Station Zero

What is it that makes Brooklyn Nine-Nine , a fairly traditional sitcom about New York cops, so endlessly entertaining? We’ve already seen every episode at least twice, and when things started getting depressing here in this quarantine spring we went straight back to it. Taken line-by-line, it’s a well-written show, but it’s not spectacularly well-written. It has its share of weak gags, individual scenes quite often end without a payoff, and the storylines, if we’re being objective, are sometimes a bit bland and contrived. But none of that matters even a tiny bit, because the gags, the scenes, and the storylines all exist simply so the cast can do their thing, and the Brooklyn Nine-Nine cast are perfect. Like many perfect casts, they’re kind of a disparate bunch: Andy Samberg as Jake and Chelsea Peretti as Gina are basically comedians doing their respective schticks, Joe Lo Truglio (Boyle), Melissa Fumero (Amy), Stephanie Beatriz (Rosa), Dirk Blocker, (Hitchcock) and Joel Mc...