses drama and seriousness
to drive the comedy contained within its 22-minute time span.
This prompts Peralta to deliver the last promise
he made, the one about lying to the dentist, which,
of course, backfires and heightens the drama even
further, as it seems like this was
the last weapon in Peralta's arsenal.
The lawyer shows up to further drive
the feeling of hopelessness and frustration.
And we take one final rest.
It's in this rest where Peralta and Holt not only seem
to settle their differences, but also
where Peralta comes up with one last plan
to get the dentist to confess.
If we weren't taking breaks from the action at hand,
we would have never had time to explore these moments.
He enters the interrogation room for one final beat
and gets the confession.
And the way in which he receives the confession
is a culmination of everything that had come before it.
Peralta proves that he is no longer the dumb cop
by coming up with a plan to use the dentist's
own narcissism against him.
He still lies to him for.
Peralta knows that the glass award isn't the murder weapon,
but this time, it's the right lie.
This proves that Peralta's instincts were right.
He just needed to figure out how to use them correctly.
There's also a mirroring here between Peralta
and the dentist.
Peralta spends the entire episode
wallowing in insecurity over his own perceived intelligence.
And it's when he attacks the dentist's insecurities
over pretty much the same thing, he gets him to react
and confess.
Oh, damn.
Oh, damn!
And that is three "oh, damns."
It really puts a nice little bow on top of this whole episode.
The episode wraps up with a nice little moment between Peralta
and Holt, and that's that.
The Box is an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine that
feels perfect because it's written
with the same level of seriousness
as any episode of the very police
procedurals that it's a parody of.
The stakes are high, the emotions are deep,
and somehow, the show delivers on the laughs
over and over again.
It's well-paced, expertly structured,
and is a reminder that comedy is often serious business.
And that's it for today's episode of Nerdstalgic.
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