Brooklyn 99 (the younger sibling to The Office)

By Hugh Brown

NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, N.Y. – “Brooklyn 99” is a sitcom staring Andy Samberg that airs on NBC. The show is about the 99th precinct in Brooklyn and their wacky misadventures. It was created by Michael Schur, who co-created “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation” and Dan Goor who produced “Parks and Recreation.”

“Brooklyn 99” is very similar in style to both “The Office” and “Parks.” The humor is very much the same, and many actors have appeared on all three shows. While not a mockumentary like “The Office,” the show looks much more like “Parks.” Instead of talking heads to have characters say how they’re feeling, the show uses cutaways as flashbacks to tell many jokes. This is more reminiscent of Fox’s “Family Guy,” which uses the same cutaway gags.

“The Office” started in 2005 as a parody of typical American workplaces. The whole gag was that a paper company in Scranton PA was the most boring location for a documentary to be filmed. As the show went on and found its footing it became more about a bunch of normal people interacting with their absurd boss. “Parks and Recreation” premiered in 2009 as a spiritual successor to “The Office.” When the show premiered, it was very similar to its predecessor. As the show got more comfortable, instead of being about a group of completely wacky office workers living in a realistic depiction of the world, “Parks” was about a group of wacky people living in a wacky world. “Brooklyn 99” is a mix of the two. The show generally takes the crimes they investigate seriously, but the characters all provide laughs.

The show has a cult following online for being very LGBT aware. One of the main characters is gay and another is bisexual. The majority of the characters are also ethnically diverse.

After being canceled by Fox earlier this year, NBC bought the show and renewed it for a sixth season. The sixth season will air early next year. The show is also available to stream on Hulu.

Check out “Brooklyn 99” today.