"The Apartment" is the eighteenth episode of the first season of the American televisionpolicesitcom series Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It is the 18th overall episode of the series and is written by David Quandt and directed by Tucker Gates. It aired on Fox in the United States on February 25, 2014. The show revolves around the fictitious 99th precinct of the New York Police Department in Brooklyn and the officers and detectives that work in the precinct. Jake Peralta is an immature yet very talented detective in the precinct with an astounding record of crimes solved, putting him in a competition with fellow detective Amy Santiago. The precinct's status changes when the Captain is retiring and a new commanding officer, Cpt. Raymond Holt is appointed as the newest Captain. This creates a conflict between Peralta and Holt over their respective methods in the field. In the episode, Peralta is notified that his apartment is going through new rules and must pay additional money if he wants to keep it. Meanwhile, Holt conducts interrogatories for each detective. The episode was seen by an estimated 2.66 million household viewers and gained a 1.3/3 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research. The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised Andy Samberg's performance and the writing.
Plot
Jake Peralta learns that his grandmother's apartment where he has been living is going co-op, and he will have to pay nearly a half million dollars to keep living there. He goes to a loan shark for a down payment, before Gina Linetti convinces him to search for a new apartment instead. Raymond Holt starts collecting self-evaluations from the detectives, leading to much stress within the department, especially for Amy Santiago. Charles Boyle and Rosa Diaz take revenge on unhygienic co-worker Lohank who uses Rosa's desk on a different shift, until feeling sympathy for him after he tells them details about his personal life.
Reception
Viewers
In its original American broadcast, "The Apartment" was seen by an estimated 2.66 million household viewers and gained a 1.3/3 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research. This was an 8% decrease in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 2.88 million viewers with a 1.2/3 in the 18-49 demographics. This means that 1.3 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode, while 3 percent of all households watching television at that time watched it. With these ratings, Brooklyn Nine-Nine was the second most watched show on FOX for the night, beating Glee but behind New Girl, fifth on its timeslot and tenth for the night, behind New Girl, Person of Interest, Chicago Fire, a rerun of Growing Up Fisher, , a rerun of About a Boy, The Bachelor, NCIS, and The Voice.
Critical reviews
"The Apartment" received positive reviews from critics. Roth Cornet of IGN gave the episode a "great" 8.8 out of 10 and wrote, "'The Apartment' gave each of the characters an opportunity to grow, while staying true to what we've know of them. Mixing up the pairings always yields interesting results, and there was something appealing about the idea that Jake's childhood muck-up buddy Gina has somehow sailed past him on the maturity barometer. I don't know what the world would look like with a Hitchcock sans a Scully, though." Molly Eichel of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B-" grade and wrote, "Maybe the Gina fluctuations wouldn't have been as noticeable if the other characters hadn’t participated in plots that only highlighted their already well-worn tropes. Brooklyn Nine-Nine has eschewed the natural fallback of police work that characterized the season's earlier episodes to instead focus on the inter-office relationships of its characters. These plots could have really happened on any other show." Alan Sepinwall of HitFix wrote, "'The Apartment' tried to pull off a trick the show tried earlier in the season in 'Pontiac Bandit,' by giving one of the characters a relationship with Jake that preceded their assignment to this precinct. That time, it was Peralta and Diaz as police academy classmates; here, it's that Jake and Gina are such close friends dating back to childhood that Jake got her the job as a department aide."
