The Rookie product reviews

Ever since his time as Malcolm Reynolds in Firefly or even Richard Castle in Castle, Nathan Fillion has had a legion of fans that eat up every single cameo appearance or role that he undertakes. For the most part, it has to do with the man's bottomless tank of charisma. Whether he is a cocky space smuggler or a self-deprecating everyman, there is always enough good nature and humility to make his performances memorable and easy to connect with. As such, it is difficult for Fillion to not fit into his roles. That is also the case for The Rookie.

The series is quite simply a police procedural that takes place in a different portion of the police career. Not the Police Academy, CSI division, or Special Cases, The Rookie is the Scrubs of the police world, straight out of theoretical learning, now a fish-out-of-water on the frontlines. The beat cop. It works well as we can put ourselves in the shoes of our rookies, who are learning the ropes along with us. Their moments of panic in dangerous situations mirror our own reactions and create strong bonds with the characters.

Fillion's character of John Nolan (the world's oldest rookie) presents a new angle to an oversaturated genre, allowing a wider age group to engage with the characters, whilst effectively pitting life experience against youth (or more simply, the boomer vs millennial mentality). A much-needed thematic direction these days considering the constant onslaught of "if you hold a different perspective, you are wrong", that pervades society.

The Rookie wastes little time in introducing long-term story arcs, creating goals to move towards, as well as providing a source of conflict and tension. It still manages to maintain a largely episodic narrative structure, with each episode including its own separate story that is introduced and solved within the episode. This offers greater flexibility when it comes to viewing in order or skipping episodes, and forms a relaxing casual viewing experience. Each episode still provides greater depth to the characters involved, but the structure doesn't put The Rookie in the same boat as serialised shows where one must be concerned about spoilers or remembering every detail from previous episodes. The Rookie is simply a pleasure to watch, and Fillion's charisma pushes that point home every time.

There is a certain Americanized value to the show, where the rookies are thrown into some highly dangerous situations in no time at all; a teaching method that would be highly questionable if it did, in fact, happen in real life. The Hollywood way of always heightening the tension and elevating the risks, and being overly dramatic in general. It works well to keep the interest of the audience, and it hits the middle ground of cop procedurals, not as gritty and realistic as the documentary-style shows, but definitely more grounded than most other police dramas. The entire show is well-produced and has a strong diversity quota, and a variety of character types to bounce off and interact with Fillion's John Nolan.

The strength of the series comes from its development of characters. Starting with what originally looks like 100% good rookies vs 100% bad criminals, and starts introducing more and more shades of grey as the series progresses. As imperfections to their characters are introduced, they become more real, and bond even stronger with the audience. Being a Fillion-fronted series about rookies, the series certainly seems to have limitations to its output (what happens when Nolan is no longer a rookie?), but until that point, I look forward to seeing where this goes.