I thought so low about this. That bc of the main actor it would be a comedy or just another cop show which I was done bc of the schematic eps and so little insights with the main cast. Well I was soo wrong! It's so entertaining and maybe sometimes naive but mainly it just show you that you don't have to be tough and a handsome hunk to be great at the cop thing. John doesn't look like a cop, doesn't act like a cop really. He's naive, he's a teddy bear almost but he's gonna move mountains to change a 'crook' when he sees the person has potential.
I don't understand how the hell so many women are so into him which is hilarious. As well with the fact he's a rookie.
The comedy is there but the cases feel fresh and many times I didn't know how they will turn out and I have seen many cop shows. The romantic relationships feel fake to me and I couldn't feel anything for pretty much all of the relationships, not only with Nolan (maybe when he was with Jess but the relationship was mainly off screen and in the end felt rushed butthe chemistry was there at the beginning, love the actress, sad they didn't show her more). The relationships between the officers on the other hand. By the finale of the 2nd season I saw many scenes so believable I was rooting for the characters I didn't even like just bc they all really started to feel like a family. Boots and TOs. It's really outstanding for me. I feel hangover now (watch the entire show in 2 days) and I want to watch more cp shows but I know there aren't any like that.
Looking for a fun cop show? Check out the first season or two of The Rookie. This is a mildly humorous, socially-aware cop show for chilling on sofa after a long day.
I think JR's review is the best short summary: https://trakt.tv/comments/653046
The first few seasons are solid entertainment, a cop drama with frequent comedic moments. The core premise is excellent, and Fillion is a perfect fit as the rookie whose earnest befuddlement (experience as a carpenter and dad) provides plenty of opportunities for humor. He's surrounded by a good supporting cast that has plenty of character development of their own.
Prepare to suspend some disbelief and critical thought, however. Why are rookie police officers joining SWAT assaults, having public shoot-outs with criminals, conducting car chases, infiltrating criminal groups, getting kidnapped, etc.? What exactly is everyone's work schedule? And there are a lot of side characters who just happen to be rich---in order to enable a whole bunch of additional scenarios that would logically be well out of any normal police officer's reach.
It soon suffers from the usual (unavoidable?) issues of any longer-running TV show, but hopefully by the point it happens, you'll be invested enough in the ongoing storylines to not be overly bothered by the artistic license:
- A wildly unrealistic number of crazy situations for the same set of characters.
- Characters with interesting back stories and struggles eventually resolve them, and then are bit less interesting--which is still better than never-resolved issues that drag on for years.
- Characters leave the show as actors move on and some new additions don't work as well.
- In spite of their flaws, most folks are kind and competent and solve problems.
It definitely goes downhill in later seasons, as boring/annoying characters are introduced as regulars and the plots get more far-fetched.
A major problem with almost all cop shows is that they consistently show a false, PR-friendly version of the police. The Rookie is largely caught in the same trap, with a few baby steps in the right direction. So I appreciated it when the series pivoted hard, post-George Floyd, tackling a flurry of topics relating to police corruption and social justice. However, it felt really obvious, a bit forced and heavy-handed, with the show dragging a bit as it added lots of elements it had previously ignored. Those storylines are brief, but fortunately The Rookie doesn't toss all these topics to the side once finished and the series quickly re-stabilizes once the writers are longer shoehorning topics du jour into the shooting schedule.
Where to begin? Well, first off, I think this show is entertaining and I don't think that will ever change, no matter how much others dislike it or aspects about it and gradually disliking it more and more. There are technical discrepancies when it comes to certain things when compared with real life, I'm sure. But I think some people are overly harsh when it comes to them. There are also other aspects not solely related to how the technicalities are done that I've seen people dwell on, and honestly, I don't even notice them. There comes a point where constantly dwelling on things like that is just out of an egotistical mindset that those things are this unbearable issue, and they're not. I'd go as far as to say that some may start doing it out of spite. At this point, some people must be looking for anything, any little, inconsequential detail to complain about. The show is meant to entertain, and for me, it does just that. If that's not the case for you, I imagine it's because you're choosing to dwell on meaningless details to where that's all you care about and can focus on, and you can't let yourself be entertained as a subsequent offshoot of that. You'd be best off if you quit watching the show if you're one of those people, and there's no need to continue watching the show. For me, this show isn't this wonderful, like-none-other show or anything like that. The fact is, it can be uninteresting for me at times, or some parts of an episode. Regardless of that, I enjoy watching it. The concept is entertaining, and by that, I mean that it's a police procedural. Not all of them are entertaining, but this one is. Take that however you'd like.
Review by TV WatcherBlockedParent2021-04-13T22:29:34Z— updated 2021-05-09T17:24:45Z
In short: they decided to get as woke as possible in season three, killed what was a cute show.
Like many others I started watching this for Nathan Fillion, he always plays likable characters and the first couple seasons of this were just that.
Now, though, they have (and nobody should be surprised) made this into a platform for political correctness and virtue signaling.
The first two seasons were actually pretty fun to watch, come season 3 and every episode has huge political statements to make, even making a professor who believes cops are bad and corrupt and racist a main cast member. Black inequality righted? Check. Gay inequality righted? Check. Cops are bad and racist? Check. Cops should be defunded? Check. Who needs a good story when we can just do that instead?
Season 3 has been all about being PC about everything, being a social justice warrior about everything and, overall isn't the interesting story line we got in the first two seasons about a middle aged man who becomes a cop and the challenges he has to overcome.
So what happens in season 4 when "The Rookie" is no longer a rookie? Will there be a new batch of Rookies that our main character gets to impart his wisdom upon? Probably, and we'll get more political correctness and virtue signaling shoved down our throats since it will be made in 2021.