Police and investigative procedurals have always been a huge part of cable television, but the genre has become all about franchises. Just this year, CBS introduced NCIS: Hawai’i and revived CSI after a seven-year hiatus. NBC followed suit and ordered another season of the original Law & Order. On top of that, Paramount+ brought back Criminal Minds with the original cast. In an effort to not be outdone ABC has made plans for a spinoff of The Rookie starring Niecy Nash.
Nash has started in a number of successful television series, including Comedy Central’s Reno 911!, TV-Land’s The Soul Man and TNT’s Claws, for which she earned an Emmy nomination. Her background should serve her well as she steps into the world of The Rookie with a backdoor pilot later this season. However, Nash’s spinoff has an oddly familiar premise.
The Rookie premiered in 2018 with a pretty simple premise: a group of police rookies hit the streets with their training officers. The hook was that one of the newcomers was 45-year-old John Nolan, who joined the LAPD after accidentally helping catch a bank robber. The series is now in its fourth season and has a devoted fan following, so it makes sense that ABC would want to capitalize on its popularity by creating a spinoff.
But when Niecy Nash guest stars as Simone Clark, her character will basically be the female version of John Nolan. Described as a force to be reckoned with and never backing down from a fight, Clark will be the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy, finally realizing her dream of becoming a law enforcement officer. The Rookie’s spinoff won’t just have a few things in common with its parent show. It will follow the exact same premise– yet it still feels like a good idea for a few specific reasons.
ABC has clearly seen the success of procedural franchises like NBC’s interconnected One Chicago shows or CBS’s NCIS brand, and it wants to follow that blueprint. It makes good business sense to launch a spinoff with the same premise — and the network is already planning crossover events between the two series, similar to what regularly happens in One Chicago or in the Shondaverse with Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19. The ABC press release announcing the plans stated that “The Rookie and the spinoff will exist in the same universe, allowing characters to move back and forth.”
Then there’s the fact that The Rookie has hit a slight snag. Although it doesn’t affect the storytelling, all of the series’ original rookies have graduated their training programs. This season, the series introduced Officer Thorsen and his interesting past, but at this point he’s only a recurring character. So assuming that the spinoff is picked up, Simone Clark will fill the role of the actual “rookie” in the franchise and keep it at least somewhat true to its title.
Clark will also enhance the original rookie’s character development. Nolan has recently expressed his interest in becoming a training officer and a recent episode showed him as a mentor figure. His helping Clark get started on her own journey will be a perfect way to advance his character toward becoming a TO, while also kicking off the new series. While very similar, a Rookie spinoff can be a win for the new series, the original one, the network and the fans.
To see what Officer Nolan and the rest of the LAPD do next, tune into The Rookie. New episodes air on Sundays at 10 pm ET, on ABC.
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