O Captain, My Captain

When Brooklyn Nine-Nine premiered a few weeks ago, our commentator Jeff Drake had one main objection: that Det. Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) was occupying the sitcom role of normal person, surrounded by quirky weirdos, who grounds the comedy in reality -- and based on the little she got to do in the first two episodes, it would be tough to argue that he's wrong. Because I was so utterly delighted by the show right from the start, I posted in the comments that I hoped Santiago could turn into the show's answer to NewsRadio's Lisa Miller: an overachieving nerd whose comedic moments arise from her intense, unstoppable apple-polishing, and I'm happy to have been proven right. And so quickly!

The problem with the role Fumero occupies is that it's as thankless as it is necessary. And when a woman is cast as the normie (which, I feel like, is almost always the case), unimaginative producers try to give her unimaginatively "comedic" traits; there's a lot of "She's beautiful but so klutzy!" (Téa Leoni's Nora, notoriously, on The Naked Truth) or "All her problems arise from the fact that she's just too nice!" (early Jules on Cougar Town). When it's a dude, the fallback is usually to make him bland with areas of nerdish know-it-all tendencies, like How I Met Your Mother's Ted (as mentioned by Jeff in the post linked above) or, much as it pains me to say it, Parks & Recreation's Ben. The rigid rule-follower is a TV trope too -- in addition to Lisa, there's Elliot on Scrubs and Monica on Friends -- but at least it's one that's fun to watch...or maybe I just think it is because I am a rigid rule-follower myself.

In last week's episode, of course Santiago wasn't going to get through to the "at-risk" teens she was trying to convince to be, essentially, PD snitches: a gold-star achiever like Santiago has nothing to tell a kid who's been picked up for graffiti or whatever. (It's a mark of the show's assurance, though, that when Stephanie Beatriz's edgy Diaz tried to show Santiago up, even she was too Establishment to get the job done.) But the character really came alive for me in last night's episode, as she tried to fulfill her destiny as a teacher's pet by (a) showing up the rest of the squad and (b) ingratiating herself with Holt (Andre Braugher) and becoming his favourite.

The episode's great runner revolves around the fact that Holt has been unreadable with everyone: whether supremely relaxed after a weekend with his husband in Barbados, devastated by the loss of irreplaceable photos in a small fire, or appreciating the funniest story he's ever heard, his manner is exactly the same. Even Santiago is pretty sure that pleasing him beyond measure will result in no reaction more effusive than his leaning back slightly in his chair and giving her a barely perceptible nod. Unfortunately, her bid for approval hinges on her asking Sgt. Terry (Terry Crews) to replace the official photo portrait Holt has disdained with an oil painting (which, according to HitFix's Alan Sepinwall, Crews actually did paint, for real) -- misapprehending his rejection of the photo with his appearance as opposed to the fact that he finds it ostentatious to hang a photo of himself, and feels he hasn't earned the honour. Meanwhile, Santiago's call was to deliver him a "baroque oil painting" worthy of "a North Korean dictator": "Why am I not astride my noble steed, clad in armor?" Holt assumes that Santiago was dicking around with this project instead of filing her report on the purse-snatcher she apprehended -- except of course Santiago's already done that, and didn't even think to kiss up to him by calling attention to the good police work she does automatically and, unlike her childish colleague Peralta (Andy Samberg), without being asked/hounded. And that's how we learn, at long last, what it looks like when Holt is pleasantly surprised.

And by episode's end, Holt's even softened on the painting: "I'd like to take this home to my husband. He'll be glad you made me look so happy."

It's still impossible to think that a man of such impeccable rectitude as Holt has favourites, but seeing him appreciate Santiago as a cop as opposed to a suck-up (not just because she filed her report on time, but because she dug into COMPSTAT and determined that he's the first new captain not to cause arrests to fall with his arrival) bodes well for their relationship in the future -- and, most importantly, shaded in Santiago as something more than the squad Pollyanna: a win all around.