“The Rookie” premieres Tuesday night, several weeks into the new fall season — ostensibly giving ABC time to build anticipation for ex-“Castle” star Nathan Fillion’s return to prime time on his home network.
The wait wasn’t necessary, and not because “The Rookie,” in which Fillion plays the LAPD’s oldest new cop, is disappointing. It isn’t. But neither is there much that differentiates “The Rookie” from TV’s standard-issue cop drama besides its protagonist. He’s John Nolan (Fillion), who joins the LAPD as a rookie officer at the age of 40 (Fillion is 47). The setup: Nolan, a Penn State grad (pre-law) who’s worked in construction for 20 years, witnesses a violent bank robbery in his unnamed snowy city on the same day his divorce is finalized — then navel-gazes his way to sunny LA to fulfill his life’s ambition: police work.
There’s no subtext here — the scene immediately following the bank robbery cuts to clueless newbie Nolan in his first day on the job (following an unseen stint in the police academy), where he’s paired with a skeptical older partner, Talia Bishop (Afton Williamson). He draws immediate resentment from their boss, hard-ass Sergeant Wade Grey (Richard T. Jones) and, predictably, there are lots of jokes about Nolan’s age: “You’ve got a cholesterol level I’ve never seen in a rookie”; he “was born before disco died” …
You get the picture.
Nolan’s first day in the field is predictably hairy, and ends with the requisite after-hours bonding over drinks and karaoke at the nearby watering hole with his fellow newbie (and much younger) officers Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) — who nonchalantly collars a perp while on the way into the office on Day 1 — and Jackson West (Titus Makin), the too-confident son of an Internal Affairs muckety-muck.
Then, suddenly, it’s two months later and Nolan is sleeping with Chen (another no-subtext moment). It’s a romance they’re trying to keep secret from the rest of the squad and seems to come out of nowhere, although Nolan is described as a magnet for “badge bunnies” (women attracted to cops).
The action here moves along at a swift pace and Fillion’s co-stars are pleasant and professional. Since the series premiere was the only episode made available for review, it’s difficult to tell how “The Rookie” will evolve over the coming weeks — though it was sold last week to 160 overseas territories, including the UK and France, which bodes well for its future on ABC.
Fillion fans will be happy to see their hero back on the tube; for everyone else, “The Rookie” has a “been there, done that” feel.