Brooklyn -99 is a mad cap comedy. This show is more Sledgehammer than Barney Miller. I really hate to say this, and I hope I am wrong, but I think this is the first show that FOX will cancel. It’s quirky, maybe a little too quirky. It’s simple, maybe a little too simple. It’s funny, way too funny.

We open up with two detectives, Andy Samberg and Melissa Fumero, investigating a robbery in an electronics store. Of course there are the simple jokes about “nine of me doing the speech from…” to the keyboard jumping into bad eighties preset rhythm. Then we meet the new Captain, Andre Braugher. A man who appears to be by the book, but we find out by the end of the episode that what he is, is a leader. He has worked hard to get where he is. Oh yeah and he is gay. This is almost exactly how they handled it. With no set up, no shock, just a statement of fact and then on we move. We meet the whole squad. The sergeant who has lost his edge since he became a father. The detective that seems unable to detect that his office crush has no interest. The civilian aid that…well she is just weird, and not that Illeana Douglas weird or even that Miss Depesto weird just simple old school talk about it at happy hour weird. This is a simple mix of stereo types. Man-child star, female trying to prove she can make it in a man’s world, gay captain…you know everything I already said. This is why I think it will get cancelled; again I hope I am wrong.

Cop shows are hard, cop comedies are harder. If not perfectly on you lose the cops and then their friends. If you are too exact on the job you lose the comedy. This is a tough balance. Very few shows get it right in the work place comedy; even fewer in the cop comedy. Try this I will spot you Barney Miller; now name me one other cop comedy? Name me one even if it failed, really Cop Rock? That’s all you got?

I hope this stays around but I am not holding my breath. Again I hope I am wrong, won’t be the first time and it won’t be the last.