The C-plot returns us to territory that had been well traveled last season. Boyle is desperate to find a date to go to his ex-wife’s engagement party, and he asks Diaz to go with him. (Predictably, Gina is terrified by the thought of seeing him outside of the office, as well as Boyle’s reference to them being “bone bros.”) His harassing pursuit for Diaz was a big stain on a mostly spotless first season, so it feels tired that this romantic story may be front and center once again. Hopefully, a future episode will introduce us to Eleanor Boyle and her fiancé Hercules, who really should have earned a takedown of his name at one point during these 21 minutes.
The return of the Boyle-Diaz duo means that Brooklyn Nine-Nine is already starting to circle back to its comfort zones instead of try for something new. Boyle’s romantic crisis and Santiago’s desire to be the captain’s pet – something she does mind, since “people love their pets,” she insists – is a bit of a reprise from what we have seen before. Regardless, the timing between all of the actors has become so strong that the storylines do not feel tired, but true.
Take the cold open this week: Terry’s announcement about his vasectomy prompts the rest of the precinct ruffians to unleash some half-clever crotch-oriented puns at him. This is not original or even all that interesting for the sitcom, but the way the police staff round off a lot of quick-witted one-liners in a way that does not feel forced but fresh is a testament to how well the actors have nailed their characters’ voices. (The funniest one comes from Santiago, with a disclaimer of, “Sorry, I just never think of jokes.”)
Unlike Santiago, Liedman has quite a few good ones. “Chocolate Milk”’s funniest moments are the physical tugs-of-war between Terry and Peralta, especially when Terry passes out on his bed, taking his pesky new friend in his grasp for an uncomfortable night’s sleep. Terry’s drug-addled state, which renders his mouth filthy and unfiltered, is good for some chuckles too, especially when he state that Holt needs to smoke some weed. (Not that it would change the captain’s neutral expression much.)
If Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s first couple of episodes this season feel a bit rushed, to the extent that the central cases are getting nearly no screen time, it still comes at the benefit of seeing the stellar, dynamic relationships between these characters grow. Aided with a sizzling turn from Kyra Sedgwick’s hard-edged deputy chief, “Chocolate Milk” fares better when it deals with new character pairings than ones we have already seen. Like the title, it turns out that ingredients that do not seem like they go together are the most sublime.
