‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ to end on season 8: Why it should’ve stopped on five

Okay, hang on, before you fire up your keyboard with angry tippity-taps because you think we’re hating on Brooklyn Nine-Nine – we love the show! We really do. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a silly, refreshing, fun comedy that we often find ourselves looking forward to watching when new episodes are being released.

However, we don’t love it quite as much as we once did. The announcement that Brooklyn Nine-Nine will be calling it quits after season 8 comes as a bit of relief.

Here’s what you need to know about the show’s impending end and more on why we think it should’ve finished sooner.

Coming to a close

Dan Goor, the executive producer of Brooklyn Nine-Nine has stated that the sitcom will be ending with its season 8, which will only have ten episodes. This will be the shortest season of the show so far. (All we ask is that it has a Halloween heist that actually takes place on Halloween.)

We won’t be able to wish Brooklyn Nine-Nine a farewell anytime soon however, since the final season has officially been slated for the 2021/2022 television season. That means the earliest we’ll be seeing the final episodes will be in the fall, however NBC has usually airs B99’s short seasons in the second half of the TV season – usually in late winter & early spring.

It was also revealed in 2020 that the show is reconsidering how to approach producing a comedic cop show in the midst of the current political climate. The first four episodes had already been written for the final season, but they were scrapped as the cast & crew reconsidered what a responsible cop show looked like – something many procedurals have been grappling with lately.

Season 5 was a good end

Brooklyn Nine-Nine originally aired for five seasons on Fox. The cancellation was abrupt & upsetting to fans of the show at the time – but really that’s just Fox’s way, isn’t it? It didn’t take long for NBC to capitalize on the B99 outrage – they quickly picked up the show and continued to give it a life on their network with shorter seasons.

However, season 5 would truly have been a perfect ending to the show. Jake (Andy Samberg) and Amy (Melissa Fumero) had gotten married, which was the biggest plot line throughout the first five seasons of the show. Plus, we hadn’t lost the effervescent character Gina Linetti (Chelsea Peretti) yet.

Everything since then has felt like dragging the show past its expiration date. This may partially be due to the fact that the network switch seems to have served the show poorly. The writing started to feel stale, the jokes don’t land as often, and the creativity seemed to have stayed at Fox studios. One of the show’s trademark seasonal episodes was also forced to the wayside due to the fact their truncated seasons air in the spring – yes we’re bringing up the Halloween heists again, they’re the best episodes!

We also fully respect that the Brooklyn Nine-Nine cast & crew are trying to create a socially responsible show with season 8, but we’re also worried that the humor that’s been quietly draining away over the years will be further sucked out of the show. The real world topics that have the writers reconsidering are extremely serious – not something that should be joked about.

Short & sweet

We would have vastly preferred it if Brooklyn Nine-Nine went the short & sweet route rather than sticking around until they felt there was no longer a space for them on network TV.

We’ll forever praise The Good Place for knowing when to end their show. They told their story and wrapped it up before they overstayed their welcome. The show will forever be remembered as a funny & fantastic show because it ended on a high note rather than becoming a cash cow that stays on air until fans just don’t care anymore.

We’re afraid that Brooklyn Nine-Nine went the way of petering out sadly and it breaks our hearts. We’ll watch season 8 with low expectations just to see it through to the end, but we do wish it had ended while it was still near & dear to us.