Workplace comedies have been increasingly topical lately. While older shows like The Office, Scrubs and even Parks and Recreation had no interest in addressing urgent political and social issues in the real world, shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Superstore of today have the biggest interest. From Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s racial profiling and #MeToo episodes, to Superstore’s handling of unionization and ICE storylines, it seems there isn’t any territory left uncharted.
Both Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Superstore are internationally successful shows, the former renewed for its eighth season and the latter having just started its sixth season. With their diverse and talented ensemble casts, both of the shows present interesting and one-of-a-kind characters. What differs is where these characters are presented.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is set in a police precinct, and Superstore in a big-box store. Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s main characters are police officers, and Superstore’s main characters are employees in said big-box store. So, no matter how self-aware Brooklyn Nine-Nine is when it presents a criticism against “the system,” it still shows people who criticize the system working for the same prevailing system. With Superstore it’s different, because every part of the system is working against the benefit of the main characters.
In light of the continuing Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020 how Brooklyn Nine-Nine could come back for its eighth season has been a topic of debate. This opened up a further conversation about how the show presents the police force and the existing system in which it operates.
The season four episode “Moo Moo” can be considered Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s first try at finding a more socially conscious voice. Up until that point, the show has clear, politically correct language. Still, the plots that could be seen as social commentary, like Jake (Andy Samberg) punching a homophobic reporter, are not only not specific to the show’s setting, but not specific to workplace comedies either. So, when “Moo Moo” hits the screen, it feels like a misplaced puzzle piece, and an episode later it is forgotten.
In that episode, Terry (Terry Crews), a Black cop, is racially profiled by a white police officer when he is walking in his neighborhood at night. The show comes up with two ways to deal with a situation like this. Either writing that police officer up, as Terry wants, or rising up the ranks to change the system as Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) suggests. In the end, they agree that times have changed, and Terry writes the officer up.
The issue here is that Captain Holt, as a Black man who rose in the ranks, didn’t actually achieve what he was suggesting to Terry. He is not exactly working to change the system, but is operating by the rules that are already set within the system. This is the fundamental problem of the messages the show tries to pass on. The police system is shown as something with faults and shortcomings. Then, there are all these loveable, goofy and well-intending police officers. Combining the both of them implies that when an essentially defective system is used by the hands of good people, it can work.
In a few throwaway lines, Jake comments on the gun-related issues in the country, transgender people’s situation in prisons, and so on. After returning from prison he has a hard time believing a perp he caught is guilty. Yet, he talks about guns as if they are toys, and he keeps working for a system that has been known to lock the innocent up. At the end of the fourth season Jake, along with Rosa (Stephanie Beatriz), is one of those people that falls victim to the system, as he is found guilty for a crime he did not commit.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a socially conscious show. Most of the time, though, their social commentary falls flat.
The characters’ backgrounds play a big role in this. With the exception of Scully (Joel McKinnon Miller) and Hitchcock (Dirk Blocker) and perhaps Jake, other characters seem capable of having different career options. Amy (Melissa Fumero) is hard working, organized, and highly intellectual. Terry has an interest in art. Captain Holt knows all about history, literature, and the classics. Even Gina (Chelsea Peretti), with her shiny personality and her love for dancing, seems like she could be doing something else.
So, this brings up the questions of why these people are police officers, and why exactly did they choose to serve this system?
Superstore stands on the other side of this question. As one of the latest episodes in season six proves, even the most politically aware and intellectual person in the store, Jonah (Ben Feldman), doesn’t have a choice but to work in Cloud-9. The same goes for Amy (America Ferrera), who didn’t go to university, Cheyenne (Nichole Sakura) who is a pregnant teenager in the first season, or Mateo (Nico Santos) who is an undocumented immigrant from the Philippines.
Not only are the Superstore characters different from Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s in occupation, but also in social background and social standings. The biggest example is Mateo, who is arrested by ICE within the show. Mateo’s existence is in itself against the system, as he fakes a social security number on his application form. Mateo doesn’t benefit from the existing rules, because he constantly looks over his shoulder wondering when he will be caught, and has to pass up a transfer to another store because he doesn’t have a social security card. After seeing all the times in which Mateo loses because of the rules of immigration in place in the US, when the show turns around and makes an ICE related plot, their social commentary lands near perfectly.
People constantly talk about how much Superstore’s work environment is similar to those of real life big-box stores like Target or Walmart. Even the anti-union video displayed in the show resembles Amazon’s anti-union video to a scary degree. The mentions of unionization in the show go all the way back to season one, where the seeds of the big plot of the later seasons were sown.
Unions in the United States are often treated as the mother of all evil that mentioning unionization in an American show feels like it should be a sin. Yet, Superstore successfully took that leap. Since the first season, mostly as part of a joke, the viewers have seen the conditions these characters work in. For example, Cheyenne doesn’t get paid maternity leave, and Dina (Lauren Ash) and Amy don’t give birth in the same conditions because of the different health care benefits offered to higher-level workers.
So, when the time comes for Superstore to advocate for workers’ rights for higher wages, better working conditions, and health benefits through unionization, the plot feels earned. The characters have been stomped on by the system for seasons and seasons. Then, they try to do things to alter the faulty system, like arranging a walkout or starting a union, and even bargaining with the corporate that hangs above like a dystopian controlling entity.
Both of these shows have a clear aim: they set out to be a breath of fresh air for the beloved workplace comedy genre through everything they present. While Brooklyn Nine-Nine goes for an episode-based social commentary, Superstore further explores the critiques it suggests by turning them into season-long plots. Superstore doesn’t lose anything from its comedy through that, but Brooklyn Nine-Nine loses the base it is trying to build the show on. If a show is going to dip its toes into the vast sea of contemporary political and social issues it should go all the way in, or not at all. Otherwise, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
The environment of the show is another thing to look out for. It feels like they did not think what the show would represent in the bigger picture while planning for Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Their episodes of social commentary also seem to be coming from a well-intending place, but their implications are filled with problems. It is one thing when people serving the existing system criticize the existing society and another when people who are trying to survive the existing system criticize it. That’s why the messages coming from Superstore don’t leave that much room for second thoughts, as opposed to Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is constantly praised by its fan base, and most people that watch the show for how socially conscious it is. On a closer look, though, they mess up a lot of the landings. If people are really looking for a socially conscious show that actually takes time developing its points while being amazingly funny, they should take a look at Superstore. After all, being lectured by police officers isn’t as powerful as seeing people struggle in their daily lives and consequently try to find a way out of their issues.
Even if it’s 2020, maybe not all shows need to teach its viewers social and political lessons; especially if the lessons are coming from the police system.
