This week's episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine saw it carry on it's recent trend of focusing on the characters' personal lives rather than cops chasing criminals. However, 'Fancy Brugdom' (based on the name of a Danish magazine but remember the game 'Bugdom'? Ah, memories) faired a great deal better than last week's 'Tactical Village'.

Due to Charles' wedding fast approaching (it's totally the season finale, isn't it?), Charles' and his new best man Jake go shopping for the wedding. Jake learns, while tasting cake, that Charles is planning to retire and move to Canada with Vivian. Charles quickly learns after that this is not something he wants to do. The rest of the episode features Jake helping Charles muster up the courage to tell Vivian that he doesn't want to go.

Charles' has a much funnier rapport with Jake than the rest of the cast. His tendency to say embarrassing mixes well with Jake, a straightman who's also sort of a smartarse. For example, Charles talking about his sex life would simply not have been funny without Peralta's repeat attempts to change the topic. “I don't wanna pry.” Charles asking Jake to be his best man by putting a bow-tie in his drink was adorable and hilarious and Jake telling the paper saleswoman that Amy (who wasn't even in the scene) would pay for the paper was a hilarious extension on the Jake-blames-Amy running joke.

Rosa was surprisingly enjoyable this episode. Her storyline involved Captain Holt wanting her to write an apology to an officer after mocking him for bagging evidence “like a five year old” on her crime scene. Her mocking of Officer Deepmore by treating him like a child was much funnier than her usual “I'm going to hurt you” shtick. The final scene where Diaz apologises for an off-camera drawing she did of Deepmore is made fantastic by the contrast of Deepmore's shock and Rosa's nonchalance. Diaz and Holt were an enjoyable new pairing. Their very serious demeanours played off very well of each other and Rosa's behaviour set Andre Braugher up for some killer one liners that you never see coming due to his monotonous voice.

With Jake and Holt absent, the C story line was left with two often funny secondary characters (Terry and Amy) and Gina (fuckin' Gina). The story focuses on an extreme diet the three characters are on and their struggle to stay on it. The funniest part is in the cold open with Terry cheerfully saying “Hey, guys! Pro tip: Lick The Baggie. There's food molecules in there!” before the three characters grotesquely licking the inside of the sandwich bags. The storyline is mediocre but has it's moments. The scene near the end where Terry soils himself after trying to lift a car is the most childish thing I've laughed at for a while and inspired a brilliant line from Gina. “Go back in.” Terry says lifting a car though a very audible bowel movement. “Are you talking to us or the fart?” (Good work, Gina. Maybe I was wrong about you.) Unfortunately, the episode does feature Amy making up for Rosa by trying the “I'm going to hurt you” shtick for herself.

Overall, 'Fancy Brugdom' was a very fun episode. There wasn't a lot of the Jake and Amy romance as recent weeks but with the finale coming up, I'm sure we'll have plenty of that in the next few episodes. As usual, the shows best storylines featured Peralta and Holt, however, it was nice to see Rosa and Charles get some of the episodes larger laughs.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a fun show but it's quite never lived up to creators and executive producers Dan Goor and Michael Schur's other effort, Parks and Recreation. While Andy Samberg's childish yet competent Detective Jake Peralta is one of the better comedic performances on TV just now (evidenced by Samberg's Golden Globe win), other characters do not seem as fleshed out.

With the series nearing its end, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is starting to build up drama for its finale. For example, Boyle is getting married while Peralta and Santiago are hinting heavily at the old classic will-they-won't-they romance.

Unlike most of ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s episodes. ‘Tactical Village’ did not focus on any police cases and instead saw the detectives go to Tactical Village Training Day with the day concluding with a police simulation using paintball guns. The interesting twists and turns that come with each case the Nine-Nine solve were instead substituted for cliché end-of-season plotlines.

Tactical Village introduce that oh so familiar ingredient to Jake and Amy’s unrequited love trope, an another man. Teddy, an officer from Queens also attends Tactical Village Training Day with his unit and spends the majority of the episode flirting with Amy, with whom he used to date. Seeing Amy get along with another guy helps Jake realise his true feelings for her. Jake ends the episode by asking Amy if he can ask her something. Predictably, this does not get asked as Amy tells him that she is going on a date with Teddy (who will probably stick around till the finale).

The B storyline is no less predictable. Back at the station, Captain Holt gets addicted to mobile phone game named ‘Kwazy Cupcakes’. Once Gina showed Holt the game, the entire storyline could be guessed.

What makes up for the lack of interesting plot, is the witty dialogue and great comedic performances. Jake’s jealousy of Teddy inspired the episodes best one-lines such as “I thought he was talking to me... and he clearly was.” after Teddy invited Amy to look at the new handguns with him and a childish 69 joke (as opposed to a non-childish 69 joke) ending with Peralta simply saying 69 to make sure his audience got it. Likewise, Andre Braugher’s reactions to getting caught playing the mobile game along with a particularly funny scene where he plays ‘Kwazy Cupcakes’ with bald members of a police line-up elevate his storyline.

While Rosa and Charles’ relationship, has never been as charming as Jake and Amy’s, their storyline was marginally the most imaginative this week. ‘Tactical Village’ saw Charles distribute STDs (Save The Dates) to everyone in the office bar Rosa. By the end of the episode, Charles invited Rosa and told her that not inviting Rosa was Vivian’s idea due to the detectives’ history, only for her to find out that Charles hadn’t even told Vivian that he used to be in love with her. Although Boyle and Diaz are the two most underwritten characters of the show (she’s angry, he’s naïve), it will be intriguing to see whether or not Charles will go through with the wedding (which will surely be the season finale).

As well as an interesting case, the episode also underutilised Terry Crews who only popped into Rosa and Boyle’s storyline. He did, however, have one of the episode's best non-Peralta exchanges:
“Scully, just stand next to me and say 'yes, Serge'.”
“Okay, Serge.”
“Come on, man.”

This episode perfectly demonstrated Brooklyn Nine-Nine's status in the modern American comedy pantheon. While it does provide enjoyable viewing, it is yet to provide the laughs and character empathy other sitcoms, such as New Girl, Modern Family and the aforementioned Parks and Recreation do. The difference in quality between the Peralta story line and the two non-Peralta storyline also demonstrates Brooklyn Nine-Nine's imbalance in characters.