Rookie Blue Season 1 [DVD]

Greys Anatomy with guns Los Angeles Times

Serve. Protect. Dont Screw Up.

At the police academy they trained together. Now theyre on the job together. Rookie cop Andy McNally (Missy Peregrym, Heroes) and her fellow new recruits are ready to brave anything, but in the world of big city policing, even the smallest mistake can have life-or-death consequences.

Rookie Blue aims to be a different kind of cop show, walking a fine line between tough swagger and the emotional impact of all that toughness. Five rookies join a metropolitan police force (Toronto--the series comes from Canada--but the city is virtually generic): Andy McNally (Missy Peregrym, Reaper), daughter of a former cop; Chris Diaz (Travis Milne), a by-the-book guy who lacks initiative; Traci Nash (Enuka Okuma), a single mom having an affair with a detective; Dov Epstein (Gregory Smith), a hothead out to prove himself; and Gail Peck (Charlotte Sullivan), an ice queen who feels like her connections with higher-ups make the other cops think she's not up to snuff. Supposedly the rookies get stuck with the boring or dirty jobs, yet over the course of the 13-episode first season these particular rookies regularly stumble into high-stakes trouble, be it undercover drug busts or a serial pedophile. McNally is the show's center and therefore gets the most complicated romantic life, caught between an edgy undercover cop (whose cover she blew in the first episode) and a charming homicide detective.

Peregrym's combo of tomboy athleticism, healthy farm-girl good looks (the kind that would be called "all-American" if she weren't Canadian), and assertive-yet-vulnerable personality are the essence of the show. It's essentially a more feminine take (more focused on the personal lives and emotional responses of the characters) on a traditionally macho terrain. The show occasionally goes too far with plot turns that push for over-the-top dramatic moments, but even at its most ridiculous--and the routine accumulation of guns-drawn situations can certainly get ridiculous--Rookie Blue remains likable and empathetic. It's a descendent of Hill Street Blues, but a little softer and a lot less quirky. The scripts are swift and efficient but take the time to let the characters interact; there's a sort of emotional breathing room in the show that sets it apart from most contemporary cop shows. The extras are your basic making-of featurettes, no audio commentaries. --Bret Fetzer