Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a comedy TV series that airs on NBC. This winter, on January 10th, the show will premiere its sixth season. It’s a cop show about the detectives of the 99th precinct of the NYPD. This show has many great aspects, including a diverse main cast, and episodes that discuss major social issues in society. It covers topics such as racism and racial profiling, as well as LGBTQ+ issues, all while remaining a lighthearted show that is actually funny. For its first five seasons, Brooklyn Nine-Nine ran on Fox, but in May of 2018, the network announced it would be cancelling the show. After public outcry on social media, the show was picked up by its new network, NBC, within just 24 hours. This is something that was unheard of in TV history.

The captain of the precinct is an openly gay man, and there are many mentions of how this led to poor treatment by his colleagues throughout his time on the force. In the season 1 episode 18, entitled “The Party,” Captain Raymond Holt’s (Andre Braugher) husband Kevin (Marc Evan Jackson) throws him a birthday party, but doesn’t want to invite Holt’s coworkers. Despite this, Holt tells the squad they can go to the party on the condition that they follow Kevin’s “no cop talk” policy.Overall, this episode had many funny moments, with the precinct desperately trying, and failing miserably, to make a good impression on Kevin. The episode also deals with a heavier topic, however, when it is later discovered by Detective Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) that the reason that Kevin didn’t want the other cops there was because of how Holt’s coworkers treated him in the past. When Peralta confronts Kevin, asking him why he doesn’t like cops, Kevin responds by saying, “Because he’s gay, Raymond has been put through hell by his colleagues, many of whom quite frankly, look exactly like you.” It is instances like this were the creators of the show take the time to add depth to their characters while bringing to light the injustices that many real people face.

In a more recent season, the show also covered the topic of racial profiling by police officers. In season 4 episode 16, entitled “Moo Moo,” Sergeant Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews) is walking in his neighbourhood at night, looking for his daughter’s lost blanket, when he is stopped by a white police officer. The cop questions him about what he is doing, and when Terry tries to explain that he isn’t doing anything wrong, the cop arrests him. It is only after the cop finally ran Terry’s name through the system that he believed Terry was also a cop and let him go. Later in the episode, Terry meets with the cop who arrested him to have a conversation about the profiling, and it does not go well. During the conversation, the cop says things like, “If I had known you were a cop, I never would have treated you that way” and “Okay, but you and I both know that you don’t exactly look like you belong in that neighbourhood,” further proving his own bias. After this conversation, Terry tries to file a formal complaint, but Captain Holt initially discourages him from doing so, because he believes it will hurt Terry’s career. Eventually, despite the lack of support Holt received from his superiors on the force, he realizes that he can’t do nothing and submits the complaint. This episode shows that it is possible for comedy shows to cover important and heavy topics while remaining true to the heart of the show.

As mentioned previously, this show was supposed to be cancelled earlier this year, but was quickly picked up again by a new station. This was due largely in part to the use of social media platforms (mainly Twitter) by fans of the show. Shortly after the news was released that Fox was cancelling Brooklyn Nine-Nine, thousands of fans began tweeting in favour of the show using hashtags such as #renewB99, and #SaveBrooklyn99. This media attention was enough to spark the interest of NBC, who picked the show up in under 24 hours of its cancelation.

This goes to show the impact of social media ratings. Shows are most commonly dropped due to low TV ratings, but now with so many ways to stream shows online —such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video — are TV ratings enough to go by? The Twitter ratings in this instance would suggest otherwise. Many people no longer watch TV shows live, or even PVR them, as they would prefer to wait until the entire season is released on a streaming service instead, so it can be binge-watched. TV networks should take note of this instance and begin looking into other measures of ratings for their shows, as it is clear that TV ratings alone do not tell the whole story.

The first five seasons of Brooklyn Nine-Nine are available for streaming on Netflix.