Rookie Blue is a Canadian police procedural television series starring Missy Peregrym and Gregory Smith. It was created by Morwyn Brebner, Tassie Cameron, and Ellen Vanstone. The series premiered on June 24, 2010, and aired on Global in Canada and ABC in the United States. On July 17, 2013, Global and ABC jointly announced that Rookie Blue was renewed for a fifth season. Originally intended to be a single season consisting of 22 episodes (up from the usual 13), the season was split in two. Season 5 premiered on May 19, 2014, on Global, on June 19 on ABC, and on July 20 on Universal Channel in the UK. The second 11 episodes aired in 2015 and were later re-branded as season 6. The final episode of Season 6 aired that July. On October 16, 2015, it was announced that Rookie Blue had completed its run after six seasons and would not be returning.

Plot

There's something really primal about the idea of being a rookie—it hits that horrible, eternal sense of feeling like a fraud, like a kid dressed in grown-up clothes, trying to pretend you know what you're doing. And I thought, what if you were feeling just like that—but with a gun? Set in Toronto, the series follows the lives of five rookie police officers from fictional 15 Division who have just graduated from the academy. The officers must learn to deal with not only their duties as police officers, but also the problems and expectations of family, friends, and romantic attachments at the office. They are first responders who are about to learn that no amount of training prepares you for life. "To serve, protect, and..." is usually used in the parade room before shift starts by the officer leading the parade. It always has a significant meaning in the context of the episode plot. More often than not, however, they use "to serve, protect, and don't screw up". Rookie Blue has been described as the Grey's Anatomy of the world of rookie cops.

Setting

The series is set in Toronto, often referencing local street names and areas. The streets are often recognizable, as is the case with Jameson Avenue in Parkdale, the location of a call-out in the pilot episode.

Episodes

Cast

Main

Officers

Detectives

Sergeants

Supporting

Production and development

The series is produced by E1 Entertainment, Canwest, and Thump, Inc. The pilot script was written by Ilana Frank. In February 2009, Canwest ordered the show straight-to-series with a 13 episode order under the working title Copper. ABC purchased the American broadcast rights to the series in April 2009. The first role cast was Andy McNally, portrayed by Missy Peregrym, followed by Gregory Smith cast as Dov Epstein. Additional casting was announced in early July. Production began in Toronto, Ontario, on July 14, 2009, and was expected to continue through November 2009. Thirteen episodes were produced. On June 21, 2010 The Accessible Channel announced that Rookie Blue would be the first series to premiere with a simultaneous Described Video broadcast for people with vision impairments. Filming of the second season took place between September 1, 2010, and January 25, 2011. Tassie Cameron served as head writer and series showrunner, with Georgia Toews serving as writing assistant. Filming of the third season took place between August 25, 2011, and January 23, 2012. Filming of the fourth season took place between August 20, 2012, and January 25, 2013. Filming of the combined fifth and sixth seasons took place between January 20, 2014, and October 1, 2014. On September 3, 2015, during an interview with Missy Peregrym in The Hollywood Reporter, it was reported that the season six finale would likely be the Rookie Blue series finale, since the series regulars have not been called back for another season.

Release

Broadcast

Rookie Blue is distributed by E1 Entertainment. NBC Universal Global Networks (also known as Universal Networks International) purchased broadcast rights in all markets except Canada (country of origin), France, Germany, and the United States. Ion Television acquired the off network rights to the series in the United States. Ion ran the show starting in December 2014 on Friday nights at 10:00 p.m. with five episodes in a row, however by mid-February 2015 the show had been pulled from Ion's schedule due to low ratings, and replaced first by Blue Bloods, then Cold Case.

Home media

Entertainment One releases the show on DVD and a few season on Blu-ray in Region 1. The Canadian releases contain an additional French audio track and the Canadian Blu-ray release is three discs instead of four. In Australia (Region 4), only the first two seasons were released. However, Via Vision Entertainment has acquired the rights to the series and will released the complete series boxset on November 18, 2020.

Reception

Critical response

Metacritic summarizes the response as "mixed or average reviews". One of the more favorable reviews came from Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times, saying "it's not a groundbreaking police drama, nor is it divertingly cheesy. It's well made and well meaning." Robert Lloyd from the Los Angeles Times was also favorable with the show, and agreed with Stanley describing it as nothing new to television, but he rather enjoyed it and saying "Rookie Blue doesn't oversell itself. It is modest and plain in a way that makes even its less likely moments feel credible enough." Rob Salem of the Toronto Star favorably compared the series to Grey's Anatomy. "Call it Blues Anatomy (or Gray's Academy, take your pick)." Salem found the show "slickly produced and engagingly acted" and had a particular fondness for Missy Peregrym's character, which he described as "the Meredith surrogate". The Globe and Mail's television critic, John Doyle, described Rookie Blue as "a good cop show with a terrible title." Doyle went on to say "it's a very slick, glossy melodrama, all handsome actors and admirably sharp storylines. Yet it's true to its Toronto roots." Among the more negative reviewers was Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Owen calls the show "Grey's Anatomy in a police station." He did however hope to see some interaction between religion and police through one of the characters but stated "Given the generally bland nature of Rookie Blue, that's probably too much to ask." Paige Wiser from the Chicago Sun-Times describes the show as overly generic and claims that the rookies look more like puppies than police officers. She said "if you're looking for a new cop drama to serve and protect your entertainment interests, leave the rookies alone to ripen, and go for a ride-along with Jason Lee's Dwight." Randee Dawn from The Hollywood Reporter was much harsher, calling the writing lazy and describing the motivation of the rookies as selfish, saying that they are there to make themselves feel good and not to protect the city. Dawn said "at its core, Rookie is a terrible show." Alex Strachan of Montreal's The Gazette was unimpressed, stating that "The acting is uneven, the writing and directing aren't particularly stylish or inspired, and you've seen it countless times before." Strachan went on to say that Rookie Blue is "a harmless enough diversion on an otherwise lazy summer TV night."

Ratings

The Canadian premiere drew an audience of 1.9 million viewers with 712,000 in the 18–49 category, placing first for the night and second for the week. It is the highest rated premiere for a Canwest-commissioned drama series within the previous five years. In the U.S.A the premiere drew 7.253 million viewers and an audience share in the 18–49 category of 2.0 out of 6. Furthermore, it improved upon the programming a year beforehand (20/20 special) by having +1.6 million viewers and +18% in the 18–49 age group. The premiere became the most successful scripted summer debut in over a year and in nearly six years for ABC.

Awards and nominations