I’m typically on the crime and court beat in news for The Daily Iowan, so it makes sense I’d be a fan of a show about cops. However, I never expected to love a cast of characters as much as I love the cast of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

It’s been two years since B99 was canceled by Fox before NBC made the decision to save the show. I’m still in shock that a show like this could ever be under canceling consideration. It’s continued to only get better with each season, and it’s exactly the type of warm, relevant, and kind show we need on screens. Plus, it’s one of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s favorite television shows, and we can’t deny him his favorites.

Season seven of the series, which premiered Feb. 6, finally answers the question of what happened to Holt (Andre Braugher) after he’s fired from his captain position at the NYPD 99th Precinct. Personally, Holt is one of my favorite comedic characters of all time. Braugher’s complete deadpan for almost seven straight seasons can never get old. How hasn’t he won an Emmy yet for this role? I’ll never know.

We also have the return of the healthiest relationship on television: the married detectives Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg, the world’s most underutilized comedian who seems to be getting more handsome with age ) and Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero), who is my personal hero. They’re the perfect example of a supportive couple who knows that just talking about anything they’re struggling with is the best way to keep a relationship going just as strong as it started. In a world of secret-keeping drama, watching Jake and Amy together is like the first day it’s finally warm enough to wear shorts: absolutely joyful.

Sticking with Amy Santiago, the friendship between her and Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz) is so perfectly mismatched as the workplace nerd and badass, but it lends to wonderful moments of accurate female friendship throughout the show.

In the season premiere, Amy and Rosa also have what I believe is the only conversation about periods on television that’s not spoken in a whisper or with any degree of shame. Moments like these ones — times when normally taboo topics come up casually and treated as normal things people go through, because they are — make B99 continue to shine.

These moments also continue to come through the characters of Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews) and Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio). Just because they’re men in an extremely masculine profession doesn’t mean they have to be tough. They like to cook and eat yogurt. Terry is constantly worried about his daughters’ opinion of him. Boyle loves Jake Peralta with his entire heart. They redefine what a man should be able to be on television.

The cast is just so incredible; there’s not another one like it. All I could think about watching the season seven premiere was how grateful I was that these people worked so hard to give us all such a joyful television show, including the work that had to be done to keep the show alive.

You can argue with me that Parks and Rec or The Good Place is better, and, depending on my mood of the day, I might agree with you. But those two shows are over. We only have B99, and we should consider ourselves lucky we do.