Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Not-So Nice Guys™

Brooklyn Nine-Nine had its season finale two days ago and completed what was (in my opinion) the most successful first season of a television sitcom since Arrested Development. It found its voice early on, quickly took a manchild-like character (Jake Peralta) and made him more mature without having him lose his goofy charm, and combined humor with heart without ever becoming overly sentimental.

In fact, the show was so successful that I’m even cautiously optimistic about the two  romantic subplots for next season. Brooklyn Nine-Nine could have easily given us two Nice Guys™ but avoided falling into that trap…so far.

The first and most obvious romantic subplot took place between Boyle and Diaz, with the enthusiastic Charles Boyle pining after the sour Rosa Diaz for a good two-thirds of the season. The pining was funnier than a lot of “nerdy guy pines for hot girl” subplots we see in many sitcoms, mostly because the characters’ personalities were so dramatically opposite and watching them bounce off of each other was a delight.

At the same time, I worried a little about the direction the story was taking, since the show established that Charles had pursued Rosa a couple of times only to have her clearly turn him down. (Seriously – she flat-out told him that she liked him as a person but wasn’t interested romantically. I’m barely paraphrasing here.) He kept clinging to his naive hope that she would return his feelings.

It was only a little uncomfortable to watch, because a) it was obvious that he never made her feel unsafe, only a slightly awkward, and b) Charles never indicated a sense of entitlement over Rosa, and his pining was more evidence of his optimistic-to-a-fault personality.

Still, I cringed when Charles saved Rosa in the line of fire. I’ve seen too many shows to not predict where this was going: the man would “earn” the woman he adored by performing an act of heroism.

Then the show surprised me by 1) having Charles admit that he didn’t know he was saving Rosa, and that he would’ve done the same thing for any fellow officer, 2) having Charles fall in love with someone else, and 3) having Charles apologize to Rosa for making her feel uncomfortable with his demonstrations of unrequited love!

I was stunned, and very happy to see that Brooklyn Nine-Nine wasn’t going to shove a mismatched couple down our throats for the sake of “rewarding” another dorky guy with a hot girl for being Nice. Charles Boyle is one of the most delightful characters on TV, and I’m glad that the show reaffirmed that he is not a Nice Guy™, but a genuinely nice guy.

The other romantic subplot in Brooklyn Nine-Nine took place between Jake Peralta and Amy Santiago. While Boyle & Diaz filled the “dorky guy pines for hot girl” quota, Peralta & Santiago filled the “bickering bickersons” quota, showing their barely suppressed sexual tension by having them make fun of each other. Early on, their squabbling was one of the weak points of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and it improved once they took time to establish Santiago’s character as something other than the stereotypical uptight woman paired with the fun, goofy man.

Near the end of the season, Jake was introduced to a fellow officer named Teddy whom Amy used to date. Nursing a crush on Amy while not being quite aware of it yet, Jake let his competitive instincts take over during a training course, and still felt vaguely unsatisfied. Just when he started to question why Amy would want to be with Teddy, Charles made a very obvious, but very important point: “You know why she’s dating him and not you? Because he actually asked her out.”

Later, Jake swallows his pride and approaches Amy to ask her out on a date, but backs down when he sees that she’s leaving for a date with Teddy. He spends the next few episodes looking for ways to distract himself from the existence of Amy’s relationship, and acts awkward and uncomfortable when she’s near him with her boyfriend, but not immature or nasty.

He only finally admits his feelings to her in the season finale, after he’s been “fired” from the NYPD so he can go undercover to expose a much larger crime ring. He tells Amy that he wouldn’t mind if something happened between them, “romantics-wise.”

I was almost shocked by how understated this moment was. It wasn’t framed as a Big Romantic Moment or weighed down with too much heavy-handed importance. It was a man telling a woman that he liked her in a moment that was sweet and a little awkward.

I also appreciated that Jake didn’t pull any passive-aggressive nastiness with Amy when he realized that he wanted a “romantics-wise” relationship with her, and that he made a point of acknowledging that she was dating someone else. It was a confession that wasn’t attached to any pressure or demands. He told her because he couldn’t hold it back anymore, in a situation that would decrease her discomfort since they would no longer be working together.

The Boyle/Diaz and Peralta/Santiago storylines both refreshingly feature nice guys instead of Nice Guys™: men who struggle with their romantic feelings for their female friends, but don’t pressure these female friends or whine about being friendzoned when the feelings aren’t reciprocated.

Let’s hope they keep up this trend in season two. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if Peralta and Santiago gave it a shot, but I truly hope the Boyle/Diaz story is dead and buried, especially now that the eventual fallout of the Charles/Gina hookup has much more comic potential.