Why The Golden Globe Went To The Best Version of Brooklyn
The cast and crew of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Courtesy: Digital Spy
If you watched the Golden Globes last night (or watched all the recaps today) then you know that this year’s ceremony was one for the ages. Tina and Amy masterfully delivered a number of ego-bruising digs without a trace of malice. Emma Thompson and Cate Blanchett were charmingly off-kilter. Matthew McConaughey officially wedged himself back between the nation’s heartstrings. Early ratings say it may be the most-watched Golden Globes in seven years! But the highlight of the evening was that a more realistic and down-to-earth version of Brooklyn won out.
I’m talking about Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which in the middle of its first season earned the Golden Globe for Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical beating out Girls, which won the year before. For those of you who haven’t been watching the show (and according to Twitter many of you haven’t), the show focuses on the fictional 99th Precinct and the zany detectives that run it. It’s full of slapstick humor and raunchy one-liners, but above all it has one of the most diverse casts on television today.
Andre Braugher plays the precinct’s gay, black captain. Stephanie Beatriz, who appears as the hyper intense Det. Rosa Diaz, hails from Argentina and her foil, Det. Amy Santiago, is played by Cuban-American Melissa Fumero. It features Terry Crews in one of his most nuanced and heartwarming roles. He’s doesn’t play the roid-crazy juggernaut Hollywood is so fond of casting him as (though jokes about his size are frequent), but a doting father of two little girls who has a hard time dealing with the pressures of being in the line of duty. The cast is split 4-3 in favor of men, but Joe Lo Truglio arguably plays the show’s most feminine character. Beyond that the average age of the cast is around 44-years-old. Is the writing youthfully skewed? Of course, but when you look at the cast you see New Brooklyn and you see Old Brooklyn and the beauty and humor of both.
This isn’t another poke at the dead horse that is Girl’s diversity problem. It’s a testament to the version of Brooklyn we are most familiar with and the version that has universal appeal. Girls either makes you feel very old or incredulous that 20-somethings are actually conducting their lives. I’m a 20-something and I’m incredulous that we act that way. Few people are actually the Girls girls. Hannah, Jessa, Marnie and Shoshanna are the fleshed-out caricatures of weird thoughts we have or personal fantasies we create. They exist in a glossy HBO-funded world we’ll never know. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is right down the street.
Follow Nikita Richardson on Twitter @nikitarbk
