The Rookie

At first I thought "no please, not another cop show" and I wasn't sure about Nathan Fillion as a cop. But I must say, the directing is spot on, and the writing is refreshing - especially the relationships of the rookies and their T.O's, their relationship with each other, the conflicts they have to deal with, and the use/views of the body cams. Also surprisingly, Fillion is perfect for this part and nails his role, and all other actors were perfectly cast and also are great in their roles. I especially appreciate seeing the various parts of L.A. and the different people/conflicts the LAPD has to deal with - outside and within the force. So far so good, let's hope the writing progresses as good at the pilot was throughout the season. A well deserved 8/10 from me.

EDIT: 4/2019 - upped my score from 8 to 9/10... the writing has vastly improved; more realistic (and original) drama, and much less cliched cheese. Keep it up guys!

That is basically the gist of it. Like in any police series, way too many things happen in one episode and the rookies experience more shootings and heavy crime than most police in many life times.

The bad writing is mostly about how the leave of people from the show is dealt with. They might get a short farewell, but then they are gone and nobody thinks about them anymore for more than one episode. That lacks. Also the writers make quite many characters spill deep wisdom out of the blue that usually takes a life-time to acquire and therefore the only one who doesn't look silly doing it, is the Sergeant. Also it is not credible that the receiving end always follows this advise given. Also it is silly how the relationships that end in the show never have a fall-out.

I loved watching the first two seasons. The acting and storytelling was perfect but then we have season 3. As of writing this, I have watched 6 or 7 episodes of season 3 and it just keeps getting worse. I believe that racism is a problem but the character portrayed by Brandon Routh is a one dimensional caricature of a stereotypical white male racist cop. Whoever decided that Brandon Routh should play this caricature should have been fired on the spot. The only constantly good thing is Nathan Fillion's character, John Nolan and he is the only reason I'll keep watching this show. Currently there are only 4 seasons available on Netflix in my country and reading some of the other reviews on here. I think I'm gonna need a bottle or two of hard liquor to help me finish watching the show. It's sad that they ruined such an amazing show.

This series started off strong but the writers of season 3 seems to want shove every PC issue into every episode. There's just too much baggage to make you care about any of it.

As an active police officer of 25 years, I'm currently 54, it was like watching my own body cam footage from the last few months! I am hooked on this show! P. Ball