Brooklyn Nine-Nine was a comedy gift that woudn't have survived as long in another TV era

"I’m going to miss the series, which over its run probably gave me more pure pleasure than anything else airing concurrently anywhere on the dial," says Alyssa Rosenberg. "And I’m so grateful that we got as many episodes of it as we did." She points out that Brooklyn Nine-Nine wouldn't have made it to 112 episodes with its low ratings in another television era. Brooklyn Nine-Nine, she says, "was a model for what pop culture can do when it is committed to showcasing a wider range of characters and their stories." It was diverse in a unique way. There were two black cops, instead of one. Two Latina cops, instead of one. Two non-straight cops, instead of one. "None of those characters ever had to carry the weight of representing those entire communities," says Rosenberg. She adds: "While Brooklyn Nine-Nine was a comedy about cops, it approached the actual work of policing with seriousness and moral rigor. It was a task that might have doomed a lesser show, especially one that aired during a period when police killings of unarmed black Americans spurred a national movement. Brooklyn Nine-Nine tried to model what good policing could look like at a time when even that act of idealism sometimes seemed like a farce ... Brooklyn Nine-Nine was never solely an issue show, but its commitment to approaching policing from an ethical place was fundamental to its sense of decency, a quality which was itself fundamental to the series."

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