¶ Podcast Intro and Show Premise
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A middle-aged man pursues his dream of becoming a police officer. It's ABC's new hit drama, The Rookie, and we're talking about it right now.
You're tuned in to Afterbuzz TV, the ESPN of TV Talk. Now, let the play.
🎵 Music
This is a way to intro.
bad boys bad boys Street!
Bad boys in the show, maybe one bad boy, bad girl over here. Welcome to Afterbuzz TV. It is the debut, the pilot episode. The pilot's the title of the episode, and it's our pilot episode. Season one, episode one of ABC's new hit crime drama, The Rookie, Sitarring Nathan Fillion. My name is Michael Rippy. I'm your host at my cripples. You can find me on social media, and I'm joined by the lovely Hey!
Hey, it's me Cherry. How are you guys doing?
And where can they find you on social media?
You can find me Cherry Underscore Lay on Instagram and Twitter.
Make sure you guys find Afterbus TV on iTunes, subscribe to the podcast. Give a like and a follow and a subscription on YouTube as well. Let us know your thoughts. It's gonna be an exciting season, 13 episodes. We've got a special show tonight where we've got special segments. We've got news, predictions, and we're gonna talk about the new show. We just started. Let's get into it, right? The rookie.
¶ Pilot's Fast Pace and Early Characters
I am so excited to have Nathan back on ABC. He was quite charming and he's forty.
He's for
A middle-aged man pursuing his dream of becoming a police officer. And he immediately at the top of the episode we realize he's going through a divorce and apparently is in a midlife crisis. Uh we see right at He's putting rings and jewelry in a safe box uh at a bank, which ends up getting robbed. And this kind of throws us into why he wants to uh pursue this whole new life.
Well he's moving from the small town to the big city of LA and I don't know if I was having a midlife crisis, if becoming a cop would be what I would choose. But I thought it was a really fun idea for a show. And it totally fits in with Nathan.
then and it's interesting because at the start they they uh one of the characters mentions to him, Did you wanna be in Chippendales? He says he wants to be in Chippendales or the NFL, uh not so much a cop.
Well he was going to school to be a lawyer, so I think he should have stayed in
of. If you guys have let us know. Shout out in the comments. Tell us on s social media. Um and then they fast forward to nine months. And that's really where we start. We're in Los Angeles and he's uh gonna become a cop. Now, right off the top, and please let us know what you think out there and and what do you think, Sherry? Because They're moving real fast. I was liked a little bit more.
Got to Los Angeles or some of the scenes, it just seems like the for the pilot episode, I thought it was a lot kind of thrown together and
Well, they totally skipped over them being trained and going to school, which I think was
Kind of important.
important, especially to figure out why everybody else was going and they started to skip when their training officers But I totally get why they did it because of the popularity of 911, which immediately jumped into its episode. And I think they're sort of replicating that fast pace and feel.
I mean talk about fast pace. Officer Chen, Lucy Chen makes an arrest before she's even started, which I don't even know if that makes sense. uh on the characters. They're introducing a lot of characters without too much development on some of them and they're slowly bringing them along. Uh we we get introduced to Officer Bishop, who is gonna be uh, you know, the the leads, you know, John Nolan
I thought that was really interesting because they're both ambitious but for different reasons. And also I enjoyed as far as the writing goes dealing with being a woman as a police officer and they did three different ways of looking at it. One, she's dating a fellow cop officer, which is like a no-no amongst officers.
No, Officer Bishop.
Officer Chen is dating her boyfriend. And then Officer Bishop is Very ambitious to be a captain and that's single minded on hers and she feels that he'll be a reflection on her and she's not sure if it'll be a good reflection or a bad reflection. I kind of think it He's like not following the rules.
¶ Scattered Incidents and Nolan's Mocking
Okay, so y you kinda skipped ahead here then I wanted to go by talking about uh uh a romance which happens about thirty minutes in. I wanna get to that but let's let's hold off for a second. Okay'cause we see the first scene of kind of a a chase with them searching for a kid in the car after they There's you know, their first action they bring brings you to Hollywood. It's a good i it's a good representation of what LA and Hollywood Boulevard look like.
And uh, you know, you have someone that's uh whether he's on drugs or he's a little bit lost, uh he's apparently left his kid in the car and at the same time is uh you know, has a bat and is just beating uh, you know, bashing car windows right in Um they find him that's when they're not gonna be able to He's got a kid who apparently is going to the university. And now this is kinda their first search.
It's kinda scattered to me. The whole time I'm thinking how do they bring the kid into the situation and and all of Los Angeles they're just gonna randomly find him somewhere and and they're chasing and and that's the first scene. Any thoughts when you're watching that scene, just in general?
I thought it was very strange because he was having obviously either a mental breakdown or he's on drugs, so he's unable to really enunciate what was going on and how they sort of got missing child, uh the phone call, him. Um it was a little confusing. I wish that they had done a little bit more. A little bit more conversation with the father, even though he was Obviously having some sort of breakdown. But for him to think Balloon animal and everything.
But the f call from the mother was helpful to sort of set out exactly who the child what they were looking for.
He keeps saying Lucas and then she calls and then they're saying Lucas, which they determine is the kid. But even in in your thoughts, it seems like it's a little bit scattered. To me, I would have liked because it it's like they just shoot you into this scene with. There's no development of
Camaraderie. We do see that the sergeant is against uh, you know, Nathan uh Officer John Nolan. It seems like everybody's kind of mocking John Nolan at the start and it's uh I I don't understand that because is the idea that if you're middle aged and you wanna be a cop that it You get mocked or you're just older so it you shouldn't be able to do it or I wasn't
I believe they have rules as far as how old you can be. And I'm pretty sure 35 is at the limit. So he must have gotten some sort of special. Or maybe there's a new rule or something.
It doesn't show us any special rules, so it just seems like the whole purpose of the show is to make fun of a middle aged You know, he's broken down. So I'm not sure. I'm just wondering what was your take on it? Because it to me, I'm confused on it.
To me I think it would be almost illegal'cause it's harassment. But maybe they'cause but they were all mocking all of the new recruits. But the re it feels like Because he doesn't want him there because he's old, he's not gonna follow the rules, and he gets confused a little bit.
The ser the sergeant does tell him he's doesn't he's like I don't like you and e'cause even if he's successful then he's gonna get others that How you continue it's not a good thing.
¶ Domestic Call and Pilot's Action Overload
They'll try to make him a good guy. But let's go to the second uh chase. So they find Lucas the kid, he's saved. Um, and and I get there's a part of The emotional. They're giving you a little emotional roller coaster. They show us a domestic abuse scene where uh you know Officer Noel. talks to the female and they work it out Fast forward to them being back there. They're in an all out brawl and uh Stabbing.
I thought it was interesting when they came in'cause at first I could tell that they were assuming the husband was the aggressor trying to like push him off.
Playing on stereotypes.
But when you really kind of listen to what he said and what the wife said, oh yeah, I like to push his buttons. It was obvious she was abusive, but since she was a tiny little thing, they were dismissive because he was such a big guy. But there is an issue with People being abused and if they don't fit in with what people think are gonna be abusive, they won't do anything.
But of course he didn't admit what was going on, so unless you have bruises, the police they can't really do anything. I mean someone called, and I'm sure they called and said he's beating his wife.
And and much like I think all of episode one and please let us know your thoughts. It kinda like I'm saying about the whole episode, it it felt scattered even here because uh quickly they're in a brawl, next thing you know And in uh you know, in Officer. You know his partner says to him the worst thing you can do. So there's one thing that I do kind of. The main takeaway I got was there's a lot of quotes that sort of hit home. And not just if you're a cop, but in any sort of walk of life that I
could fit in. But again, for that the it immediately elevated from just a general uh fight to a death. It seems so fast paced and so aggressive
It feels like they have a lot of
Get to.
And it's like they're sort of throwing a bunch of things on the wall to figure out what's going to work well instead of sort of concentrating a little bit more.
I think it's unique in the pilot episode'cause usually in a pilot you're starting to get to know the people and here it's like they make it seem as though we've been watching this show for a long time. That this would be an episode you'd think in, you know, season four it almost felt like'cause it's so fast paced and they're just they're already their skill. They're cops, they're doing the cop things. Um but that gets me to another reason why I thought
¶ Sudden Romance and Personal Struggles
The show starts off really just kind of scattered. We get to the part that you brought up about how Officer Nolan apparently is now dating or having an affair or whatever you want to call it with Officer Chen, one of the other uh Cops and this is twenty-five minutes into the episode. There's not really any lead into them having real interaction.
of of real romance and all of a sudden they're uh out at his apparent at the fancy guest house of his college roommate who we've never heard of. We don't know anything. First time we see this place and they're they're kissing.
Well,
What is that?
They met when they were in the officer training which takes pl which, if I remember correctly, um, is about a year. So they had a year to, you know, hook up or do whatever. Um And there's little hints when they were at the club and the uh badge bunny was hitting on him and she didn't particularly like it. But There's not a lot of chemistry between them, but you know, Nathan's an attractive guy. Um, I was looking at the chat.
There's a lot of attractive guys, doesn't mean y y you get together with them.
So, this is LA, you get what anybody... Um, so Avalyn Park in the chat was saying he agrees with you. This show seems like it is a smashed together at the beginning, but um He also says button row life it doesn't take long for a person to die, especially if they're
I appreciate uh the comments and sharing our uh recap with us because that makes w the show Even better, so keep uh tuning in and keep please sharing your thoughts. Uh understandably, obviously they have to move the show ahead. Just for me, seems like for a pilot episode it's going so fast. I want it to slow down. I want to take in. And get to know them a little bit more, other than having these quick generalizations where everybody's again
Um they're obviously the young one the younger uh officers are very driven. And uh You know, and then and then it takes another turn. So now uh we find Officer Bradford who is the tough guy. He's tough guy, he's you know been on the force, right? And uh they come up to uh you know. He lets his partner get into the fight, which is interesting. Uh is that really how it goes? Um and I'm gonna get to some of these things in my questions a little bit later in the special segment.
We we find out eventually that uh as they're gonna arrest the guy, uh a woman says And now that woman apparently ends up it obviously affects Bradford. He You know, it's someone he knows. It ends up being his wife that he hasn't spoken to in a year. More of where I'm just curious on why it's so fast paced and so fast. Am I wrong?
It's it's a lot of information. To me, that should have been in like the third episode once you got to know him a little bit better. But now we know why she's so angry.
Yeah well so she tells him when he says what what can I do? What what she says I want all your money. He gives her all his money and they let the guy the guy go when she says let him go. Is this r is this a real represent okay, we'll see.
I don't think that's what happened.
Anyways, because you guys are with us right now and uh we appreciate you subscribing and following and listening to us to keep us afloat.
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¶ Intense Shootout and Controversial Actions
That's right. I second everything that Cherry just told you. Thanks for tuning in to us on uh the debut pilot. of the rookie after show here on Afterbus TV. Uh episode one we've got thirteen this season and if you can see how tonight's episode went, you know it's gonna be real fast. Who knows where we're gonna be in a couple episodes. Um let's let's move along towards the end of the show tonight as we recap. And we see uh another situation where there's just a shootout.
I mean a chaotic shootout and uh Bradford's hit. It seems like it's chaos. There's helicopters, there's there's uh I mean a big big battle is ensuing.
In the middle of an alleyway. Dangerous for all the people who happen to live over there. Um It was an interesting scene to sort of show how the rookies would react in such a situation.
You're troubling me.
Once again that's so much to happen in one episode.
So I mean for rookies, do rookies go through this much trauma as a cop immediately? It seems like they're all in the most aggressive, serious life What about your routine cop what what about your routine traffic stop? Or your routine uh situation that they can just maybe arrest someone without it being escalated to cold red?
That's why I prefer to be a cop in Beverly.
Guns and shootings. I mean
It's dangerous. It's LA. They were like in
So how how does this how does this episode uh how does this this scene that's chaos with the in the back alley they're shooting, there's helicopters, the the ambulance is rolling up, how how's the sc how's the um in this little moment uh end up.
I thought it was interesting how um the training officers reacted as well as the rookies and how A they didn't follow their training and that adversely affected their their training officers. Um Talia was almost killed by one suspect. Um Tim got shot badly because his per Lucy was hesitant and at first she wanted to jump out from in front of the car and start shooting wildly like a video game. You
And um Jackson just froze. If I have to say out of the three of them, I'm probably Jackson'cause I'd freeze too if somebody was shooting a a s semi automatic rifle at me. But then again I I
So uh the situation eventually gets resolved. There's arrest, there's shit shooting, and we go to our final uh chaotic situation. And that's uh basically where Nolan is.
First of all, this is LA. If I see someone running towards me with a damn shotgun or automatic weapon, I can't run. But believe me, I would at least try. I mean I constantly look wherever I'm gonna go. So I was really surprised about that. Um, I thought that was a really interesting um A, I really like the speech he did where he said, I became a cop to help people not kill them.
And then what he did I was like I was like oh he's gonna talk him down. He's a nice guy then I was like he's like boom I was like Yes That was not. That was a shock.
So right, he tells him to to put the weapon down, he doesn't give him the total chance, he shoots him in the knee. Another part of episode uh Me and confused me a bit. But um you know, and for doing that, we find out that the sergeant who doesn't like him actually says tells him to go home and he's uh he's done a bad job, he's But obviously, so this is only episode one we need our main character to be around, he is uh saved and the sergeant's overruled by the captain, right?
Yes, I thought that was really interesting. I don't know what relationship the captain has with him, but there must be something for her to stick her nose.
¶ Analyzing Character Development and Humor
There must be something and it's not because he's just really attractive. Maybe he maybe one of his friends pulled a favorite.
And finally, right at the end. Bishop telling Officer Chin that she knows that
Well, yeah.
Yes. Well surely makes sense. Oh she saw the way they looked in the um way that their body language was.
So she's the body language.
As a woman. As women, we have intuition. We know. She peeped what was going on. She peeped.
So this brings us to uh You guys out there to answer us. Uh as you can tell, I'm feeling very uh fla flamoxed. I'm very confused about how the pilot episode of where everything is fast paced. I'm not really sure what's going on with a lot of these characters. They haven't developed them and I'm confused why uh we don't get more in-depth uh detail on each of them. It seems very super So let's start with uh there's jokes in
lots and lots of jokes, surprising amounts of jokes. And it sort of careens from being kind of serious to being very dramatic to humor. It's it's very
What did you think of these jokes? Did you actually think that they were uh it was it was funny? Like was this almost comedy at certain points with the amount of jokes or were the jokes kinda falling?
I like the jokes. They didn't really make me laugh per se. But I think it's because I wasn't expecting uh the pace of this show. So it kinda had me a little surprise'cause I kept thinking fast, fast, fast, fast, fast. Then it would slow down for a minute and then it would go speeding. It's careening a bit for me, but I think once I get used to it, I'll get the humor a little bit more.
And that that's a good point. Maybe that this careening will kinda settle down at the end. But for now, asking me, I thought the jokes fell flat. I thought they missed. For a pilot episode, disappointed by their their jokes. And I don't want to be negative at all, but that just gotta be on. I thought their jokes they weren't funny and uh I I would have liked uh bet you know, better jokes and more
What about we we were introduced to a lot of characters now we don't know too much about many of the characters. No. Some of them they've given us a lot of sort of general detail that like, you know, Officer Nola's in a relationship, he's divorced, he's you know, you know, midlife crisis and now he's with Officer Trent. W we sort of see some some detail, but there's not a lot that's been filled in on these characters. Do we feel like uh we have a good set of characters?
I think there's so many people on the show that It'll take a little while. I'm hoping that as the season progresses, they'll focus a little bit more on each character we can get to know them. Um I know Jackson's father is an internal affairs officer that's fairly senior.
So I think that's how he was able to get his placement and get like some little perks that other people he won't get messed with as much. But they weren't able to concentrate on anyone because they're so busy putting them in situations.
After watching episode one, how do we feel the rookie is gonna be different than other cops?
I think it needs to find its pace and voice. Right now it looks like they're trying to they're trying to figure out do we want to be a funny cop show or do we want to be like a traditional dramatic to cop show? Or do we want to be a cop show where they're going from um emergency to emergency to emergency with no underlying story, other than him being an older guy who wants
And I think that gets tired if they don't figure out a way to just go going from one scene to another scene to another scene of d they're in this situation, this situation, this situation without giving us some time with the characters outside of the actual job of That's gonna be tough. They g they gotta give us that time where we get to spend and learn about their background, learn about why they wanted to be a cop, why they're a cop, how about their life to add in to them being a cop.
Yes, but there's so many people right now I'd really like to concentrate on their being police officers and figuring out what's going on. Even if it And to me it wouldn't be boring. Them sitting in the police car or as they called it their um
That's fine. Exactly.
Talking and getting to know each other'cause right now it feels like they talk for a few moments and then something happens and they jump off.
That's what I'm talking about.
No segue between characters. It just all of a sudden they just cut to like another scene in other in another car.
The pacing
It's interesting.
And that's what I mean by getting some character development. They can be in their cop outfits. They can be in their workplace. They can be in the they could be at the all you know i at the the LAPD department and they could be talking in their desk. But just give us some more of them I think will help elevate the show. Uh which brings me to uh
¶ Future Outlook and Episode Wrap-up
After episode one, and you guys out there please be answering this, watching these cops that are apparently out here in Los Angeles, does this make you feel better or worse about real LA cops?
I'm kind of scared of rural LA cops. But I was looking at the chat because I had asked everyone about their favorite array.
And
The Avalon Park says the first arrest was funny and the you girl go the you go girl yes moment that she liked. And I'd say I liked her the guy being a sexual harasser and in situating he was gonna rape her and she's like, yeah. I'm gonna beat your ass. So that was totally awesome. Um Ringy nine oh nine nine eight said um I don't have a favorite arrest, but the weirdest weather sets freaks they were
That was odd. That was an interesting touch. And thank you guys for joining us in the live chat with giving us your thoughts. That's really Uh if you're gonna join us on social media, maybe hashtag uh ABTV uh rookie or something like that. We can get uh conversation going there. Yes. Uh not only in the chat, uh at the live time. If you're watching
us on delay, you can also join us on social media and uh let us know your thoughts. So I'm gonna say that it watching these cops actually makes me concerned about LA cops. I don't find it to be similar at all. Actually, but if I wasn't uh aware and I didn't know and I watched this show and I thought, Man, those are LA cops, I don't think it would be a good representation. Uh. entire show so if you guys are ready it is this show has been uh Will this show last thirteen episodes? Mm.
Um ABC has such a long relationship with Nathan. I think they'll give it a lot more
Sure. I mean it's got it it's got it's got a uh you know a name. It is on Tuesday night. They usually can bring in the right. watch and let's see how how we go throughout the season. I mean thirteen Going to be three, four months, and we'll get to see whether it gets picked up. How are the ratings? How is it developing? I think on the first
important to wonder if if it will fit. Also, this is a good time for everybody out there that's watching and answering along with us. Please, if there's something you want to talk about or you want us to talk about in future episodes or you A segment, a good way to involve you on uh our episode, then just let us know and we'll try to do that going forward. I think we have some news, don't we?
Yes we do have news. So we have two pieces of gossip. Nathan Phillian just completed. Voicing Green Lantern and Hal Jordan in Reign of Superman.
Busy man.
is a very busy man. One of the latest DC animated movies, which will probably be out sometime in But there's no announcement when the date will be. And Titus Macon Jr., who plays Jackson, is also an artist. He has a new song out called Suicide. You can find it on Spotify, as well as follow him to find out when the CD will be released.
Love it. Thank you for the news and gossip from Cherry. We'll have some type of news and gossip hopefully for you every week. Uh all right. Well i if you don't have anything uh you might let's do predictions, yeah. No.
And now
You're after buzz G. It's really fitting in October this time of the year, it's uh it's like Halloween is coming up and that's scary spooky music for predictions.
Maybe I'll come in Halloween week.
Ooh, now we just got extra followers.
Um, excuse me. My prediction is that John and Lucy are going to keep up with their affair because she is Staying at his friend's face. hooking up there too. And I also think that Jackson will have a major crisis. I think I almost think that he became a cop because his dad expected him to be a cop and that's why he's not reacting.
And as the season progresses, I think there'll be another emergency where he'll have to figure out do I really want to be a cop or want to be an internal affairs cop, where they're not.
Interesting. Those are uh Unique predictions and uh I like where you're at. I'm gonna say that the I'm gonna tag team on what you said about the relationship between Definitely think that's gonna They need that for the show. Um, on the flip side, for Officer Jackson, I think he's gonna be a character that may disappear. Maybe he finds the uh unlucky end uh to uh a shootout or something. Um but uh we're gonna lose someone or or multiple people and uh maybe because he's gonna
That might be intrigued to bring in another.
But it will be interesting to see every Tuesday night. We'll be here at the Afterbus Studios talking about the rookie uh for twelve more weeks after today, because there's 13 episodes. Of ABC's new crime drama show, The Rookie. Where can they find you until?
They can find me Cherry underscore LA on Twitter and Instagram.
And you guys can find me at Mike Rips, M-I-K-E-R-I-P-S. My name is Michael Rippy. I'm all over social media. And don't forget to subscribe to us on iTunes and also on YouTube. Make sure you're following. doesn't stop. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll talk to you next week.
Love ya.
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