TL;DR – One will now and always will cherish the yearly Doug Judy updates on Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Review –

This week we get the first major change of the season with a new opening titles sequence, which you had to expect was coming after last week’s Four Movements. However, as much as things change it is nice as we continue throughout the season that it is time to return to some old friends, and also a time to fight for what is yours.

So to set the scene, Jake (Andy Samberg) is working when Terry (Terry Crews) confronts him with the news that Doug Judy (Craig Robinson) has been stealing cars again. Aghast Jake backs up his buddy because he knows that Doug has gone clean, though he has said that multiple times in the past. To straighten this all out Terry gets in contact with Judy only to find out that tragically he has passed away. So who could be stealing cars with Doug’s MO when Doug is dead? As well as that, the rest of the gang arrive at their local bar only to find it is filled with …. Gasp … Firefighters. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

Now it should come to no surprise that Doug is not actually dead and is Huckleberry Finning it up at his own funeral. Not before we get a deeply awkward conversation between Jake still undercover a Mangy Carl and Trudy (Nicole Byer) Doug’s sister. This, of course, leads to a very interesting situation of who to trust when we find out that it is Trudy that is stealing the cars. Is it Doug putting on another ruse, is Trudy really the one stealing the cars, or is there something else at play? This reinforces the past episodes of the Pontiac Bandit because you are trying to find the patter before it blows up in Jake’s face, which is added to by the 100,000 push ups riding on it. This, of course, means that the final reveal that Trudy Judy is actually just as good as conman as Doug, even more so, because she scammed Doug, work so fantastically.          

On the other side of the equation, we have the rest of the gang discovering their bar (where weddings, funerals, celebrations, have taken place) has been overrun by firefighters. This is once again playing on stories from the past and the long-held feud between the police and firefighters. While this story is mostly there for a little bit of fun, it does provide a good character building moment for Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) who realised that he was looking down on his team just because of where they like to drink and that said more about him then them. Of course, it doesn’t hurt when you can swoop in and save the day. It also means that we can get Rob Riggle as a tall bearded firefighter, which I know will be a very fine thing for a number of people.

In the end, do we recommend A Tale of Two Bandits? Well besides the tile giving the story away a little bit, yes we do. While I don’t think it will be one of the stand out episodes of the season. It was fun from start to end, and of course, it is worth it just for the ending reveal.   

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 – Cortney Carrillo
Written by – Luke Del Tredici
Created by – Dan Goor & Michael Schur  
Production/Distribution Companies – Fremulon, Dr. Goor Productions, 3 Arts Entertainment, Universal Television, NBCUniversal & SBS Viceland.
Starring in Season Five – Andy Samberg, Stephanie Beatriz, Terry Crews, Melissa Fumero, Chelsea Peretti, Joe Lo Truglio, Dirk Blocker, Joel McKinnon Miller & Andre Braugher with Craig Robinson, Nicole Byer, Rob Riggle, Kevin Dorff & Adam William Zastrow