FOX
FOX has cancelled Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and personally I'm devastated. "Sources note the series went into its current fifth season with an eye toward an endgame," Variety reported. "That the single-camera comedy is produced by an outside studio — Universal Television — did not help the series, which will not return for a sixth season."I don't give a shit about any of that, and I don't care that ratings dropped in the fourth season (which was probably the worst season, but it bounced back in season five). The important thing was that I was watching it, and you should have been too (maybe if you had been watching, it wouldn't have been canceled). The show was adored by critics, like Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock, its spiritual ensemble comedy brethren. It was light and playful despite being set in a Brooklyn police precinct, perfect comfort television. The breakout star of the show—Captain Raymond Holt, the father figure—is portrayed by Andre Braugher, formerly of Homicide: Life on the Street, who revealed an untapped talent for comedy. "The Brooklyn Nine-Nine cast is mostly comedians, but the Juilliard-trained Braugher often steals the scene," the New York Times gushed in 2014.There's no shortage of shows that aim to be sweeping epics or psychological thrillers, so it was a relief to have Brooklyn Nine-Nine out there keeping it light. The show still grappled with social issues—it has to, it's set in a police precinct with a captain who is black and gay—but it does so without being preachy or serious. Most of the time, it's straight-up goofy, like when the show's protagonist, Jake Perralta (played by Andy Samberg), makes suspects in a police lineup sing the Backstreet Boys.There is an upside to living in the era of the reboot, however—it could always come back.Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.Follow Eve Peyser on Twitter and Instagram.
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