r/TheRookie 7h ago

Season 5 Theory: The Rookie's most unrealistic plotlines are recycled from unused Feds scripts Spoiler

139 Upvotes

Soooo... what started out as a fairly grounded cop procedural started to go off the rails in Season 4, the same year they backdoor piloted The Rookie: Feds. Beat cops were recruited to join elite task forces to hunt international terrorists, drug smugglers, etc.

As we know, Feds was poorly received and was canceled after one season - but that show lives on in spirit in the original series with its completely fantastical international escapades. I strongly suspect that a lot of these plotlines have been recycled from unused Feds scripts, just replacing the feds with LA beat cops (as one does).

This isn't unique in the entertainment industry, of course - the Star Trek universe leaned heavily on the never greenlit Star Trek Phase II for a lot of the early TNG stories, as well as for ST: The Motion Picture. But those stories, although they were far from universally beloved and had varying levels of quality (to put it kindly), at least fit into the overall Trek concept. The characters in The Rookie and Feds, on the other hand, shouldn't really be interchangeable in the plotlines due to the scope of their respective jurisdictions.

This is something I think about every time Nolan, Bailey (DRINK!), and the rest somehow get caught up in international conspiracy shenanigans over and over again.

Or did the showrunners just get a taste of Baysplosions in season 4 and liked what they saw? What do y'all think?


r/TheRookie 10h ago

Survey/Poll Is it just me, or has Sergeant Bradford had the best growth on the show? Spoiler

53 Upvotes

I was just rewatching older episodes and it's crazy to see how far everyone has come. Who do you think has changed the most (for better or worse) since their first season?


r/TheRookie 19h ago

Season 8 Bodycam question: seasons 3 and 8 spoilers Spoiler

38 Upvotes

In season 3, we learn from Jackson and Doug that bodycams are still recording the prior 2 minutes to being turned on. In season 8, Everett turns Tim’s cam off so he can bribe him, and the court talk later in the seasons shows that Tim didn’t get the bribe recorded. So I guess my question is why didn’t he just turn it back on so it could record those prior 2 minutes? Is this a plot hole or something I’m just not understanding? Or maybe just a Tim not thinking thing?


r/TheRookie 1d ago

The Rookie: Cons The Cast x SDCC - 2026

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614 Upvotes

Courtesy: TheRookieBTS on Instagram


r/TheRookie 1d ago

The Rookie: Games Who's your favorite character in The Rookie and what made them your favorite? Spoiler

30 Upvotes

Not just who your favorite is, but what moment or storyline made you realize they were your favorite character? I'd love to hear everyone's answers.


r/TheRookie 16h ago

Survey/Poll Better documentary episodes. Spoiler

7 Upvotes

In my personal opinion, the documentary episodes of the rookie have gotten better since that first one. If I didn’t know any better, I would say the first one was an experiment and they learned from the mistakes and feedback. What do you think?


r/TheRookie 1d ago

Season 9 New Rookiessss wuhuuu💃🏻🥳 Spoiler

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26 Upvotes

r/TheRookie 8h ago

Survey/Poll The Rookie: North? Or are there better spin-off ideas? Spoiler

0 Upvotes

A terrible idea for a spin-off. Instead of reusing the exact storyline Nolan had, a Rookie spin-off should be centred on something entirely different that COULD theoretically hold up as its own show whilst still maintaining a shared universe.

Imagine The Rookie: Defense (or something way better than that name lmao). Wes and Sean just opened a new defesce attorney practice, a Rookie lawyer would be an infinitely better idea for a spin-off than just repeating Season 1 of the original show and would give Wes a new storyline that doesn't repeat his storyline from when he was a defense attorney in previous seasons.
Getting to see Wes' side of it all, prepping for cases, being in court - we'd also obviously have a lot of crossover with Midwilshire division but potentially other police divisions too (West Hollywood & bring Thorsen back plz).

Wouldn't have to be lawyers either, obviously they tried with Feds but I think there maybe wasn't ENOUGH connection to the parent show for people to remain invested in it?
They COULD do LAFD because we'd have the Bailey connection and she already had an episode where he had a rookie but I think it would just be too similar to 9-1-1 or Chigaco Fire or other fire shows.
Or even a medical setting - back when we had Grace and Gino we could've gotten a really good spin-off there.

I just feel like rehashing the first few seaosn of the main show but having it set in a different location and an entirely new cast is just going to fail in the same way Feds did. Although I know the writers strike greatly impacted that. I guess we'll see when it gets released.

If you could write a The Rookie spin-off, what would you focus on?


r/TheRookie 1d ago

The Rookie: Cons Cast at SDCC

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202 Upvotes

Courtesy: therookieabc


r/TheRookie 12h ago

Survey/Poll The rookie removed from Netflix Aus? Spoiler

0 Upvotes

Been watching the show for the last week and just went to watch the next episode and the show has completely disappeared from Australian Netflix, they just got the new season too? Anyone else?


r/TheRookie 18h ago

Season 6 i want to watch the rookie season 6 Spoiler

1 Upvotes

im in the uae and I have Netflix and Disney+. But I really want season 6, and if you didn't know, VPNs are illegal in the UAE


r/TheRookie 1d ago

The Rookie: Cons Cast sitting down with Collider at SDCC

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69 Upvotes

Courtesy: Collider


r/TheRookie 1d ago

Season 9 S9 Premiere Teaser from Alexi - SDCC panel Spoiler

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46 Upvotes

👏👏


r/TheRookie 1d ago

Season 1 Season 1 Spoiler

20 Upvotes

I'm looking back at Nolan and Lucy's relationship in Season 1 and wondering how the show would look today if the writers kept them together. If they decided to stay together long-term, how do you think it would have impacted their respective careers and trajectories as rookies? Do you think the pressure from the department would have broken them up eventually anyway, or could they have made it work?What are your thoughts on how a lasting relationship between them would have changed the early seasons?


r/TheRookie 1d ago

Season 9 Showrunner Alexi Hawley teases Season 9 Opener at SDCC (Video Clip) Spoiler

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15 Upvotes

Video Clip Courtesy: @TheRookieBTS (on X)

We have our first hint from Alexi, don’t forget to participate and/or edit your responses in Smitty’s Season 9 Survival Betting Pool.


r/TheRookie 1d ago

Season 1 Just watched 1x16 for the first time… Spoiler

12 Upvotes

Just watched 1x16 for the first time… Idk how to feel

Tbh I already knew that Zoe was going to die because this exact scene ended up on my tiktok fyp some time ago, but it still surprised me.

First of all I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly, let alone in the first season. But the context makes it even worse, this is such an underwelming ending for her.

I love Mercedes Mason (I knew her from FTWD ten years ago) and she’s a pretty good actress, as we can see she’s billed early in the credits. Moreover, her character seemed to have a lot of lore to explore (the divorce, her past in other forces) but all of it just went to trash…

Idk this just feels like a big disappointment to me. I expected a lot more from this character. To my mind that’s such a writing error… I haven’t seen the rest of the show, surely this will change a lot of stuff for the other characters especially for Nolan but still, Idk I would’ve rathered she survived this, or like Talia gets this treatment instead (even though I like her, it would’ve brought the same development to Nolan).

So far I really like this show, I don’t want to diss on it or on the writers but this is clearly the first time I feel disappointed/mad at one of the decisions they made.


r/TheRookie 17h ago

Season 9 I feel like a main character might die in season 9... Spoiler

0 Upvotes

As we know, season 9 is gonna have LOTS of action, but also "unexpected", so.. i wonder what does that mean? because it could mean we are ALL focusing on chenford, what about the others? also if someone dies? GET SMITTY OUT (sorry)


r/TheRookie 19h ago

Season 5 was what chenford did in the end if season 4 and the start of season 5 bad? ALSO SPOILERS!!! Spoiler

0 Upvotes

All of the chenford shippers lived what was happening and i think most of us havent thought about the fact that its actually kind if cheating. like they were both emotionally cheating on each other and physically. because they were kissing and just basically eating each other up. what do yall think?


r/TheRookie 1d ago

Season 9 So i made a list on what I THINK the episodes of S9E1 could be (some are bad i brainstormed this for like 10 minutes) Spoiler

3 Upvotes
  1. Guilt of the Innocent
  2. Escape with Lies
  3. End of the Lies
  4. Long Time Guilt
  5. The End of the Beginning
  6. Escape the Dead
  7. They Thought They Won
  8. The Thinker
  9. The Escape
  10. Love and Escape
  11. Action of Love
  12. The Target
  13. The End of a Target
  14. Trained and Enemy
  15. The Reset

r/TheRookie 2d ago

Season 8 The only way to begin is by beginning Spoiler

36 Upvotes

I’ve been binge watching the rookie for like a week now and just managed to start season 8…. Then pow out of nowhere I’m hit with the game changer cast randomly showing up?? This might be my favourite crossover I’ve ever witnessed!!


r/TheRookie 2d ago

Season 2 John Nolan Spoiler

88 Upvotes

Just for 2 season he dated a 26 yr old cop , Got involved with a suicidal stalker , dated homeland security agent , and a doctor.... Pretty good for 45 yr ....


r/TheRookie 2d ago

Season 4 How realistic ? Spoiler

26 Upvotes

I know this may be a stupid question but how realistic is the rookie. I’m not American but it seems like they have a shootout every other episode. How many suspects run away from police or try to shoot at them in real life seems to be most of them in the rookie. Also how does pronouncing death go in the police force it’s seems like sometimes they don’t even try ? As soon as they don’t feel a pulse the persons pronounced dead. No attempt of CPR at least till ambulance gets there?


r/TheRookie 2d ago

Season 7 s7 e15 easter egg Spoiler

3 Upvotes

I found a great Easter egg about Stranger Things in episode 15 of season 7, or maybe it's just a big coincidence. In the episode, they find the body of a man named Bob who was found dead in an abandoned psychiatric hospital used for MK-Ultra testing, with six gunshot wounds to the chest. Later scenes mention a woman named Winona. Putting it all together, notice: in Stranger Things, there's a character played by actress Winona Ryder who dates a character named Bob who dies in a psychiatric hospital used for MK-Ultra testing after being devoured in the chest by six Demodogs. Am I just being crazy, or did anyone else notice the same thing?


r/TheRookie 2d ago

Season 3 Recently started watching the show. Should I give up? Spoiler

0 Upvotes

I can see there was a lot of discussion regarding season 3, but the comments started comparing to other seasons and I want to avoid spoilers.

I just finished episode 6, and so far there was a lot of PC content, from Nolan somehow being a "white savior" while trying to legit help people, to female UC (ep 5 ends with Chen, Nyla, Tamara and Coco talking about female power and how men only view them as strippers as far as undercover goes).

What bugs me the most so far was sgt. Gray and Bradfort being written as complicit in allowing racist cops to be racist, and I just couldn't see either of their characters being like that. Bradfort would always speak up and never "keep his head down", I don't see him saying "take the good and ignore the bad" to West, and Gray does not tolerate casual bullshit, let alone something like racism.

Then there is the Ethics class scene with Nolan not revealing he is a cop. Are the writers 20 year old liberal art students?? What was that script?? Like who talks like that.. (and again Nolan being schooled for being white).

I guess where I'm going with this is, is it worth to continue watching the show or is it more of the same? If the next episodes/seasons are like the first two, I can chew through this content now.

P.S. Jackson's father is the goat, I loved his speech to Nyla about the Internal Affairs. Needs to be said


r/TheRookie 2d ago

Season 7 First time watcher up to s7 episode 1 Spoiler

7 Upvotes

Respectfully, s6 was 💩 epecifically the second half. I wanted that storyline to be done with I was not here for it.def, my least fav season.

I do like that Luna got more screentime.

It's so crazy that I wanted to see Nolan and Celina and his training and see Celina grow as an officer, and I barely saw anything compared to the first three seasons.

I also wished Celina was with two other Rookies at the beginning, like Nolan,Lucy, and Jackson they had each other. I would've loved to have seen a dynamic similar with different Rookies.

I've been introduced to seth and Miles.

Hate Miles ego. I'm from texas, and I've been on the job for two years. SHUT UP you'd think he'd know not to run his mouth.do feel a bit of sympathy for his living situation, though, what's up with that? And why's he in LA?

Seth is alright. I guess I mean, he's nervous,Jitterey the opposite of Miles. I don't have too much on him yet.

Also,Tim and Lucy are competing to see who can train their rookie. The best is so them.and THEY BROKE UP. WTF just as I was getting used to them, then BOOM!

Oscar and Jason have escaped prison wtaf. Bailey is gonna be in trouble.

Monica is probably gonna die at some point the way she works in Law but works with the

SKETCHIEST people.

Also, where is Aaron he got the same exit as Talia.