Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Rookie’ On ABC, Where Nathan Fillion Plays A 40-Something Rookie Cop

When Castle left the air, you knew that Nathan Fillion wouldn’t be off ABC for long; he’s too bankable to too many demographics for the folks at Disney to resist. So two years later, he’s back on The Rookie, created by Castle producer Alexi Hawley. Will it make Fillion’s fans tune in?

THE ROOKIE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A snowy main street in small-town Pennsylvania. John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) walks into a bank, and the manager tells him, “Happy divorce day!”

The Gist: Nolan has just finalized his divorce, which was coming for a couple of years. He’s at the bank to drop his wedding ring into his safe deposit box and do some other paperwork. He’s definitely not happy with the situation, or himself. But when he thwarts a robbery at the bank by distracting the gun-toting robbers with his ruminations on life, the bank manager was amazed how brave he was.

Cut to months later in sunny Los Angeles. Nolan, who was pre-law in college but ended up working construction, has packed everything up, moved to L.A. and joined the LAPD. After going through the academy, he reports for his first day on patrol, along with go-getter rookie Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) and legacy recruit Jackson West (Titus Makin). Nolan’s training officer, Talia Bishop (Afton Williamson), thinks she’s on the fast track to chief; Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) tries to get into Chen’s head as her hard-driving T.O., but he has a humiliating secret; and Angela Lopez (Alyssa Diaz) just wants to beat Bishop to be the best, and she wonders if the know-it-all West will get in her way.

Nolan’s watch commander, Sgt. Wade Grey (Richard T. Jones), doesn’t want Nolan there, mainly because he thinks Nolan is “a walking midlife crisis,” and he’s determined to cut him, thinking that his desire to “find himself” means he’s not taking the job seriously and will get someone in the sergeant’s squad killed.

The rookies’ first day is eventful, especially for Nolan, who saves a child in a hot car, tries to defuse a domestic dispute but fails, and catches a violent ex-con wanted on a parole violation. He also gets his leg stuck in a fence during a chase, which Sgt. Grey is infinitely amused by. After his first day, he tries to drum Nolan out, but Capt. Zoe Anderson (Mercedes Mason) intervenes.

Our Take: When we saw the trailer for The Rookie over the summer, we thought that the entire pilot would be lines about how Nathan Fillion’s character is old. But the show quickly establishes that it’s more about Nolan being a 40-year-old rookie (and, bless Fillion’s rugged good looks, but to say that Nolan is 40 is generous).

The Rookie is about a guy who spent 20 years living a life he wasn’t one hundred percent happy with make a fresh start on one of the toughest police forces in the country. It’s about Nolan trying to prove to his sergeant and the rest of the department that his age is an advantage and he’s not there as a lark. And it’s about how two other rookies can cope when things get real.

Everyone and their grandma likes Fillion, and he carries over the charm he had for all those years chasing bad guys on Castle, but this time he’s the cop. The scenes he’s in with Williamson may seem like standard cop-show fare, but Fillion is so watchable that he makes Nolan’s ridiculously active first day fun to watch.

The show is not without flaws. We don’t know enough about Chang or West to care about them yet. Bradford is so over the top aggressive and dismissive, especially after a car filled with undocumented workers honks at his car, he might as well be wearing a MAGA hat. There’s a romance going on between two of the rookies that makes little sense and seems like it’ll be dropped quickly. But overall, it’s a show that’s an easy watch, even if it’s not high art.

Sex and Skin: After getting a waitress’ number at a bar after his first shift was over, we see a bra draped on a chair outside the house Nolan is renting. But the waitress isn’t inside.

Parting Shot: After apologizing to Bishop for leaving her side to chase the parole violator, he sits down to another roll call.

Sleeper Star: It’ll be interesting to see how Mercedes Mason factors in as Capt. Anderson. Love interest? Guiding voice? The only person in Nolan’s corner? Who knows?

Most Pilot-y Line: While looking at his file, Capt. Anderson says he has “a cholesterol level I’ve never seen in a rookie,” and Nolan jokes, “I’m something of a pioneer.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Rookie is just good enough to be a show you can watch without taxing your brain all that much. And sometimes you just need shows like that in your life.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Watch The Rookie on ABC