I Watch TV: The Rookie
John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) a Midwestern building contractor in his 40s, finds his marriage over and after being a bit of a hero in a bank robbery decides to have a midlife crisis by joining the LAPD. Nine months later he and two other rookies are assigned training officers and head out on the street.
The show is made up of police stories of various lengths. When they get out the car (“shop”) you don’t know if they’re going have a one scene comedy stop*, or if it will overtake the whole episode and police department**. There’s a handful of moral dilemmas. All of the training officers are hard as nails, but Bradford is the toughest of them all, and they zig-zag him between too old-school and exactly the right man to draw the line. Everyone has a slightly complicated personal life.
This is a well put-together slick show. It loves to jump for guns and car chases and explosions, but is also perfectly happy to spend a few minutes on a routine traffic stop that doesn’t spiral out of control. It even does a bit of the endless waiting and paperwork.
This is not life-changing or brilliant as a show. It has funny moments and sad moments and exciting moments. It’s a good solid show, with a lot of small ideas.
Watch This: For fun cop action
Don’t Watch This: For ground-breaking television
Also: As well as Fillion, it’s nice to see Melissa O’Neill quickly back on screen after they closed Dark Matter down, and Sarah Shahi turns up towards the end of the season as well. In fact the casting is pretty good all round and lots of people I recognise and say “oh hey it’s them!”
* Occasionally there is a one scene tragedy stop, but serious stories usually have several scenes to work through
** The actual crime stories are mostly wrapped up in one episode, making this slightly old-fashioned in the ability to pop in and out. Character stories spread a bit more, though the only one going all season was the rookies “What is a cop?” ongoing development.
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