Brooklyn Nine-Nine

2021: The Year of TV

For many, many years I’ve been saying I’m terrible at watching TV shows and generally speaking I am but that did change in 2021. I still haven’t watched many of the “big” shows like Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Wire, Succession, The Boys, Outlander – you name it, I probably haven’t seen it.

But in 2021 I watched more TV shows in their entirety than I have ever before in one year. In fact, I watched 31 different shows. Only two of them were continuations of shows I’d starter before 2021; Cobra Kai and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and one was a rewatch; W.I.T.C.H.

Here’s a list of all the shows I watched last year. they’re sort of in order of when I watched them though if there’s been a gap between when I watched various seasons of the same show, I’ve included it on the original listing. Like Cobra Kai I watched on 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2021 – started and ended the year with my new favourite disaster man Johnny Lawrence.

– Cobra Kai season 3 and 4
– Derry Girls series 1 and 2
– Brooklyn Nine-Nine season 6 and 7
– Superstore season 1-6
– WandaVision
– The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
– Loki
– 9-1-1 season 1-4
– 9-1-1: Lone Star season 1-2
– Shadow and Bone S1
– Batwoman season 1-2 and first half of S3
– The Gifted S1-2
– Ted Lasso S1-2
– Mare of Easttown
– W.I.T.C.H. S1-2
– Chernobyl
– Turner & Hooch
– Big Shot
– What If…?
– Only Murders in the Building
– Doctor Who: Flux
– The Equalizer S1
– Jessica Jones S2-3
– Luke Cage S2
– Iron Fist S2
– Daredevil S3
– The Punisher S2
– Hawkeye
– Superman & Lois S1
– The Wheel of Time
– Alex Rider S1-2

My favourites that I watched this year were Chernobyl, Superstore, 9-1-1, Ted Lasso, Superman & Lois and, of course, Hawkeye (which I reviewed over on JumpCut Online). But really, I enjoyed pretty much everything I watched this year. I will say I found the first series of Alex Rider a bit of a slog but the second series was great and more than made up for the first.

I also finally caught up with and watched all the seasons of the various Marvel Netflix shows I’d just left by the wayside. That was something I’d definitely been talking about catching up on for years and I’m pleased I’ve finally done it. It was nice to revisit those characters and stories again after so long.

I think in 2021 the pandemic sort of caught up with and it was in 2021 when I found it difficult to concentrate on things like a two+ hour film or a 400-page book. So that’s why I turned to TV. A lot of the stuff I watched is around the 45-minute mark per episode if not shorter and I just found it easier to watch a few episodes in an evening than have to focus on a film. Plus, as I was working from home for the vast majority of the year, I would also watch an episode (or two depending when I got up) before work or during my lunch hour. So that definitely helped me watch more TV than normal.

As for what my TV-watching will be like in 2022? Well, I do want to make reading more of a priority this year so naturally films and TV may take a bit of a backseat which I’m fine with. I want to carry on with the shows that I’ve started, when the next series starts here in the UK so that’s Batwoman, Ted Lasso, 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star, Derry Girls, The Equalizer and whatever else might have a new series air at some point in 2022. I’m still kind of annoyed that the final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine still hasn’t been aired here yet but at least that’s something to look forward to.

I’m not sure how many new-to-me shows I’ll end up watching in 2022. The thing is with the likes of Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime and the bog-standard TV channels, there’s so many shows out there that it is overwhelming. One new show I do have my eye on (and will maybe renew my subscription to Apple TV+ for it) is The Afterparty, that looks like fun and it has a lot of people I like in it.

Looking at what I’ve watched and enjoyed this year, if there’s any shows you’d recommend whether they’re new for 2022 or not, please do let me know. I won’t make any promises that I’ll watch them – especially if they’re in their fifth season with 20ish episodes a season (that’s super intimidating) – but as there’s so much out there it’s hard to know what’s good or not or where to begin. And who knows, I might like a show to fill my lunchbreaks again.

B is for Brooklyn Nine-Nine

I don’t usually watch American sitcoms as the humour doesn’t normally work for me and I find them more “stupid” than funny, but Brooklyn Nine-Nine is the exception that proves the rule. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is my new favourite show and it’s near enough the definition of my un-problematic fave. It has a diverse cast and their ethnicities, genders and sexualities and are never used as the punchlines of any jokes – do you know how refreshing that is?!

All the characters are well-rounded and they have their own story arcs throughout the series’. While Jake Perelta (Andy Sandberg) may be considered the lead, he’s not your Typical Straight White Male lead – he’s feminist, loyal, understanding and once punch a homophobe in the face. Then there’s the other characters. Terry Jeffords (Terry Crewes) is super strong and super caring, Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) is incredibly competitive, Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz) is slightly terrifying and is very much a badass while Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio) is Jake’s best friend and loves weird food. And I can’t not mention too of the best characters Captain Ray Holt (Andre Braugher) Captain of the Nine-Nine and has the driest sense of humour, it’s amazing, and Gina Linetti (Chelsea Peretti) has the most self-confidence of any character I have ever seen.

I love them all in different ways and for different reasons. Everyone is so great and funny and it’s great to see how their relationships grow and develop over the course of the seasons. They are all so different but they still make this weird family that always cares for each other.

The humour in Brooklyn Nine-Nine is so broad that sometimes I smile but more often than not I full on belly laugh. I love how quick it is, how there’s no pause for the laugh track so the dialogue comes thick and fast and it feels very natural. It’s just such a fun and funny and light-hearted show that can still hit you in the feels and I love it so much.

TOP 5 WEDNESDAY: Current Favourites that Aren’t Books

Top 5 Wednesday is a great feature created by GingerReadsLainey and hosted by ThoughtsonTomes. To find out more about Top 5 Wednesday and the upcoming topics, check out its Goodreads page. This week it’s all about favourites that aren’t books, so it could be TV shows you’ve been enjoying, makeup you’ve been wearing, food and drink you’ve loved – anything! I’ve decided my post will be about my current favourite TV shows. I’m usually pretty terrible at keeping up with TV shows but these five are the ones I’m really enjoying right now and am making the effort to keep up with.

Taboo
While I usually spend about 30% of an episode confused about who’s who and what exactly is going on I am really intrigued about this show. That’s mainly because I love the main character James Delaney (played by Tom Hardy) a lot, he’s just so interesting! He seems to have dark magic, he’s very clever and can see all the pieces on the board and is nearly always a step ahead of everyone else. He’s not a nice person, he even uses people like pawns in his game but I find him so interesting. Taboo is now a show that I actively look forward to as it gets closer to the time it airs on Sunday.

The Halcyon
The Halcyon is the other new show that I find myself looking forward to every week. It’s set in a posh London hotel during WWII and it is bit like Downton Abbey in the sense it’s about the “upstairs” or the hotel guests and the owners of the hotel, the Hamilton’s, and the “downstairs” all the staff who work in the hotel, from maids, to chefs, to the managers. It’s got some interesting characters and there’s some great relationships. My favourites are Betsey, the lounge singer, Toby the younger and often forgotten son of the hotel owner, and O’Hara an American journalist that says what he thinks.

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TOP TEN TUESDAY: Top Ten Favourite TV Shows of All Time

Top Ten Tuesday is a feature run by BrokeAndBookish each week. This week, in honour of Fall TV you can do a top ten about anything TV related. So I’m keeping it simple and sharing my ten favourite TV shows ever. I say “ever” but I’m pretty bad at keeping up with TV shows and some of these I might not have actually seen the entire series and I’m sure as soon as I finish this list I’ll remember a show I’ve forgotten but otherwise here’s my favourite TV shows.

White Collar
I love heist and con-artist stories so White Collar is right up my street. White collar criminal Neal Caffery gets offered to serve his jail time working for the FBI catching criminals with FBI Agent Peter Burke and lots of escapades happen. While it does get a little repetitive that the main story arc each season often revolves around Neal lying to Peter and Peter lying to Neil, I still love the relationships between all the characters and I love it when Neal’s criminal friend Mozzie and Peter’s awesome wife Elizabeth get involved in an FBI sting.
Please note: I have a series and a half left of this show to watch.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
I basically marathoned season one and two of Brooklyn Nine-Nine in just over a week and I loved every minute of it. I love the characters, all the different relationships, the humour and how the characters actually grow. I’ve written before why I love Brooklyn Nine-Nine and I would recommend it to anyone, even those who are like me and don’t usually like American comedy shows.
Please note: I haven’t watch season three yet because Netflix doesn’t have it yet.

Luther
This show can scare the bejesus out of me – the scene where a guy crawls from under a woman’s bed after she’s just gotten into it freaked me out – because it has gruesome murders and serial killers. It also has a great baddie in Alice Morgan and her relationship with Luther is a highlight of the series. (more…)

Why I Love… Brooklyn Nine-Nine

OK so I’m impatiently waiting for season three of Brooklyn Nine-Nine to arrive on Netflix after I binged watched the entirety of the first and second season in a matter of weeks. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is now one of my favourite shows and it has even become like a “comfort show” – if I feel a bit down I watch a couple of random episodes and I’m soon smiling and feeling better about life.

So why do I love Brooklyn Nine-Nine so much? There’s a lot of reasons. First there’s the humour. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is funny, it may not always be laugh out loud funny but it’s very quick-witted and has some smart humour. I wasn’t sure what I’d make of Brooklyn Nine-Nine when I first started to watch it, American humour isn’t always my cup of tea but I love how smart and quick the humour is.

With the humour comes the opportunity to not make cheap, possibly offensive, jokes. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is so great because it calls out all the sexist, racist, homophobic humour you might get in other shows and in real life. Jake could easily be the arrogant womaniser but he really does care about his female friends and never belittles them, and he calls out other peoples’ bad behaviour. This gifset shows how Brooklyn Nine-Nine calls out multiple characters and situations and it’s wonderful.

Then there’s the stories. While each episode is kind of like a crime-of-the-week type deal and they are all pretty fun and even exciting, there’s the overriding story-arcs and relationships. Characters date different people and then break-up or there’s stuff like Terry’s family or Jake and his dad. It’s small stuff that develops over the episodes and you can see how these characters grow or what’s happened in their past to make them into who they are.

And that’s the main reason I love Brooklyn Nine-Nine so much – the characters. Jake is a great detective but is also a big kid, Amy is competitive and competent, Boyle loves food and loves his job, Rosa is a total badass, Terry loves his kids – both his twin daughters and the detectives under his charge, Captain Holt is serious and hard-working but he can still have fun with his team and then there’s Gina, Holt’s assistant when she isn’t attached to her mobile phone. Oh and I can’t forget Scully and Hitchcock, they’re the older detectives and many people think they’re kind of useless but that’s not always the case.

I love all of the characters and together they become a family, which is my favourite trope in fiction. Found families, that are a little dysfunctional and sometimes a little broken but they all care about each other are the best thing in my mind. The detectives of the Nine-Nine are all friends who trust and care about each other and it’s so nice to see a show where there’s no real conflict between the main characters.

In short, I love Brooklyn Nine-Nine so much because it’s fun, smart and I love the characters and their relationships. I cannot wait to see season three and see how this brilliant show continues to be amazing.

T is for Sergeant Terry Jeffords

I’ve only recently started watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine and I’ve already got a series case of “I LOVE EVERYONE IN THIS BAR!” with these characters but Terry was the first one I fell in love with.

Terry Jeffords is a big strong guy who also cares about his wife and two young daughters a ridiculous amount. When his twin daughters were born he got so scared about getting hurt on the job and leaving them without a father that he had a desk job for a year. But by doing that he let down his grownup kids, aka the detectives in his precinct. So with the help of the Captain and Gina (the Captain’s assistant and the kind of person who knows everything) he got his gun back and returned to the field.

Terry is so great because he is a man of many layers. Yes he can easily pick up his co-workers but he also has a minivan and likes to paint and dance. He works out but can’t sleep without whale sounds and a princess fairy castle defeats him. Terry is so great because he looks like this big scary dude but he really is a big softy that cares a lot about his family – both his wife and kids, and his family he has in work.

Terry is also pretty hilarious, especially when he’s trying to look out for his detectives. He is willing to stand up for them but he will put them in their place if they haven’t been pulling their weight or they are making poor judgments. Terry would be the best kind of boss, like he’s a fun boss but you’d be able to tell when you’re close to crossing the line and stop before he gets mad and breaks things.

O is for: Orange is the New Black & other TV Shows I want to try

I’m notoriously bad at keeping up with TV shows. I think a part of it is that at University I don’t have a TV so must remember to find a streaming/download link for the show each week. This is especially a problem when it’s a TV Show that’s not currently on UK TV on BBC, ITV or Channel 4 because at least those have catch-up websites. Plus, it’s a lot of time to commit to a show, especially if it’s on season 6 and each season has twenty-odd episodes – I’m not sure if I’m ready for that sort of commitment.

So here are some TV shows that I’d love to try but I’m not sure if/when I’ll get around to it.

Orange is the New Black
It probably doesn’t help that I don’t have Netflix so that generally puts a stopper on that. That being said it’s a female-led show! I love stuff that’s got more women to men ratio whether that’s films, TV shows or books. If/when I get Netflix this will definitely be the top of my to-watch list. I should probably watch more of the films/TV shows I already own before investing in Netflix…

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
If there’s any show that I’m probably going to try in the relatively near future, it’s this one. American humour can sometimes be a bit hit or miss for a Brit like me but from the excerpts I’ve seen it looks good and it’s got a diverse mix of characters.