On Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 10 p.m., ABC premiered their new crime drama show “The Rookie.”
“The Rookie” follows John Nolan (Nathan Fillion), a man newly divorced and experiencing a mid-life crisis. The audience gets introduced to him in the front of a bank where his safety deposit box is. After placing his wedding ring in the box, he goes to leave but ends up in the middle of a bank robbery.
Nolan makes eye contact with one of the bank tellers who is slowly making her way to the button under a desk that would alert the police. So, he stands up and begins speaking to the robbers. He asks them why they are doing what they are doing, and upon being threatened of being shot, tells the robbers that the robbery is one of the most exciting things that is happening in his life.
Nolan is successful in keeping the robbers distracted until the police show up, which in the eyes of the people in the bank makes him brave and a life-saver. This incites a spark in him to join the police academy and after a few years, successfully becomes a rookie officer.
He along with two other rookies, Jackson West (Titus Makin Jr.) and Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) begin their first day at the Los Angeles Police Department in memorable ways. Jackson is the son of a respected cop and Lucy made an arrest before she even walked into the department. Nolan is just joining the police force at the age of 40.
Upon reaching the briefing room, the three rookies are assigned to an officer who is supposed to aid them in getting used to life outside a classroom. Jackson gets assigned to officer Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz), Lucy is assigned to officer Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) and Nolan is assigned to officer Talia Bishop (Afton Williamson).
Each officer puts their rookie through simple tests, like checking if their squad car is ready, before venturing out on calls. The calls teach the audience not only about the type of world the show is set in but about the characters themselves.
“The Rookie” is based on a true story that interested the show’s creator and script co-writer Alexi Hawley. He was an executive producer and co-showrunner of “Castle” and because of “Castle,” Hawley got Nathan Fillion involved and signed on for “The Rookie.” Fillion was the former lead on the ABC show, “Castle” that ran for eight seasons.
One thing “The Rookie” excelled in was telling the audience that it is never too late to pursue a dream and that even if things seem tough, one should still pursue their dreams. Nolan is 40 years old when he graduates the police academy and becomes an officer. 40 is much older than when the average officer starts to work on the force, but he still accomplishes it. Rookie officer Lucy and officers Lopez and Bishop also fight every single day being women in a predominantly male profession.
The pilot episode of “The Rookie” was pretty fast-paced and entertaining. There was only one real dull moment as one of the officer’s secrets is revealed, and, hopefully, it will be further explained without losing some of the charms that the rest of the episode built beautifully.
Every scene had some tidbit of information given and by the end of the episode, there was a good understanding of who the characters are and what their ambitions were. But like any good pilot, there were still questions that had to be answered either about the characters.
This aspect, the characters, is a major part of why the episode and hopefully the rest of the show makes it worth the watch. Each character was unique, and their little differences made it easy for the audience to find a bit of themselves in the characters and to root for the characters. The actors have done a great job in making the characters real.
Another aspect that added a unique element to the show was how the episode was edited with camera footage from the officer’s uniforms. During a call, the screens would switch between the normal third-person view, to a first-person look imitating on how the officer saw the situation; it made it easy to stay interested in what was going on.
For anyone interested in beginning a new cop show, “The Rookie” could be the answer. It had a solid start and looked promising for sure.
