Rookie Blue

Come on, people. It's entertainment, it's a story, it's neither a police procedural manual nor a 'reality' show (as if those are 'real'). I know firsthand that the courtroom drama shows are also very unrealistic, but most trials actually get very boring, and who wants to watch that? For those who are carping about the acting, I wonder which shows you usually watch. With a heck of lot of training and performing under my belt, I'm very impatient with poor acting, but I find these characters very engaging, which is a good sign that the acting chops are there. My suggestion: Either don't watch it, or relax and enjoy it for what it is. I, for one, hope it stays on the air.

Frankly, I agree with some of the reviewers from the US. After all, I'm a superhero and I have yet to see a show or movie that I felt properly demonstrated what the life of a superhero is like, I mean a 3 year old evil genius could invent better gadgets than what the movies or shows give Batman. ;) Seriously though, I've never seen any promotional material stating that this show was supposed to be real...but it is really entertaining. Yes, there are moments when I'm yelling at the screen because one of the "rookies" completely disregarded all common sense, never mind their training. Truthfully though, these characters are all young (well, compared to me) and I'm perfectly willing to admit that I didn't always show the most common sense when I was that age, so these blunders don't bother me. I'm not expecting a perfect recreation of life on the force, I'm just expecting some entertaining stories that are well delivered and that's what I'm getting.

As for my fellow Canadians, the best praise I can give this show, is that I didn't realize it WAS Canadian until some Canadian cities were mentioned in the show. Let's face it, our comedies are generally very good, but our dramas have some times been rather lacking. This one isn't.

This was a little gem I found in the beginning of summer. Despite being aired on Showcase, Global and ABC, I didn't really hear too much about this show until the first season was done. With the series being filmed and set in Toronto, I was surprised it took me so long to watch it. This show might be old news to a lot of people but personally, I only know a handful of people who have seen this. So let me give a brief synopsis before getting into the review.

On the surface, Rookie Blue looks nothing more than a typical police drama with hardly any big name actors (No offence to Missy Peregrym and Gregory Smith) but it is so much more than that. Perhaps it holds a special place in my heart because of its Toronto and Canadian connections. The best way to describe this show is Grey's Anatomy with cops instead of surgeons. Replace the interns with rookies and Seattle Grace with 15 Division and you got yourself, Rookie Blue. The story is focused on 5 rookies (All Canadian actors btw) that just graduated from the academy, and follows their young careers as they experience the hardships of being a police officer both, on and off duty. Each rookie is assigned with a training officer and its a treat to watch the different dynamics of each pair, as well as the dynamics among the rookies as a group - learning together yet competing with one another to gain attention from the top dogs.

The main star of the show is rookie Andy McNally portrayed by the Montreal beauty, Missy Peregrym (Stick It), she's a cop that has a lot to prove because she carries the baggage of her father, a worn out, burnt out homicide detective. Other rookies include, over achiever, Dov Epstein (Gregory Smith, Everwood), nice-by-the-book-guy, Chris Diaz (Travis Mine), tough girl with an attitude, Gail Peck (Charlotte Sullivan), and the responsible single mother, Traci Nash (Enuka Okuma). Some of the veteran cops include, McNally's training officer, Sam Swarek (Ben Bass) - who's the direct opposite of her, goes by instinct and tends to break the rules to get the job done, homicide detective, Luke Callaghan (Eric Johnson) and Nash's training officer, Noelle Wlliams (Melanie Nicholls-King). With such a big ensemble cast of interesting characters, I need to cut myself short, or I'd be typing forever.

Please continue reading the full review at: http://goo.gl/3VH68

I tend to disagree with everyone saying this show is bad, there seems to be a lack of knowledge from the rookies but thats part of the appeal. I think the writers were really trying to humanize the characters and show that cops don't just pop up being all bad ass and knowing all the stuff they know. This is really more of a training camp for cops from the very start, clearly they know the very basic but the instincts it takes to solid interrogation or street smarts while on the job are just not there so I'm gonna chalk that up to realism of the first few weeks of being on the job.

The second part that comes to mind is the cast, OK there's a massive fluctuation in dynamics here they need to really break down a few characters instead of just doing a scatter shot and hoping you like 1 main and 1 of the 50 other people they toss at you, I mean diversity is one thing but having so many people clumped up into 1 show is just a complete loss on the focus of the show, it makes everything seem incomplete because of constantly breaking away from one pair and moving on to the next.

Final review 7/10 too much stuff going on at once, simplify a bit and you'll have a solid show.

For those Americans that commented about where the badges are? Not every country have their badges attached to their uniforms. I googled same, and did not find a picture of a Toronto Police officer who is wearing their badge. Sorry, we don't do everything the same as you do down there in the south. Can't comment on the rest of the uniform for certain, they don't look too off from the Toronto uniforms from what I can see. However, their holsters do look a little low and lose and their uniforms are more form fitting on the show. Of what I can tell.

No offence to those who want this to be more realistic. If it was more realistic there would be no ratings, because, lets face it... Police don't have life threatening cases every day that they're working. I'm not saying that being a police is boring, but I don't think if you followed real police around with their duties ratings will be high. I don't mean any disrespect to police and I don't doubt that their job is hard and challenging. However, TV is not real, it's fantasy and people watch it to be entertained.