S01.E01: Pilot

[TWP]

1 hour ago, BlakesMomma said:

To be fair, I've seen Nolan's age stated as 40, 40-something, 42 and 45 (and some of these were stated by Rookie related outlets). Until we get something that is stated in the actual show, I tend to think 40 is a generalization and not meant to be his specific age?

Nolan said his college friend was letting him rent their "guest" house. Wonder what the main house looks like if that's the guest house! Don't think it was stated as being rent free. 

I keep hoping that the "friend's guest house" was a white lie and we find out that he is a wealthy construction company owner or heir.  After all, how many average Joe construction guys have a bank president knowing them first hand and accompanying them to a safe deposit box.  My in-laws are mere millionaires and they just have a teller who shows them the safe.  It's possible that bank president understandably thought he was cute with all that long hair and big blue eyes (drooling even as I write) and wanted to follow him around.

Edited October 23, 2018 by TWP

[BlakesMomma]

15 minutes ago, TWP said:

I keep hoping that the "friend's guest house" was a white lie and we find out that he is a wealthy construction company owner or heir.  After all, how many average Joe construction guys have a bank president knowing them first hand and accompanying them to a safe deposit box.  My in-laws are mere millionaires and they just have a teller who shows them the safe.  It's possible that bank president understandably thought he was cute with all that long hair and big blue eyes (drooling even as I write) and wanted to follow him around.

The wealthy construction company owner would be an interesting twist, but in a small town like this was depicted to be (Foxboro, PA - real town) I think most people know everyone, including the bank manager lol. 

[WendyCR72]

Not me. Then it would just be Castle all over again, just now a cop. Being working class is fine.

[femmefan1946]

Right now they couldn't be sure how long the baseball playoffs would last.

Oh nooooos! I'm still getting over the cancellation of Firefly.

The wealthy construction company owner would be an interesting twist,

I took it for granted that he was somewhere between very comfortable and wealthy. He owned the construction company (name on truck) and just because he wore a plaid shirt and workboots doesn't mean he couldn't afford more. Even the friend's house. They were is university together (PreLaw) so the friend also did well for himself. And Nolan could afford to take six months salary -free for training and then a wage drop (?) to become a cop.

But it would have made equally good sense for the psychiatrists' daughter to own the house. Maybe better, except that her car is a beater.

Still now he is earning, he should be getting his own place. With a swimming pool.

As Joss Whedon has said: By the way, I’d like to apologize to all of America and countries beyond for only putting Mal shirtless in one scene and then shooting him only from the clavicle up for the entire scene. That’s unforgivable and I just, I got to say, I don’t know what I was thinking. Was I really even thinking at all?

[Raja]

1 hour ago, femmefan1946 said:

 

I took it for granted that he was somewhere between very comfortable and wealthy. He owned the construction company (name on truck) and just because he wore a plaid shirt and workboots doesn't mean he couldn't afford more. Even the friend's house. They were is university together (PreLaw) so the friend also did well for himself. And Nolan could afford to take six months salary -free for training and then a wage drop (?) to become a cop.

But it would have made equally good sense for the psychiatrists' daughter to own the house. Maybe better, except that her car is a beater.

Still now he is earning, he should be getting his own place. With a swimming pool.

 

LAPD runs its own police academy and doesn't take in officers transferring in from other departments, That was the basis of The Closer and Brenda Lee coming in as a Chief. They pay their Boots around $59K/yr while in the academy much like recruits in the armed forces are paid during basic training. As opposed to other departments who hire graduates from  a state approved police academy run by a County Sheriff and the community college systems who paid their own way through training. Still at somewhere around $63k/yr  no matter which SoCal suburb he goes within driving distance of mid Los Angeles he is not getting a place with a pool

Edited October 24, 2018 by Raja

[TWP]

1 hour ago, femmefan1946 said:

Right now they couldn't be sure how long the baseball playoffs would last.

Oh nooooos! I'm still getting over the cancellation of Firefly.

The wealthy construction company owner would be an interesting twist,

I took it for granted that he was somewhere between very comfortable and wealthy. He owned the construction company (name on truck) and just because he wore a plaid shirt and workboots doesn't mean he couldn't afford more. Even the friend's house. They were is university together (PreLaw) so the friend also did well for himself. And Nolan could afford to take six months salary -free for training and then a wage drop (?) to become a cop.

But it would have made equally good sense for the psychiatrists' daughter to own the house. Maybe better, except that her car is a beater.

Still now he is earning, he should be getting his own place. With a swimming pool.

As Joss Whedon has said: By the way, I’d like to apologize to all of America and countries beyond for only putting Mal shirtless in one scene and then shooting him only from the clavicle up for the entire scene. That’s unforgivable and I just, I got to say, I don’t know what I was thinking. Was I really even thinking at all?

Hoping that we find out what the deal is with the friend.  Ratings gods, bring it NOW.

[ratgirlagogo]

9 hours ago, Raja said:

Someone was asking about age limits earlier. While I have known older folks joining small town local police departments LAPD does not have age limits

I was having a hard time with this myself since NYC has a  cut-off of 35.  Now I know.

I thought there was WAY too much crammed into this pilot for me to take it seriously as a drama.  But if I can watch it as a non-serious drama I think I might enjoy it.

My problem with Bradford and his training methods on a sheerly cynical practical level is that  everybody has a cellphone with a camera  on it these days.  The racist taunting of the Spanish guys in the truck, Chen wrestling the guy to the ground and banging the guy's head on the sidewalk - that could go straight to WorldStar or YouTube.  He turned his bodycam off during the encounter with his wife - and by the way there was NO reason for him to inform  Chen that the crazy street person was his wife, not on their first fucking day of training.  Just ramming more backstory into an already overstuffed pilot.

Hate the job romance, plus like so much else it could have waited a few weeks.

Edited October 24, 2018 by ratgirlagogo

[Netfoot]

On 10/17/2018 at 1:33 AM, WendyCR72 said:

I really wasn't feeling the cop that is partnered with the Spanish-speaking cop.

She should wait til he's in the showers, and shit in his boots.

On 10/17/2018 at 8:23 AM, BooBear said:

Compare this depiction of cops and first responders in LA with the depiction on 9-1-1. 

Le's not.  9-1-1 is unwatchable.

[Waterston Fan]

I checked out this show and its okay. i do have a few questions. 

I did notice the call 7-Mary-15.... reminded me of the call for one of the officers on CHIPS. 

Nolan and.... I forgot her last name? 

Boots and crazy guy? 

West and... I forgot his name. 

Too many things do seem a bit ridiculous though and I would think that they would be told in the academy, to never leave an officer behind. 

Nolan is dating the woman who has the office we saw? She's a rookie? 

Edited October 26, 2018 by Waterston Fan

[Raja]

1 hour ago, Waterston Fan said:

I checked out this show and its okay. i do have a few questions. 

I did notice the call 7-Mary-15.... reminded me of the call for one of the officers on CHIPS. 

Nolan and.... I forgot her last name? 

Boots and crazy guy? 

West and... I forgot his name. 

Too many things do seem a bit ridiculous though and I would think that they would be told in the academy, to never leave an officer behind. 

Nolan is dating the woman who has the office we saw? She's a rookie? 

No Nolan is dating Officer Chen. The woman in the office is the Division's Captain who is supportive of an older Boot while the watch commander, the Sergeant is almost comically hostile..

I believe "Mary" is an assistance call, not an officer's or unit's call  sign like 1 Adam-12

[Moose135]

44 minutes ago, Raja said:

I believe "Mary" is an assistance call, not an officer's or unit's call  sign like 1 Adam-12

No, that's a unit number, but Mary designates motorcycle units.  The terminology uses Division/Station, type of unit, and patrol area.  1-Adam-12 was a Central Station unit (1), a two-officer unit (Adam) in patrol area 12 of Division 1.  7-Mary-15 would be from Wilshire Station, motorcycle, in patrol area 15.  It would be a familiar call sign from CHiPs, as Jon and Ponch were "7-Mary-3" and 7-Mary-4".  I forget who used it in TR, but it obviously wasn't a motorcycle officer, so I'm not sure why it was used.

[Clanstarling]

On 10/16/2018 at 11:27 PM, TWP said:

Well.  I expected to love The Rookie pilot.  And I didn't.  It was okay, nothing special.

And I was pleasantly surprised. I wasn't particularly interested in it, except for Fillion, and it stayed on my queue for a while. But I liked it better than most of the procedurals I've watched lately, though admittedly some of them are getting a bit long in the tooth. I thought they did a bang up job for the pilot - everyone was introduced and their initial backstory provided in a decent fashion.

 

On 10/17/2018 at 9:43 AM, threebluestars said:

The trainers were calling them "boot" - slang for a rookie officer. LAPD has a LOT of weird slang.

Comes from "boot camp" I imagine - the military version of training.

On 10/17/2018 at 8:04 PM, SomeTameGazelle said:

Do you mean the scene where we found out that Nolan and the female rookie are sneaking around? He mentioned that it belonged to a friend of his who was letting him stay there.

I appreciated that they explained that immediately - so that there wouldn't be too much discussion about how he's living in a place well beyond his means.

On 10/18/2018 at 2:15 PM, Heathrowe said:

I love Fillion. I was disappointed that his love interest was not the age appropriate bank manager. I thought they had nice chemistry! It was honestly hard for me to keep watching this when he was not on the screen. Ensemble is good in theory, but I didn't think the rest of the cast was that interesting.

I'd like to see her back. If she is, as someone said, his sister, then maybe we will. But the vibe didn't seem very sistery to me, at least at the point where she was telling him he'd been brave.
 

On 10/19/2018 at 7:41 PM, Daltrey said:

I couldn't believe it when he said "Young adults can be molded and taught, 40 year olds think they already know everything."....WHAT?!!! That's the polar opposite of how most people understand human nature to be; more often than not, it's people in their late teens/early twenties with the bravado to be impulsive and make mistakes, not someone in their forty's who has lived and had enough experiences to cautiously think things through.

The point of training in police and military situations is to make sure the officers/troops will react automatically and effectively to deadly force - both to save their lives and to take care of the threat. "Cautiously thinking things through," is valuable in many situations, but when you're training, you need to have the automatic responses instilled in you. I think that's what the line was meant to imply. A 40 year old has a lifetime of his/her own automatic responses and opinions and ways of reacting. So learning their new trade, as it were, takes a certain amount of stripping down. Now, once they are properly trained, that lifetime of experience is extremely valuable.

On 10/22/2018 at 3:19 PM, TWP said:

It's true, for certain.  However, it's one of the two things I've seen that irks viewers. And I'm not just talking about the established anti-fans.  A show on death-slot Tuesday doesn't need to irk anyone.

IMO, if a show doesn't irk anyone, then it isn't doing it right. A show everyone reacts to in lock-step would be bland as heck. 

On 10/23/2018 at 3:48 PM, femmefan1946 said:

Right now they couldn't be sure how long the baseball playoffs would last.

Oh nooooos! I'm still getting over the cancellation of Firefly.

The wealthy construction company owner would be an interesting twist,

I took it for granted that he was somewhere between very comfortable and wealthy. He owned the construction company (name on truck) and just because he wore a plaid shirt and workboots doesn't mean he couldn't afford more. Even the friend's house. They were is university together (PreLaw) so the friend also did well for himself. And Nolan could afford to take six months salary -free for training and then a wage drop (?) to become a cop.

But it would have made equally good sense for the psychiatrists' daughter to own the house. Maybe better, except that her car is a beater.

Still now he is earning, he should be getting his own place. With a swimming pool.

As Joss Whedon has said: By the way, I’d like to apologize to all of America and countries beyond for only putting Mal shirtless in one scene and then shooting him only from the clavicle up for the entire scene. That’s unforgivable and I just, I got to say, I don’t know what I was thinking. Was I really even thinking at all?

I live in a smallish town with lots of small construction companies whose owners aren't exactly rich. Most of them wouldn't see a cop's pay as a pay drop. But I've known a number of people who've left well paying work to pursue careers that didn't pay as much, but made them happier.

So my take was that he wasn't poor, but he wasn't rich either. Having wealthy friends - particularly if you met them in college - doesn't mean a thing. OTOH, the point about affording the training is valid. But maybe he took all the split assets from the divorce and gambled them all on the training academy.

[Raja]

9 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

 

The point of training in police and military situations is to make sure the officers/troops will react automatically and effectively to deadly force - both to save their lives and to take care of the threat. "Cautiously thinking things through," is valuable in many situations, but when you're training, you need to have the automatic responses instilled in you. I think that's what the line was meant to imply. A 40 year old has a lifetime of his/her own automatic responses and opinions and ways of reacting. So learning their new trade, as it were, takes a certain amount of stripping down. Now, once they are properly trained, that lifetime of experience is extremely valuable.

IMO, if a show doesn't irk anyone, then it isn't doing it right. A show everyone reacts to in lock-step would be bland as heck. 

 

I think the Captain represents a faction that thinks the LAPD way, with only their academy and no other police training, no transfers without the academy like the Marine Corps may be wrong and lead to a stagnated one way of thinking department. Thus while other divisions didn't want a new Officer Nolan she worked to get him assigned to her.

 

Whatever the Sergeant Watch Commander's and prevailing LAPD thought is on the issue the City Of Los Angeles already got their return of investment on Officer Nolan's first two patrols.

Edited October 28, 2018 by Raja

[Daltrey]

8 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

The point of training in police and military situations is to make sure the officers/troops will react automatically and effectively to deadly force - both to save their lives and to take care of the threat. "Cautiously thinking things through," is valuable in many situations, but when you're training, you need to have the automatic responses instilled in you. I think that's what the line was meant to imply. A 40 year old has a lifetime of his/her own automatic responses and opinions and ways of reacting. So learning their new trade, as it were, takes a certain amount of stripping down. Now, once they are properly trained, that lifetime of experience is extremely valuable.

Spoiler tagged, even though it doesn't really give away any major plot details.

Spoiler

They explored this more in the second episode. Nolan's TO, Talia Bishop, does a MUCH better job of explaining it , similar to what you've said here. To that end , they really went out of their way to write sergeant Grey as a complete jerk but they seemed to soften his edges in episode two; at the very least he was more tolerable. I can agree with your point (and Talia's), given context it makes sense. Reading my own words back now, I think I chose poorly; Critically thinking things through would have been more accurate. Nolan has shown signs of it, which is good but having an instilled auto-response is important too. Depending on the situation, both are an important asset, I would think.

[Moose135]

On 10/28/2018 at 10:15 AM, Clanstarling said:

But maybe he took all the split assets from the divorce and gambled them all on the training academy.

LAPD recruits do not pay to attend the academy, in fact, they are paid a salary while attending.

https://www.joinlapd.com/salary

[Clanstarling]

1 hour ago, Moose135 said:

LAPD recruits do not pay to attend the academy, in fact, they are paid a salary while attending.

https://www.joinlapd.com/salary

Thanks. I knew that my local pd pays the recruits, but I wasn't sure if that was true in LA.

[Snowprince]

Disregard, already addressed.

Edited November 1, 2018 by Snowprince

[CheshireCat]

I'm a bit confused. Wasn't it actually after the second day that Nolan got fired? Why did the captain say it was on the 1st day?

Would the watch commander have fired a younger rookie for the same offense or would he have given a lecture to a younger officer and then chalked it up to rookie enthusiasm? And why was it so much less worse that West completely froze? He left his partner just as unprotected as Nolan did and yet, he only got something like a slap on the wrist from his training officer.

ETA: Too bad they didn't pair the jerk training officer with West. I don't think he could have applied his usual tactic of borderline bullying and I think it would have been interesting to see that.

Edited November 3, 2018 by CheshireCat