‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Recap: Who Were the MVPs of ‘Old School’?

FOX

In this week’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the precinct is being covered for an article by Jimmy Brogan (Stacy Keach), the tough-as-nails reporter who covered crime in the ’70s — when the moustaches were juicy and everyone wore orange polyester — and wrote Peralta’s favorite book, The Squad. The novel inspired Peralta to become a detective and Peralta considers Broagn his hero, so he spends the episode trying to impress him by behaving like the old school cops did in Brogan’s book. But Brogan’s not too impressed by the identity theft case that Peralta and Santiago are working on, calling them “hair bags” and refusing to take them seriously until Peralta joins him for a night of hard drinking and foolishly on-the-record statements. Peralta then has to find a way of keeping Bogan from printing some unflattering things he said about Holt while he was drunk. 

Brooklyn Nine-Nine has already proven itself to be one of the funniest comedies on televison right now, and it keeps getting better with each episode. Part of this has to do with the show’s ensemble, which gives the wonderfully weird and hilarious actors and characters room to shine every week, and the show does a great job of putting the spotlight on different characters every week. We’ve decided to highlight the funniest characters and their best lines and moments this week, so here are our picks for the MVPs of Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s eighth episode, “Old School”. 

NOTE: We only have one real complaint about this episode, and that is the continued lack of screentime for Andre Braugher. Here’s hoping that Holt gets some great moments again next week. 

Jake Peralta
-“Old School” is the best episode yet for both Andy Samberg and Jake Peralta. Samberg carried the whole thing effortlessly, with plenty of opportunities to show off his physical comedy — something that has always been his strong suit. When it inevitably comes time for Brooklyn Nine-Nine to submit episodes for the Emmys, Samberg would be a fool not to submit this one. It was also great to see Peralta not only prove himself a great detective this week, but also to see the great person he is beneath his ego and well-timed comebacks. The show needed an episode like “Old School” to redeem the backslide that hit Peralta last week, and hopefully they continue to improve his character as the season goes on. 
– While operating the bomb disposal robot to remove Scully’s shoes from the office: “I know what I’m doing. I saw the first 10 minutes of The Hurt Locker.”
– Peralta: “Is the sky just a big blue hat that the world wears?” Diaz: “No. And nobody has ever thought that.”
– Peralta has read 15 books in his life, which is funny in and of itself, but Samberg’s facial expression when Santiago comes back with, “50 isn’t a lot of books. Wait, did you say 50 or 15?” makes the whole exchange hilarious. 
– In order to impress Bogan and smell like one of the old school cops, Peralta rubs cigarette ash all over himself. 
– Peralta arrives at the station, incredibly hung over, and passes a perp who keeps shouting about how they’ll never catch him. Peralta replies with a perfectly frustrated, “We already got you, idiot.” Samberg is so good in “Old School” that he even makes his throw away lines memorable. 
– Samberg is brilliant at physical comedy, and this week’s highlight comes from the way he slides halfway down his chair, then flops face-first onto the floor because he is too hung over to sit up. 
– While lying on the floor: “My whole body has dry mouth!”
– Holt: “You look like a corpse we pulled out of the river.” Peralta: “I look like a rock star who OD’ed and drowned in his own pool. There’s a difference.” 

Charles Boyle
– Joe Lo Truglio has been having a great run of episodes, and has managed to transform Charles from a one-joke sadsack into one of the show’s most consistently funny characters. In “Old School,” he gets to be the teacher rather than the student, when he and Sgt. Jeffords coached Diaz on courtroom conduct. As the show has proven in the past, a confident Charles is a hilarious Charles, and this episode is no exception. 
– Peralta describes losing his virginity to his teacher’s daughter as “very fast,” to which Charles responds proudly, “Nice!”
– Diaz: “I look like Arsenio.” Boyle: “So… it’s perfect?”
– “If the problem is that you’re nervous, that’s where Charles Boyle lives, baby!” 
– Charles continues to be a major foodie, by revealing that his “happy place” is just him slurping up the world’s longest linguini noodle, with a sauce change every 20 feet. Lo Truglio’s enthusiastic delivery of “Ooh, pesto!” sells the whole thing. 
– His giggle when Diaz thanks him for helping out is perfectly timed and perfectly dorky. 

Scully
– The biggest laugh of the night comes, surprisingly, from Scully revealing that although he doesn’t drink, he did spend most of 1987 on a cocaine binge. The subsequent flashback, with him wide-eyed and speed talking to a shirtless Hitchcock, would have easily stolen the whole episode, but the writers managed to top it with Scully’s follow-up line: “I had three heart attacks and filed for bankruptcy. Hitchcock turned out fine, though.” 

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