Although Samberg and Braugher have excellent chemistry, the constant lectures about Peralta taking his job seriously start to weigh down the episode. Peralta shows up late, of course, undercover as “Harvey Norgenbloom, recently divorced father of two with a dark sexual secret,” in a outfit complete with khaki shorts and “man sandals”. Meanwhile, everyone’s new favorite Odd Couple is staking out the vandal in Sargent Jeffords’ (Terry Crews) minivan. Much of the humor comes from Boyle’s manic quest to prove the psychic wrong, but not even Lo Truglio, who was a standout in the pilot, can’t keep our attention from straying back to Peralta and Holt.
The drug-related B-plot gets its proper dose of wackiness courtesy of Gina (Chelsea Peretti), who brings in her “psychic”/shoe saleswoman friend to offer some assistance. The episode centers around two crimes: Holt and Peralta will take on the titular tagger, who is spray painting wieners on squad cars, and Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero), Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz) and Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio) are on the hunt for missing drugs. However, the show definitely needs to provide more evidence for the claim that Peralta is the best detective in the precinct - between his sloppy case files and the mouse in his desk, it’s starting to get a bit unbelievable. Braugher’s comedic timing in this scene is perfect, and the frustrated disbelief with which he delivers Peralta’s list of infringements is a perfect touch.
In the cold open, which is arguably the funniest part of the episode, Peralta arrives three minutes late, ready to be berated by Holt. Next time: CRIMINAL PETE DAVIDSON Best Joke: That's the butt.After a solid pilot got Brooklyn Nine-Nine off to a good start, the gang returns to solve some more crimes as comedically as possible in the series’ second episode, “The Tagger.” While there aren’t quite as many laugh-out-loud moments as there were in the pilot, both Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher as Jake Peralta and Captain Holt, respectively, proved that these two are ready to become a perfectly dysfunctional team. This should be the base level of quality for all B99 episodes, and I'm happy to say that it only gets better from here. Solid jokes, a pretty basic plot, and an overall better, more colorful vibe than the pilot. I'm not the biggest fan of Charles x Rosa storyline in the early half of this season, and I can't wait until the storyline comes to a close. However, her positives are greatly outweighed, I believe, by Charles' overwhelming cowardliness and Gina's.well, straight up bullying. I'm glad Rosa wasn't as one-dimensional as she was previously, at least. Charles and Gina are very unlikable in this episode, keeping their obnoxious traits from the pilot. Where this episode faults is in the B-Plot. Additionally, the plain and simple assignments mixed which hide a more sinister plot (in this case, the cop rivalry between Jake and commissioner Podolski) are a recurring theme in B99, so I think that having the second episode be one of those is a good choice. Like Community (one of my favourite sitcoms), it takes its time to get gradually more ridiculous. I think if this show came out of the pilot guns blazing, it would have been much worse recieved. The plot of this episode is nothing special, but it's for the best. The writers know how overconfident he is, and make sure that his coworkers (especially Holt) let him know. I still think Jake is quite unlikeable in this episode, but it doesn't hinder the episode's quality. I think that the best thing this show has going for it is the growing and evolving relationship between Holt and Peralta, and this episode is the first of many of their semi-team-up episodes. This episode, while not as strong as the pilot, in my opinion, definitely does a better job planting this shows' roots as a memorable sitcom.
Continuing my full rewatch of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, I watched "The Tagger".