TL;DR – We get a walk down memory lane and a look to the future.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Review –

As the season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine continues, we get a blast into the past as the show goes back to the 1990s, which a bit different to last week’s dive into the 1980s. We also continue the theme of interweaving three narratives throughout the story which some work and some don’t quite get there.

So to set the scene, Jake (Andy Samberg) and Gina (Chelsea Peretti) are super excited because it is their 20-year high school reunion time. It was the time of long hair, just one earring, and denim … so much denim. It is also a little bit of a struggle for Jake because his final year of high school was tough as the whole school thought he has tattled on the most popular kid in the school, gaining him the nickname ‘The Tattler.’ But it’s been 20 years surely people will forget, well as they and Amy (Melissa Fumero) arrive one thing is clear, nobody forgets. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

Now, this week we have both an A story, as well as a B, and a C storyline cutting through the episode. We have the High School reunion, a ‘name that sound’ radio competition, and Rosa (Stephanie Beatriz) trying to make a big life decision with Charles’ (Joe Lo Truglio) help. Of all the stories, the radio competition was the weakest, by a long shot. It didn’t have any real interesting moments, bar maybe Holt (Andre Braugher), it didn’t have any important character beats, and more importantly, if you had cut it from the episode, you would not have lost anything. More importantly, this episode was Rosa and Charles bonding over her indecision when dating. This was good because it is finally touching on parts of Rosa’s character development that they started last season. As well as this, it was nice to see Charles and Rosa have some nice character moments together.

This big story this week was the high school reunion because of a lot of details, but the big one being that this is the narrative device the show will be using to give Gina an exit from being on the show full time. I did like this plot line quite a bit because it played into all three character’s strengths. For Jake and Amy, they worked the case like cops, for Jake it played into the difficult issues he has with his past, for Amy she got to geek out over high school again, and for Gina, she discovered a future she didn’t know she wanted while trolling people.

When the news dropped that Chelsea Peretti would be stepping down from being on the show full time, it was sad, of course, but you also immediately understood. What was interesting was how they were going to write her out, and hopefully, it would not be a bus this time. Having her discover that she has a passion that she never knew about, a solid business plan to back it up, and a good marketing position, was a great way to do the character justice. Now I am not sure if this is the final regular episode for Gina, but I am glad the direction they are taking her character, feels true to who she is.

In the end, do we recommend The Tattler? Yes, we do. Look B99 is always fun, and this episode is no exception. There was this moment at the start of the episode when the camera panned around and everyone had the joyful smiles on because of how fun the scene was, and you can’t fake that joy.             

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Brooklyn Nine-Nine yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Trailer – Click Here to View (all trailers have heavy spoilers)
Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Directed by – Giovani Lampassi
Written by – Neil Campbell
Created by – Dan Goor & Michael Schur  
Starring in Season Five – Andy Samberg, Stephanie Beatriz, Terry Crews, Melissa Fumero, Chelsea Peretti, Joe Lo Truglio, Dirk Blocker, Joel McKinnon Miller & Andre Braugher