Brooklyn Nine-Nine Prepares to Say Goodbye With Season 8 Trailer

It feels like it’s been ages at this point since we checked in with the beloved characters of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, or witnessed the birth of Jake and Amy’s baby—McClane Peralta-Santiago—in the season 7 finale that aired back in April of 2020. Back then, the pandemic was just roaring to life in the U.S., and many of us naively thought that life would be back to normal in just a few short weeks or months. Throw in a summer of civil unrest following the nationwide protests against police violence after the murder of George Floyd, and you have Brooklyn Nine-Nine—a show that always saw the best in police—coming back into a very different world than it left. Somehow, the fact that this is the final season seems oddly appropriate.

With that said, fans have been feverishly wondering how the series might tackle some of the issues revolving around policing that have been in the national consciousness in the last year, and we have our first glimpse in the form of the season 8 trailer you can watch below. Titled “One Last Ride” (title of your sex tape), it catches some of the characters in a sober mood as they come to grips with the fact that their way of life is coming to an end. It’s actually a little emotional, seeing Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio) and Peralta (Andy Samberg) realizing that they probably won’t be 90 year olds still solving crimes together.

All the core cast and fan favorites make their requisite appearances, including Rosa (Stephanie Beatriz), Terry (Terry Crews), Amy (Melissa Fumero), Hitchcock (Dirk Blocker), Scully, (Joel McKinnon Miller) and Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher), naturally clutching his beloved corgi Cheddar. There’s even a quick glimpse of a returning Chelsea Peretti, playing former super-assistant turned cultural icon Gina Linetti.

The final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine was initially delayed when its first scripts were scrapped following the past summer’s protests, presumably because they couldn’t have anticipated changing American attitudes toward policing. It was rewritten as Samberg and co. conferred on the appropriate way to tackle some very serious and timely topics. Here’s hoping these guys stick the landing.

The eighth and final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine premieres on Thursday, Aug. 12 at 8 p.m. EST on NBC. Check out the trailer below.