Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Rookie: Feds’ On ABC, A ‘Rookie’ Spin-Off With Niecy Nash-Betts Playing An Unlikely Rookie FBI Agent

The main characters on the new series The Rookie: Feds were introduced in a two-part backdoor pilot on the Nathan Fillion-starring parent show this past spring. And if you could pick one actor who could out-charm Fillion, who would you pick? Why, Niecy Nash-Betts, of course. She stars in the new series as a 50-something rookie in the FBI, and she gives us the full-strength Nash-Betts charm throughout.

THE ROOKIE: FEDS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A drone shot of a school. Inside, a woman looks at her badge and says, “Special Agent Simone Clark, FBI!”

The Gist: Simone Clark (Niecy Nash-Betts) still can’t believe that she’s an agent, after graduating from training as the oldest rookie in her class. Her fellow trainee, former Vampire Cop star Brendon Acres (Kevin Zegers) is also a newly-minted agent, and they go back to Clark’s old stomping grounds: The school where she was a guidance counselor. Of course, they also happen to be there when a parent threatens a guard with a gun, and they manage to subdue him.

Back in Los Angeles, Clark meets up with John Nolan (Nathan Fillion), who was the oldest rookie on the LAPD a few years ago, so he encouraged her to be herself — and use her experience — in her new job. She moves in with her dad, Cutty (Frankie Faison), who is concerned that the members of the community he helps might not be so open when a member of law enforcement is around.

Clark thinks she’s going to join Acres on a new rapid response, think-outside-the-box task force set up by Agent Matthew Garza (Felix Solis), a unit he’s struggling to get off the ground in the face of threats to shut it down by his boss Tracy (Courtney Ford). The unit also consists of his niece Elena Flores ( Michelle Nuñez), who does all of the tech stuff, and agents Carter Hope (James Lesure) and Laura Stensen (Britt Robertson). But Clark ends up going to the much more sedate background check unit; when she confronts Garza, he tells her she’s too much of a “missile” that blows up investigations.

But when the team investigates the murder of a federal employee who works on all government buildings, Clark manages to step away from her desk long enough to find leads, including through her old network of guidance counselors, and weasel her way onto Garza’s team. In the meantime, Stensen is trying to let Acres know that he needs to be less flashy than he was as an actor, especially after he splits his tight suit pants trying to pursue someone who ran from the murder scene (as he was getting sick from the sight of blood). Hope, who is going through a rough patch in his marriage and has been passed over for promotions, gets an offer from Tracy to report to her about the task force’s efforts; it will get him that promotion, but he doesn’t want to be a mole.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Rookie: Feds is a spinoff of The Rookie, with Nash, Faison and Solis having been in a two-part backdoor pilot on the parent show in the spring. It’s got the parent show’s same sense of humor and lunkheaded energy.

Our Take: As we were watching the pilot for The Rookie: Feds, we were thinking, “Boy, this show is as dumb as a box of rocks. But Nash-Betts is her usual fun and charming self, which makes it watchable.” Do you know what other show we had the same sentiment about? The Rookie, almost four years ago. In both shows, the “this couldn’t happen in real life” scenarios, the underdeveloped case of the week stories, and the one-dimensional supporting characters all gave way to watching both Fillion and Nash-Betts do what they do best.

The Rookie: Feds may be a hair less believable than its parent show because it has to put Nash-Betts’ character Simone in situations where she can go against what a normal FBI agent might do, like not actually do the work she was assigned to do in order to freelance and prove herself to the boss she actually wants to work for. We also get to see Simone solve cases by pretty much equating everything to her experience as a guidance counselor, which might get old after, oh, two episodes.

But, dammit if we don’t love seeing Nash-Betts chase down bad guys and dispense the kind of wisdom that only seems to work coming out of her mouth. In this case, the supporting characters have a bit more personality than they initially did on the parent show; it helps that Solis, Lesure, Faison and Robertson have been on enough network procedurals that they all know how to squeeze personality out of characters that don’t have much at first. Lesure’s character getting pressured by Solis’ boss to be a mole for her has all sorts of story potential, but we’re not sure if that story will go the distance or not.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: After Simone becomes a full-time member of Garza’s team, they meet about a case. “Are you coming?” Carter asks her, and she gleefully goes to the meeting.

Sleeper Star: Frankie Faison’s character, Cutty is interesting because of the fact that his work will definitely come in conflict with Simone’s new career. But it does seem like the relationship between the two of them is genuinely warm, even if there’s some tension.

Most Pilot-y Line: “I belong to a national network of guidance counselors,” Simone tells the team. “If you give me an hour, I bet I could get an address” for a particular suspect. This is the first time that the words “national network of guidance counselors” has been uttered on a cop show, and it sounds as strange as you might think.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Like its parent show, The Rookie: Feds is watchable because of its star and very little else. But Nash-Betts is just so damn watchable that you’ll enjoy the series despite any reservations you may have.

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, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.