'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' Season 8 "Will Not Attempt To Hide Itself In A Fantasy," Says Andre Braugher
As America continues to grapple in real time with the institution of policing and endure the ramifications of an untold number of murders by police officers due to systemic racism, the idea of a cop comedy doesn't seem quite as funny as it used to. Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a show that's always had its heart in the right place, knows this. So creator and showrunner Dan Goor threw out the scripts for the eighth season, and he and the writers are crafting new scripts that address some of these issues head on.
In a new interview, Andre Braugher, who recently earned another Emmy nomination for playing NYPD Captain Raymond Holt (one of the best characters on TV), says that the new season is "a new challenge" and says he has faith in the writers to be able to acknowledge real-world events while still giving fans the comedy that they love.
Speaking with EW, Braugher laid out the approach to the new season. "Now we're going into an eighth season with a new challenge, which is that everyone's knowledge and feelings about police and the police force have been profoundly affected. What we have from [creator] Dan [Goor] is a commitment to write a smart show that will not attempt to hide itself in a fantasy. So the Nine-Nine is going to have to deal with what we know about the New York Police Department...I have a tremendous amount of confidence in [the writers] that we're going to deal with this in a smart and funny way that acknowledges the world as it is."
The veteran actor, who has played cops and authority figures several times over the course of his long career, was also asked what he thinks need to change in the media landscape when it comes to police officers on television.
"It's a very complicated subject," he said, "but I think [TV shows] have to be portrayed much more realistically, in terms of this: the convention in police shows of police breaking the law and that being a good thing, that police breaking the law is okay because somehow it's in the service of some greater good, is a myth that needs to be destroyed." Hear, hear.
"We're all in touch and kind of discussing how you make a comedy show about police right now, and if we can find a way of doing that that we all feel morally okay about," star Andy Samberg said in July. "I know that we'll figure it out, but it's definitely a challenge, so we'll see how it goes."