Brooklyn Nine-Nine Review: “USPIS” (Season 2, Episode 8)

In this week’s B-plot, the chain-smoking Amy realizes that she needs to go cold turkey. Her reason for doing so is not to improve her health, but so she can avoid a complication in her relationship with the constantly off-screen Teddy. Amy’s lack of control makes her take a crack at Cpt. Holt at the precinct, so her co-workers come in to help save the day, telling their own addiction stories with the hopes she will adopt their coping mechanisms.

This section gave Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s game supporting cast the chance to show more of their vulnerable side as they recount past indiscretions. Cpt. Holt’s flashback, of his gambling addiction, features a predictably and delightfully monotone reaction to a big race. The scene with chubby Terry predictably and delightfully relied much of its sight gag on the sight of Crews in a fat suit. Meanwhile, Amy and Terry’s dunks into icy water as a way to offset a craving, shown from the bottom of a sink with a fisheye lens, were a fantastic directorial choice from Ken Whittingham. It was refreshing for the show to focus on members of the precinct coming together to help Amy, since her selflessness has been front and center in recent weeks. The sole problem was that Amy’s chain-smoking has not been an issue at the office beforehand – at least not in this reviewer’s memory – and so watching the character continually escape for a tobacco break was farfetched.

In the meantime, Brooklyn Nine-Nine continues with its ceaseless mocking of Hitchcock and Scully. In the cold open, Hitchcock tells Jake that Scully is upset that nobody showed up to his birthday party, breaking into a scene where the Group of Seven go through their excuses and decide to give an envelope with money as a belated gift. The reveal that Scully and Hitchcock had been faking it to get a gift out of the co-workers that routinely ignore them was great. However, the opening closes on a joke related to their clumsiness that further belittles the characters. One of these days, the writing staff should put together a meaningful storyline with these two, one that does not rely on their current status as precinct punching bags.

While the writers are stuck with figuring out those characters, they show a real knack for creating new ones. With Jack Danger, Ed Helms joins an already terrific collection of guest actors this season – Kyra Sedgwick and Eva Longoria, among them – on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Unlike the more conventional Deputy Chief Wuntch and Sophia, though, Danger is as peculiar as he is well defined. Even after spending only 21 minutes with him, he already seems like a recurring character we have seen a few times before. Let us hope that the actor continues this memorable stint.