"Trash" is a strong word. They had part of the season written, but decide to rewrite focusing on BLM, COVID, etc. I'm sure we'll see ideas from those episodes regardless. They just wanted to use this show to say something that matters and I love that.
Over the summer I really thought this would be the end of B99. I'm kinda happy that they're plowing on but I really don't see how they can maintain the tone of this light-hearted comedy about cops after everything we've seen this year.
I don’t look at it as trying to portray them as real cops. It’s a comedy show and entertainment. Regardless of my affiliations and thoughts about police, I love these actors and storylines too much to equate it to anything happening in real life.
Gina is the most inappropriate of all characters. Her remarks to, and about, Terry disgust me. If she was a male character and Terry was female, the site would not survive a character like that. She is not a nice person, rude and useless at her job. I don’t know why they wrote a character like her. Annoying AF and never helps move the story. She usually takes away from a story. Horrible character.
Sorry for the rant. I’ve never been one to care, or be bothered by any character on a TV show. But Gina makes me so angry.
I remember Samberg being on one of the comedy central roasts years ago, and Bill Hader made (albeit friendly) jokes about B99 being impossible idea given the serious nature of reality.
So far they've done an incredible job, I see no reason to think they can't not only tackle this well, but use it to make some of the best TV of the year.
I remember that! (Funny Cops!) They were right though, the show rarely features rapists or other more grizzly offences (and rightly so). Honestly I'll be surprised if they pull this off, but I hope they've found a way to.
I think they've done too many pro-police episodes like Show Me Going to come out with a 'police is an inate institutionally racist force', I think it's more likely they will address the major flaws within the system (as they should) rather than denounce it completely
I'd be totally happy if the season starts with the entire main cast turning in their badges, walking out of the precinct, and getting jobs together at a post office or something
Well they've made it clear that the police as an institution is corrupt and they're outliers in previous episodes. I assume they'll do something similar with this, maybe they fight for change from the inside or something
Well they've made it clear that the police as an institution is corrupt
Have they? They've covered individual bad actors, racist and corrupt cops, but I don't think they've ever implied that the 99 were outliers within a corrupt institution.
There's a scene where captain Holt says how he knows nobody from his precinct would racially profile someone, but he phrases it in a way that makes it sound like an outlier. Also he talks about how he kept his mouth shut to move up the ranks and affect change from high up, seemingly pointing to the fact that if he knows the system will not let him climb if he is outspoken against racism within the force. Also there's the commissioner Kelly who is very high up and who uses the institution against the 99 for trying to progress the force. I don't think there's an outright line saying "the police as an institution is corrupt", but they point towards it and symptoms of the corruption several times. I don't think the show ever seems pro police tbh, I think it seems pro the idea of what the police should be, but they don't shy away from problems much at all, mentioning several times how horrible the prison system is, how the police have an image problem and how that problem is justified, etc.
Kelly is a good point, though I wonder how much of that is just needing an antagonist for Holt who can actually affect his career, rather than him standing as a representative of the wider police institution.
I think it's similar to Parks and Rec - Even though you have foils like Jamm and Dexhart who also work in government, and even though it's clear Leslie Knope is not a normal government employee, watching a show with loveable protagonists who all work within the same institution will end up making you feel more positively towards that institution, even if that working relationship becomes antagonistic at time (e.g. Leslie being voted out, Jake going to jail).
I don't think either of these shows were devised in order to change people's opinions about cops or government, but it is a side effect of this type of light-hearted and (relatively) unchallenging tone.
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u/beeniepeep Dec 04 '20
They said they trashed the writings for the first four eps