Holy Stacy Keach! ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Recap: ‘Old School’

Old School featured guest star Stacy Keach as Peralta’s childhood hero Jimmy Brogan. Keach does a great job as a hardened journalist who penned The Squad back in the 70s, a book that details the rough-and-tumble life of New York policemen and that eventually served as inspiration for Peralta to become a cop. Brogan spends the episode doing research for a new article he’s writing about how police life has changed since his book was published, and despite Santiago and Holt’s reservations, Jake is all too eager to impress along the way.

I was concerned at first that this story might have a ‘been-there, done-that’ type of feel, but Samberg totally sells Jake’s pure joy at getting to follow around his obvious man-crush. Peralta’s goofiness and immaturity were particularly well suited for this episode, which found him kissing Brogan’s ass to get into his good graces, getting disgustingly drunk, and challenging Brogan to hit an apple off his head with a dart (Brogan fails, but Jake’s the real loser when it stabs him in the chest – oh well, not like he felt it with all that booze in his system).

In the end, Samberg sees what Santiago and Holt have seen from the start – that Brogan is nothing other than a loud mouth who’s stuck in the past. We’ve seen how impulsive Peralta is, though, and this realization doesn’t come without its consequences: Jake punches Brogan after the journalist uses a derogatory term to describe the openly gay Captain Holt. As a result Peralta falls from hero to villain in Brogan’s article, but it’s all worth it in the end when Holt offers Peralta a few comforting words and a smile that lets him know his actions are appreciated and respected.

The B-story didn’t disappoint, either, with Terry and Charles trying to teach Diaz about courtroom etiquette. Seriously, Brooklyn Nine-Nine has one of the best supporting casts in a sitcom right now, and I love watching the actors play with each other. My only complaint would be that I don’t get enough of them (where was Gina tonight?! Guess Chelsea Peretti was too busy being awesome).

Amazing image of the night: 1970s Holt walking into his police precinct. That was a kick-ass afro, man. More flashbacks of young Holt, please?

Can’t wait for next week, Sal’s Pizza, featuring guest star Patton Oswalt!

Follow Jessica Kane on Twitter (@jesskane31).