As a professional procrastinator, I'm always looking for new shows do dip my lazy feet into, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine just so happened to be my next victim. I'm a really big fan of the whole drama-commentary sub-genre that's been garnering so much popularity with shows like The Office and Parks and Recreation truly defining the genre. Up until recently, I haven't really had any flaws with the show, but there's a new long term conflict in the shows seventh ongoing season that has really irked me. I'm going to dub this problem "Office-Syndrome" and you'll understand what I mean soon.

The office is truly one of a kind in how it delivers its story through this low-budget documentary type of vibe and I commend it for that, but there are flaws with every story, and The Office's biggest flaw lies in Jim and Pam. Don't get me wrong, I love the story that was built up with these two over the course of 9 seasons, but after a while, it feels like they're relying too much on their relationship to create conflict and story beats. Around the end of the show, Jim and Pam constantly argue with conflicting ideals and what they want to do in life, and the arguments seem so artificial and unreal rather than genuine and smooth. This exact scenario is what I mean by "Office-Syndrome." And this exact scenario is applied to Brooklyn Nine-Nine's seventh season with Jake and Amy.

I have so much bias towards this show, I love it for so many reasons, but one of the reasons I love it so much is how their characters behave. They aren't one-note characters that have one gimmick and one gimmick only. Yes, Terry is the big buff guy who's a family man at heart, but every episode doesn't consist of Terry going on and on about how much he loves his kids, he has a life outside of being a father. When we look at Jake and Amy's relationship through the same lens I just don't get the same energy from the two. The whole likability of Jake and Amy is that they have lives outside of being partners, Jake is a kid at heart who is an outstanding detective, and Amy is a genius who sticks to the rules no matter what, and that banter was what made their relationship so endearing. However the way they handle the new story plot of Jake and Amy trying to start a family by having a baby just seems so in your face. We could have genuinely good B-plot stories and they're just ruined by Jake and Amy going on about them having sex multiple times a day.

I understand the point of these conflicts and I get that they're attempting to make connections with people at home who could be going through the same hardships that Jake and Amy are going through, but I'd like to bring up an example of something similar but done way better in the same exact show. "Moo-Moo" is an episode from Season 4, Episode 16 that brings up a serious issue people face on a constant basis, racial profiling. The episode revolves around Terry's kids' plushy "Moo-Moo" and finding it before the kids notice and freak out. However, as Terry finally finds out where the plush was lost he's stopped by a cop on duty and harassed and threatened for no other reason than being a different skin color. This episode as a whole was an excellent way to establish a problem the viewers might be facing, tackling the problem, and consoling the viewer by reassuring them that this is a real problem that people face and it's far from right. It's a great episode for character development and making it known that this is a real problem real people face, but what if this was stretched out for half a season?

If there was an alternate reality where for half a season we would just be cut away from a good side story just to have Terry trying to defend himself from racist cops every three minutes the show would get really annoying really quickly. We understand racial profiling is a problem and we get that it's wrong, but shoving it down the viewers' throats every chance they get would lessen not only the importance of Terry but the interest of the show. It's great that they're trying to invent these problems for Jake and Amy to solve, but at heart, this is a comedic show about a police precinct in Brooklyn, not the "Jake and Amy have sex" show.

Another thing that seems very nit-picky is Captain Holt and his new attitude. When we were introduced to Holt, he comes off as very precise and robotic, and this is mostly played for comedic effect when paired with Jake and his careless style. Every now and then when Holt shows an ounce of humanity on screen it's twice as heartwarming because it's coming from someone who always plays by the book and refuses to let personal matters get in the way of a task. However, this all changed in season seven when Holt is no longer Captain but instead forced to do pity work like picking up cones and just walking around a certain block. This coincidentally also changes his mood. He's no longer the robotic and precise Holt we once knew, but instead, he's constantly bitter and making sly remarks about anything and everything. This just seems out of character and I understand that people change over time and if Holt was still the same person it would make the show seem stale, but at the same time, I feel like they just took Holt's traits that made him unique and threw him into the pool of mediocrity.

For as much as I sound like I hate Brooklyn Nine-Nine I genuinely love this show. I've been recently re-watching old episodes and that's exactly how this idea struck that things just seem off compared to where they used to be. In the end, these are just serious nit-picks and the show overall is still very entertaining, and I would highly recommend watching it, especially with this quarantine under fruition I guarantee there are tons of people dying to sink their teeth into something new.