Rookie Blue: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Review
Insert generic critique here.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, May 23, 2012
It's a commonly accepted truism that most television dramas are built around one of three careers: the lawyer, the
doctor, or the policeman (or private detective). There have been occasional dramas that have come along that have
seriously shaken up the status quo (one thinks especially of shows like
Mission: Impossible, which was unlike
anything that viewers had ever seen before), and there are of course fads that at least momentarily introduce new (or
newish) elements, like the secret agent craze that swept films and television in the wake of James Bond and actually
led to at least one police show being reborn as a secret agent outing (
Burke's Law become
Amos Burke,
Secret Agent, though the change wasn't especially artful and the show was quickly cancelled). (We'll also put aside
the favorite genre of late fifties and early sixties television, the western, as frequently it tended to focus on "policemen"
of the wild west in the guise of sheriffs.) And so after seven
decades or so of broadcast television it's understandably hard to introduce new elements into well worn genres. That's
the basic problem with
Rookie Blue, a series that is
so generic that even its title is an amalgam of other
cop shows, as was discussed in the
review of the series' first season. While there's nothing
horrible about
Rookie
Blue, the series is one of those middling efforts that coasts along on familiarity, some occasionally interesting
characters, and the usual amount of interpersonal drama and shenanigans by each episode's bad guys, but there's
nothing remotely new or exciting to be experienced here. The one element that may prove to be at least a little less
well worn than the bulk of the series is its setting: Toronto, Canada, though even that ostensible selling point is dealt
with in a generic way, never really exploiting any specificity that might come from actually acknowledging the city as its
locale.
Stop me if you've heard this one before—well, never mind, I'll stop myself, for any rudimentary recounting of any of
Rookie Blue's second season episodes is going to include plotlines that any self respecting television viewer will
have seen countless times before. A cop unexpectedly shot down in what would seem to be a low risk situation?
Seen it. (The cop survives, surprise, surprise.) Female cops "forced" to put on skimpy clothing to work
undercover
to bust thugs?
Seen it. (They look
fantastic, surprise, surprise.) A cop is taken hostage while a
corollary
investigation leads to discovery of a cover up on a previous case?
Seen it. (The hostage situation is defused,
and the cover
up
is, well, uncovered, surprise, surprise.) I know this brief litany may sound overly cynical and dismissive, but it comes
from
repeatedly forecasting where virtually every episode of this series is going to go from virtually the first moment of each
episode.
So if the plots are often predictable, where does that leave the characters? Unfortunately not in much better stead.
We have a typical assortment of types, many of whom seem to be have been cast for both their photogenic proclivities
as well as (as cynical as it may sound) their ethnic backgrounds, or at least their perceived ethnic backgrounds. There
are simply no characters here that haven't inhabited other, better cop shows through the years, though the series'
relatively equal casting of men and women in the focal rookie roles is to be commended. A lot of the second season
once again centers on
rookie policewoman Andy McNally (Missy Peregrym), who in this season doesn't just deal with little things like busting
cops and perhaps getting shot at a time or several, but also the heartache of first promising to marry her boyfriend
Luke (Eric Johnson), only to later get involved with Sam (Ben Bass).
In the increasingly frayed world of broadcast television, it's sometimes alarming to see what shows thrive and which
shows meet quick demises, even when they share more or less the same viewership and demographic leanings.
Rookie Blue hasn't exactly been a killer performer for ABC, but it's been steady enough that it has earned
successive renewals rather quickly (based in part on the shared production costs by Canada and the fact that the show
is at least
somewhat more popular up north). The series isn't downright
bad, but it's so completely rote and predictable
that it's hard to see what the allure is, despite some attractive cast members and the putative innovation of seeing
Canadian cops on the beat. This is the sort of middling filler material that seems to coast along on limited ambition and
little else other than a basic competent mediocrity. Evidently that's enough to guarantee an audience these days.
That should be a crime.
Rookie Blue: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray, Video Quality
Whatever one may think about
Rookie Blue's drama (melodrama some would say), few will probably complain about
its AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1, offered on Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment One. This is often a spectacularly
sharp looking series that benefits from great location shooting in and around Toronto, and maintains a consistently high
image quality even in studio bound scenes. Fine object detail is often exemplary, and since the series tends to exploit
close-ups so much of the time, it's all the more obvious. Colors are nicely saturated and accurate looking, though the
prevalence of the black or deep blue uniforms that are worn can tend to present very minor shadow detail issues in some of
the most darkly lit scenes. There's very little if any artifacting to report here, other than some
very minor shimmer
on some of the establishing shots of the city (which may be sourced from library footage in any case). Overall, though, this
is a very strong presentation that should easily please the series' fans.
Rookie Blue: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation
Someone is obviously watching
Rookie Blue, for the series' third season is just about to begin on ABC. But
this is a show that is relentlessly generic in almost all of its plot and character dynamics. The press sheet accompanying
this release hypes the show as "
Grey's Anatomy with guns", and there's no denying there are a lot of incredibly
attractive twenty-somethings involved in all sorts of over the top interpersonal melodrama that is very redolent of the
Seattle set medical series. But the fact that the pull quote would directly address the derivative quality of
Rookie
Blue is indication enough that there's very little if any innovation in this show. Still, there are obviously fans for the
series, and they should be very well pleased with this Blu-ray's stellar video and excellent audio, as well as some brief but
enjoyable supplementary material. Everyone else would do better to watch reruns of
Law and Order. That way
you get cops
and lawyers in one show (and even occasionally doctors, too).
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