Brooklyn Nine-Nine pulls off a satisfying series finale

The A.V. Club

"Sitcom finales appropriately indulge in nostalgia," says Vikram Murthi of the beloved Fox/NBC police comedy's eighth and final season finale. "They’re the last chance for viewers to hang out with beloved characters they’ve been watching for years. It’s as much an opportunity for them to say goodbye to each other as it is to say goodbye to the audience. Naturally, it’s an emotional affair, and any plot mostly exists to service fond farewells. However, the best finales tend to illustrate that life inevitably goes on. Things change, people move on, but everyone keeps plugging away. The only difference is that we no longer get to check in on their progress. 'The Last Day' is far from Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s finest hour, but it deserves credit for checking off every series finale box while telling a fun story without going overboard on saccharine material. It runs through the series’ greatest hits while reuniting the original core ensemble and bringing back numerous guest stars without any of it feeling too labored. It also succeeds in being pretty funny and decently affecting, which is tough for any sitcom running out its eighth year. Most importantly, though, it delivers on expectations while having a sense of humor about those expectations. It’s the equivalent of someone dutifully following through on tradition as they smirk about the silliness of the tradition itself." Murthi adds: "It’s admirable how much 'The Last Day' is about the folly of creating a perfect goodbye, which can easily be extended to the folly of creating a perfect series finale. Along with being inherently sad, goodbyes are often messy and never as satisfying as you expect them to be."

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• Brooklyn Nine-Nine cast and crew bid farewell: "What can I say?" tweeted Andre Braugher. "Words cannot express how much you all mean to me and how proud I am that #Brooklyn99 means so much to all of you. It's been nothing but a pleasure and I thank you from the bottom of my heart."
• Melissa Fumero recounts the final day filming Brooklyn Nine-Nine