Put the gang from “Grey’s Anatomy” in police uniforms and you have a rough idea of “Rookie Blue” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-14). The show opens in a crowded bar where a graduating class of newbies are handcuffed and then challenged to break free. The first unshackled grad gets to drink for free. Frivolity and squealing ensue.
A no-nonsense attitude resumes a rough morning after when our unusually good-looking gaggle of neophytes gets partnered up with gruffer, rougher (and hungover) veterans who immediately remind them to forget their training. Except when they’re supposed to remember. One older partner dismisses her “kid” as “Jenny from the Block.” Another announces that folks on the street “Can smell a rookie – like fresh paint.”
After these words of encouragement, there’s just no time for orientation and donuts. A shooting in a drug den sends Andy McNally (Missy Peregrym) in hot pursuit of her partner and the bad guys. We all learn that sometimes doing things by the book can buy you trouble and that sometimes a bent rule can bring valuable information from the street. But the overriding truth of this pilot is that the gorgeous Andy is no mind-reader, a shortcoming that helps her run afoul of her passive-aggressive fellow officers.
More than three decades ago, the image of attractive women wielding weapons on “Charlie’s Angels” shocked and fascinated audiences. To sugar-coat the situation, “Charlie” put a lot of emphasis on giggling and jiggling and, of course, Farrah’s hair. “Rookie Blue” shows how little we’ve progressed. Many scenes accentuate Andy’s “cute” fumbling, her apparent fear and spunky vulnerability. There’s nothing much new in “Blue,” little you haven’t already seen in shades of “Grey.”