Brooklyn Nine-Nine meets sibling (and actor) rivalry with “The Golden Child”
After working an impressive balance between light comedy and serious real-life issues in last week’s “He Said, She Said,” Brooklyn Nine-Nine returns to straight up silliness with this week’s “The Golden Child.” Sure, this week’s A-plot comes from a real place as well—sibling rivalry, parental favoritism, being framed by dirty cops and kidnapped by beautiful Brazilians—but there’s no denying it’s ultimately all about the comedy.
In fact, “The Golden Child” doesn’t so much rely on Amy’s relatable feelings of inferiority as it leans into her absolute pettiness over and resentment of (both portrayed as absurdly childish and possibly villainous) her “perfect” brother David (Lin-Manuel Miranda). This drives the inappropriate joy she feels during that fleeting moment when it’s possible David will no longer be the golden child of the Santiago family. While it’s not supposed to be a flattering portrayal of Amy, it’s hard not to find amusement in her joy, considering how much of a blowhard David is. And that’s not even taking into account his repeated mentioning that he doesn’t “follow pop culture,” as the kind of character who makes sure everyone knows he doesn’t even own a TV.
Melissa Fumero again steals the show, with Jake’s role as Amy’s “hype man” quickly turning into Andy Samberg playing Fumero’s straight man, which leads to a great line (and line reading) like “Are you… a bad person?” Considering the situation—her family member getting busted with a bunch of cocaine in his desk—it’s harsh. But it’s also funny just how much Amy finds it funny and how untoward Jake finds that. This season has been pretty good about showing what married life is like both personally and professionally for Jake and Amy, and one thing it’s really been focused on (whether it works or not) is the idea of Jake also being the straight man to Amy’s wackiness, not just the other way around. It’s a necessary component to the characters’ relationship working in a larger sense—in terms of them making sense for the series—as it avoids the tired concept of Amy as the put-upon wife who just has to deal and go along with Jake’s immaturity. Both of these characters can be immature, because they’re written as human, and sometimes the immature one isn’t the one you’d expect. Again, while it comes from a place of pettiness, Amy’s “Aww, thanks for not trying to make me a better person. I love you.” isn’t just a funny reaction to Jake’s fake choking plan, it’s an acknowledgment that these characters know when they should go along with each other’s childish plans.
As for David Santiago, the dance-off is really the one scene where Miranda really gets to earn his keep in terms of laugh out loud material. He and Fumero actually bring new meaning to “bad dancing,” even if they can do body rolls, which are really hard. But this episode definitely knows what it’s doing by essentially having Miranda play a character that’s very similar to the image of him plenty of people have in their head. Not in terms of the anti-pop culture stance—though Miranda has said this is one of only four television shows he watches—the overachieving, constantly bragging, and golden child perception. It’s pretty much as if Neil Campbell and the rest of the Brooklyn NIne-Nine writers took that perception of Lin-Manuel Miranda, made it a cop, and then made sure to take away any potential rapping scenarios.
Mrs. Santiago: “He’s everyone’s role model. That’s why he’s on the mantel.”