Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Best cold opens

Brooklyn Nine-Nine did a terrific farewell to the fans, but let’s not forget that it also could start its episodes perfectly. Here are the best cold opens from the show.

Words by Jan Tracz

Recently, Brooklyn Nine-Nine has been called one of the best sitcoms of this century. Hilarious dialogues, well-written and resembling characters, and the love relationship between Jake and Amy were the core of this production. Besides, the show easily connected its amusing humour with addressing important social issues.

Fans all over the world admit how Brooklyn Nine-Nine is perfectly finished, but the audience tends to forget about its hilarious (and iconic) cold opens. These small sequences are the key to the viewer’s heart. If they are entertaining enough, the audience will stay in front of the TV after the opening credits. And the screenwriters of Brooklyn Nine-Nine knew how to make seriously funny cold opens.

“Halloween heist” introduction

Brooklyn 9-9 (Fox/NBC)

A lot of things change during the eight seasons of the show – Jake falls in love with Amy, and Captain Holt remodels his attitude towards coworkers. However, one storyline stayed exactly the same – it was the Halloween heist, an event taking place once a year/a season in the Brooklyn Nine-Nine universe. 

It begins during the intense preparation of one of the heists. The timer is set at 3 am and wakes Jake, who reveals that he is already in his work clothes. However, he discovers that Amy is not sleeping too. Such vigorous planning should not be a surprise as the audience was already acquainted with the heroes’ attitude and the heist’s prize. Nevertheless, Jake still believes that he will win the race as he prepared a breakfast for himself… that was already eaten by Captain Holt. The biggest joke of the cold open is the reveal of Holt, who is one step ahead of both of them. The “Halloween heist” introduction is one of the more cohesive and dynamic cold opens in the series’ history.

Hitchcock and Scully from the ’80s

Brooklyn 9-9 (Fox/NBC)

In this opening, the cold open is an excuse for the scriptwriters to play with the show’s formula and its timeline. Brooklyn Nine-Nine takes the viewers back to the ’80s and details the young days of two favourite detectives: Hitchcock and Scully.

The cold open draws its climate from the popular series Miami Vice, and it portrays two heroes in a much different light. Here, they are attractive and in very good condition, which does not really sound like them. The detectives have no problem dealing with the gangsters in the fight, and this small sequence is a great contrast to their present selves. It shows they had to achieve their current position where they can do completely nothing without being fired. Hitchcock and Scully gained the police’s respect.

I Want It That Way

Brooklyn 9-9 (Fox/NBC)

It is the greatest cold open from Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It is equally original and funny: Jake Peralta forces five suspects to sing Backstreet Boys’ I Want It That Way to reveal the guilty. Peralta is a brainy detective, and he is aware that the witness will recognize the murderer by hearing his voice. The tiny performance when the suspects sing, combined with Peralta’s happiness, is one of the special moments in the show.

I Want It That Way scene is one of the most popular cold opens from the series: on YouTube, it has nearly 26 million views and is probably the most recognized scene from the entire series. Many fans stated in the comments that watching this cold open made them familiarize themselves with the other episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.