By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
The landscape of television has changed thanks to the rise of streaming, but one thing remains the same: people love procedurals, be they medical, legal, police, or mystery, comfort food viewing isn’t going anywhere. Alright, make that two things because people also love Nathan Fillion, which explains why Castle was a huge hit. Lightning struck twice, as now, The Rookie, Fillion’s latest police procedural, is Hulu’s number-one show again.
Nathan Fillion’s Latest Hit
The Rookie stars Nathan Fillion, still best known to sci-fi fans as Captain Malcolm Reynolds in Firefly, as John Norris, a 45-year-old man living his dream of becoming a police officer in Los Angeles. After Norris helps stop a bank robbery in his hometown, he signs on with the LAPD in what sounds like an absurd plot, but it’s based on the true story of William Norcross, who serves as an executive producer on the series, and also a LAPD Officer to this day. Fillion, as he always does, can take any concept and make it must-watch TV with the sheer force of his roguish charm.
In the hands of any other star, The Rookie may not have made it seven seasons and counting, but in addition to Fillion, part of the appeal is that the characters have been allowed to change and grow, which is big news for a procedural. Starting in Season 5, Norris is no longer a “rookie” and, instead, a training officer overseeing a new class of rookies. It doesn’t sound like much, but consider that the overall concept of NCIS hasn’t budged in 20 years, though McGee is no longer a “probie,” he’s doing the same thing week after week.
Nathan Fillion is the biggest name in the cast of The Rookie, but sci-fi fans will also recognize Melissa O’Neal from Dark Matter as Lucy Chen, a fellow rookie officer, and Shawn Ashmore of Fox’s X-Men as Defense Attorney Wesley Evers. The list of guest stars includes more notable sci-fi cult favorites, including Felicia Day, Stephen Lang, David Dastmachlain, and The X-Files Mitch Pileggi, among many others. Sean Maher, Simon from Firefly and Serenity, even appears in one episode as a different type of escaped convict.
Procedurals Are Still The Backbone Of Television
For all the talk of streaming original shows from Shogun to Stranger Things, the backbone of every service is classic sitcoms and procedurals that can be watched and re-watched over and over again, often with dozens of seasons and hundreds of episodes. It’s why NCIS dominates Paramount+ between seasons of Yellowstone, Max was built on The Big Bang Theory, and why it’s a huge deal when the rights to Friends change hands. The Rookie doesn’t re-invent the wheel, and it embraces every procedural trope you can think of, but that’s not a bad thing.
Procedurals are comfort food because they are so predictable, with just enough twists, turns, and colorful characters to keep audiences coming back week after week to spend another hour living in its world. Nathan Fillion has had back-to-back success with Castle and now The Rookie, which proved to be so popular that it’s spawned a spin-off, The Rookie: Feds, which is exactly what it sounds like, and that’s still not a bad thing. It’s ironic that Fillion’s most beloved series was also his least successful, but at least millions of people can now appreciate the unmatched charm and swagger of Captain Malcolm Reynolds.
The Rookie is streaming on Hulu.