Brooklyn Nine-Nine

I don’t get the impression that Gina is supposed to be right, so much as that it’s supposed to be funny that the admin assistant continually wins her battles of wills with trained and tough police officers. The moment when Gina is literally on fire from her space heater that she refuses to get rid of, and it’s Terry who backs down rather than her, and he’s just like “...” is pretty much the classic example.

Then there’s the moments where her selfish, callous self-obsession ends up helping the team without her intending it or deserving any credit for it (e.g., preventing the precinct from being closed).

In both cases, I take it as intended to be funny rather than as shilling Gina.

Granted, it makes no sense that they don’t just say “Do this or you’ll be fired” at some point, but most of the workplace behaviour from most characters wouldn’t be tolerated in real life.

Simply put, Gina is always right at the end and never suffers any consequences for her actions, even though every single other character does. That's a very example of shilling, and unless she was meant to be an Comically Invincible Hero or something similar, whether if that's played for laugh or not is completely irrelevant.

God, I'm reminded that she is now gone, good riddance.

It's less that she is always right, it is more that even if she is wrong something happens which avoids her facing any backlash.

Which is even worse, really. Basically universe bends over backwards for her.

Gina being a karma Houdini bothers me sometimes, but is mitigated by the fact that she’s often actually being helpful or nice, in her weird passive aggressive way.

Also, remember that time she was hit by a bus?

I kind of assumed that they only wrote this into the show because the actress hurt herself somehow?

Not really. Her maternity leave was handled the season after when the character herself became pregnant. It's possible that they needed her to leave because they didn't have enough money in the budget (another reason why she's not in this season either).

In any case, the reason itself doesn't matter because the character was hit by a bus.

I admit, i don't even remember why she got hit by a bus.

She was reading a text Charles sent in their group text.

Hilariously foreshadowed by her saying, "I'd rather get hit by a bus than read another text from Charles!"

Anyway. Mark me down as someone else who immensely dislikes Gina. She has quite a few hilarious one-liners but as a character, she's just obnoxious, especially her treatment of Amy. Obviously lots of friendships involve teasing insults, but Amy always looks so hurt by Gina's insults that those insults just come off like Gina genuinely hates Amy, as opposed to friendly ribbing. And yeah, Gina always feels like she comes out on top, no matter what. It's. irritating, and I can't say I'm gonna miss her much.

Being helpful or nice? Oh, you mean something literally every main cast does or at least tries to, except they do it without being passive aggressive and borderline abusive?

There are Hitchcock and Scully (or maybe Hitchcock), yeah, but I have been constantly expressing my hatred towards them and desire to see them get written out.

Yeah, I remember how it lasted literally less than an episode and never had any effect on anything whatsoever, to the point of being a non-event. Apparently she also has a Healing Factor of sorts.

Her healing factor was the same as the rest of us: time. There was a Time Skip. Did everyone miss that but me?

I actually don't dislike Gina. I just don't care about her character one way or another.

The last time I hated a sitcom character that wasn't supposed to be an antagonist this much was Ted from How I Met Your Mother.

My God, it was a TV series where my least favorite character was the main character. How the hell did I even watch it till the last episode (and utterly regretted)!?

Actually, at the very first few episodes, I really hated Jake's guts and I feared it might be the new HIMYM. Glad that's not the case.

...Or it can still be, the final season has not started yet...

"The last time I hated a sitcom character that wasn't supposed to be an antagonist this much was Ted from How I Met Your Mother."

I mean in hindsight, Barney was a serial rapist, so maybe Ted's position on the totem pole needs to be revised

Meh, there's no such need. They are both so down in my list that it kinda stops mattering who are worse. The only reason why I hate Ted more is he's the main character and he shows up more often to be...him.

Frankly, the only character I find tolerable upon rewatching is Marshall anyway. And maybe Robin too.

Edited by dRoy on Mar 5th 2019 at 9:00:25 PM

Eh at least in Barney's case the show acknowledged pretty often that he treated a lot of women like absolute shit.

It didn't really do that with Ted, and damn it gets on my nerves.

I actually enjoy the show myself, but I admit that many of the characters are only likable and/or funny because the show is a wacky-ish comedy. Treat them realistically and they're awful people.

Edited by Murataku on Mar 6th 2019 at 12:23:53 AM

Amy's incredible pettiness is what really elevated this episode.

Boyle planning the whole thing is obvious once Rosa's non-presence becomes noticeable but it works though I would've liked to see what she did and more of Holt's Bad "Bad Acting".

I love Amy so damn much. Give Melissa Fumero her Emmy. I thought the Boyle subplot worked really well, better than the Disco strangler subplot. Wish we’d gotten more resolution with Amy’s mom though. Maybe David could have been infuriatingly perfect by respectfully sticking up for Amy, to Amy’s disgust.

I also found it hilarious how Jake was constantly distracted by the hot Brazilian mobsters. Baby ain’t no lie, Jake is bi bi bi (bi bi!)

We're discussing accidentally hated HIMYM characters and no mention of Lily "okay, yes, I'm lying and manipulating you and your relationships but it's because the woman you're dating doesn't fit into my life plan. Also, I have crippling credit card debt and I'm pressuring my husband into taking a job he doesn't want because of that, and then harassing him for staying, and then when he quits I can't handle the pressure of supporting him (emotionally, not financially) to the point that I am buying a plane ticket to Spain during a work event he's running" Aldrin?

Edited by Larkmarn on Mar 8th 2019 at 2:51:56 PM

Haha, yeah, they are all awful when you really think about it.

Lily — manipulative bitch. Ted — whiny guy; awful to lots of women. Barney — he actually sold a woman once. God, I was never able to get past that. Robin — I kinda liked her at first, but after the episode with her former band mates, she was never that cool again. Her irrational hatred of Patrice is also awful, but that happened when I was not watching the show anymore, I just read about it here. Marshall — him I still like, but I stopped watching after one particularly nasty episode somewhere in season 5 (I think) and then I returned for the final season — it was bad, but I wanted to see the mother. Her I liked as well. But she deserved so much better than Ted and his awful friends. And she deserved better than a dropped bridge, lol.

So Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a pretty cool show to discuss here.

I too am glad Gina is gone, she was obnoxious and not in a way I found funny often. Had she got her comeuppance far more often, I'd be fine with it, but she didn't.

I am glad to hear it's renewed for a new season! I've been really enjoying this season so far and looking forward to where it goes next. Also, I'm curious if the plotline with the current commissioner will come back up or not.

Yeah, I'm still only in Season 2, but I am kinda getting sick of Gina already. I like everybody else, but Gina just isn't particularly funny to me.

I do love Peralta though. If nothing else, boy finds joy in what he does.

Gina made me laugh sometimes, but she kinda stuck out as a sore thumb as the only main character (not counting Scully or Hitchcock) who hasn't really changed or grown much since the start of the show.

I think, Gina aside, my biggest gripe with the show is the odd low-key The World Is Always Doomed with the Nine-Nine seemingly always in danger of being destroyed as an institution. Wunch gets Holt transferred, there's the audit subplot in S4, S6 has the precinct in the sights of the new Commissioner. And I'm not even counting officers personally being in danger (... as happens in every other season).

Like, that would be a wild six years of unstability for an internet start up. For a police precinct it's madness. Like, I'm not complaining "there's too much that's going on" but it just feels... not lazy, but kinda repetitive. Every time the Commissioner subplot gets brought up in S6 it feels repetitive.