“Fancy Brugdom” may be best described as stealth-good; at first blush, it’s a plotless episode that does little more than spin its wheels outside the confines of its A-plot (which is itself somewhat low-impact). But even if we accept these critiques as true, “Fancy Brugdom” still manages to do what Brooklyn Nine-Nine has done so well over the course of its entire first season, which is to say that the show wears its emotion on its sleeve while emphasizing story through its wonderfully drawn cast of characters. For the dearth of police work that actually gets done around this precinct, the squad puts a monumental amount of heart in everything they do.
That’s almost secondary to the fact that “Fancy Brugdom” happens to be hilarious. Fad diets, sorry-offs, angry Rosa, bridegroom antics, a baton to the kneecap, hunger-induced rage, and, best of all, a protracted fart joke—these are a few of my favorite things in this week’s installment of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, though none of them are done any justice on the page. “Fancy Brugdom” follows an A-plot in which Boyle, in his immeasurably, unfailingly adorable way, asks Peralta to be his best man for his wedding, a request that the latter accepts with enthusiasm (even when he’s choking down wedding cake adorned with habanero frosting). But of course, not all is well with Boyle’s upcoming nuptials—his bride to be wants to move to suburban Ottawa for work, which means Boyle would have to not only retire from the force, but also give up his Brooklyn pizza blog.
Boyle reacts to his little conundrum as any of us might expect: by freaking out and twisting Jake’s arm into confronting Vivian for him. None of this goes particularly well, though happily enough, none of it goes as south as it reasonably could; Jake might not take his detective work very seriously, but as “Fancy Brugdom” shows, he’ll bend over backwards to help his friends, no matter how many angry grimaces he hides beneath his outer facade. This is a narrative that benefits immensely from both Andy Samberg’s roguish charms and Joe Lo Truglio’s unabashed lovability; put another actor in either role, and you’d likely see Peralta’s and Boyle’s dynamic crumble. (Neither character would be as individually palatable, either, but that’s a separate discussion.)