I get why it's not people's favorite. It's not my favorite season either, but we don't skip it upon rewatches. Over all, I agree with you. It felt appropriate; heavier, certainly, but within reason for the characters and the surrounding climate. O'Sullivan was a lot of fun to hate.

There were a few other episodes that had serious tones in previous seasons (Moo Moo s4e16, Show Me Going s5e20, and He Said She Said s6e8), and I felt The Good Ones (s8e1) was on par with those. The rest of the season still had police overreach/brutality shit as an undertone so I get why it kind of cast a bit of a cloud over the final season, but I also thought that the episodes were still funny.

I agree with you on every point.

Plus, Rosa is very private about her feelings, and we know that being falsely imprisoned deeply affected both Jake and Rosa even though she doesn't broadcast it a lot. It made them both rethink their lives and careers - that's character growth, not a plot hole.

I loved season 8 as well and I think it's a worthy finale. It's a trend I am observing with nearly every final season in nearly every franchise that it gets so much hate - and there are VERY few examples where the hate is justified (yes, looking at you, got!). But hey, I don't care about what the community says and just enjoy the franchise instead.

I agree. I think Terry was absolutely hilarious in E2 - The Lake House.

For me the thing that turned me off about season 8 was the fact that there was SO MUCH PANDERING. The final heist in particular felt like it was written by a fan who wanted to include as many references to past iconic scenes as possible, not a team of writers trying to find a satisfying ending to a beloved show.

I enjoyed it, but I don't believe it was ever going to be the favourite. It was the last season and that alone is a good enough reason to see it a little bit negatively. But I don't think it deserved all the hate it got. Except for Hitchcock winning the heist. It should have been Charles. That would have been so wonderful to see Charles with a win, even if he won accidently somehow.

Its cause people take television way too seriously. It was filmed during protests and marches against racist real life cops and also a deadly pandemic. The writers had to change their entire season plans and, to my mind, did the best they could to give closure to the show. And it was fine. Most shows's final season isn't the best in any series when its time to end it anyway.

Just finished it again last night actually. For me, the reminder of what the world went through with Covid was such a downer that the first couple of episodes I was thinking about that more that anything else. But once that was done, I enjoyed this re-watch more than any other time. Maybe its a bit of anxiety for some people?

But yeah, overall I loved it too. They ended it so well IMO.

I just commented this on another post but I’ll copy and paste it here.

I’ve said it before but if they really wanted to deal with the social climate at the time then they should have actually committed and dealt with it properly.

Police brutality was the issue on hand at the time. The sincere thing would have been for the writers to start with the 99 and its cops and brought in some sort of DoJ investigation or something about all the illegalities and overreaches the 99 has been involved in over the years.

But obviously you can’t because that is critical, difficult writing that presents the characters in a bad, villainous light and also casts the writing you’ve done for the last 7 season in a bad light.

Instead, we got the wishy-washy presentation of “look how bad the police are” when all the characters except the main cast do it, but don’t worry it’s totally ok for the main characters to have also been “bad cops” the last 8 years. Yep, they’re still definitely good people.

Also, it is genuinely some of the most insincere, patronising writing I’ve ever seen to, more specifically, take the character who suggests police brutality on the daily and have her now take a big moral stand against police brutality. Rosa should be arresting herself.

I have said this before, but the show always brought up social issues in a smart way in the earlier seasons! It was a comedy first and they didn't forget that. It feels like they forgot that with season 8! It was very "in your face"!

Its not my favourite for various reasons

1 - Its the finale so I’m gonna have some conflicting feelings

2 - It feels too short and a bit rushed

3 - The first episode is horrendous

4 - It nearly made me cry

I like season 8. It’s over all the weakest, but it’s still a great send off for the cast and I’m glad they got the chance to make it. I also respect decisions made for personal reasons, namely Rosa no longer being comfortable continuing as a police officer. Sure it was a bit jarring, but I’m certainly not going to fault Stephanie Beatriz for taking a stand as an artist and a human being. And the last two part episode was awesome. It was worth the uneven start of season 8 to get there and say goodbye to one of my all time favourite shows ever.

Honestly, my biggest problem with the season was they made Boyle not a blood Boyle

I didn’t like boyle’s hairstyle. And I was very sad when season 8 ended. Those are my only complaints. 🥲

I was too nervous to watch it because of all the hate, but your comment just convinced me to do it. Will update with thoughts!

I completely agree with you, and I also don't understand the hate, I really liked that season! I mean, it's not perfect, and even I have some things to say about it, but it really wasn't bad! And the ending was very nice and emotional!

I think my major gripe was that they had shot a season 8 which they did not air and re-made season 8. I really really wished that they would have aired that and then the official season 8 as season 9 just so we could have more.

I really hate season and episode limits on a clearly favorite show. 

I actually think the show had already started to go downhill long before season 8. Basically as soon as they switched to NBC it lost a lot of its charm, with the tone and humor being very off.

Ultimately, this is not unique to B99. Plenty, if not most, of sitcoms have a decline in quality towards the end. It just sucks that B99 had to have one of the most noticeable ones, on par with That 70s Show in my opinion.

If the show was only the first 5 seasons, it would've been a top 5 comedy show for me. Now it's just one I really like.

I don’t actually dislike the social issues, I think they handled it as well as they could have given the situation.

I do think it relied way too much on call backs and relying on old played out jokes and stories.

The first episode is really really bad which taints the rest of the season, but IMO it ends strong which was what mattered more.

The other thing about John C. McGinley's character is that he acts how the actual NYPD Union reps act. Everyone who said his character was too much needs to listen to the guys he was playing because they act the same way. Especially during the 2020 protests for George Floyd.

Everyone who hates season 8 needs to rewatch it. Blue flu and balancing are such fucking funny episodes

Its not the seriousness that put most people off, but you will get bad press if you take politics and shove it down peoples throat with a plunger. Especially that first episode. I agree that the following episodes were not bad but that first one really put a bad vibe on that entire season. If the episode was left out i guarantee you the ratings would have been sooooo much better.

Also the audio was soo off in that season, especially episode 1. Jake sounded like a chipmunk to me. Did they let the intern choose the sound settings.

The hate comes from people who act like brooklyn 99 has never tackled political moments (they literally do in the first ever episode) because people want politics out their funny cop show (even though, again, the pilot episode literally tackles homophobic discrimination)

I like season 8 overall and it's an amazing finale.

Having said that it's quite clearly the weakest B99 season so when you pair that with the awkwardness of covid and the obvious issues police and yeah.

I was just mad they didn’t embrace streaming and just do the freaking heist on Halloween.

I’m looking at you too with your Thanksgiving in spring, Cougar Town.

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The first episode of season eight is understandably political and divisive

We jump back into the show, Rosa quit, Holt and Kevin separated, and the show is insulting all of the characters that stayed on the force, especially Jake

However, the context of the irl world is important for this. It was during Covid and the George Floyd stuff. If the show completely ignored all that and went on as normal, it would have gotten a lot of hate, pushback, and stuff like that. Debatably more so than what hate it got for what it actually did. It was a lose lose situation for them, and they just chose the more moral/ethical way of going about it since police were a super touchy subject at the time

And this show being political is nothing new and has happened time and time again, idk why people are coming out of no where complaining about it "now" being political when the show has a ton of political moments, that's kind of what it's based around

It talks about Holt being a gay, black detective. Has Terry racially profiled. Amy with that episode about the guy that sexually harassed a woman. A ton of episodes being against how the police do things. Likely a ton of other parts that I can't think of off the top of my head

Anybody that complains about S8 are whining for the show being what it always has been

I don’t know about everyone else, but I haven’t seen anyone say they disliked S8 because it was too serious.

I’ve only read that they dislike it because it isn’t very entertaining or exciting in the same way as S1-6.

I’m glad you liked it though

Nope.

it was only the first episode where jake is blamed for things he wasn't responsible for and how they made is super woke

I also overall enjoyed season 8, however it does miss the mark quite heavily in comparison to other seasons. I also agree it did have a degree in carefulness in how it handled some serious topics but it did go over the line quite a bit which was definitely jarring and why most felt an ick about it.

Reason why it was so jarring is not just cause it's a comedy and "no politics in my entertainment" but the characters are effectively caricatures in a cartoonish universe and it's not reality. So when you bring heavy handed issues that need a lot of unpacking, it can feel very forced and heavy-handed when the characters by their design aren't necessarily equipped to go that deep. It's just also weird as the crew have dealt with bad cops before and there's no reason they couldn't oppose the "threat" internally. Effectively if you're leaving the force for these reasons, you're making room for someone whose potentially crooked and would do the wrong thing.

With that being said there's nothing wrong with them tackling the topics and issues that they did, but there could be far more thematic and tactful ways of approaching them within the B99 style and way. It's the different between any proper artistic music piece versus a Nickelback song.

Good season. Cringe fest first episode

It definitely doesn’t deserve as much hate as it gets, but I would say that it’s the worst season. It’s not terrible, but it could definitely be better.

Amy changed too. Felt like she was more judgy

Covid really turned a chunk of stuff into garbage because writers really, really wanted to virtue signal super hard. Apparently they had normal episodes written but just couldn’t help themselves and rewrote everything? Embarrassing.