Being network police or medical procedural in the last decade is wanting an accompanying series. From there, the goal is to crawl like a kudzu through the schedule until the primetime grid is dotted with colons and occasionally clogged with three-hour crossover events. Still, ABC's "The Rookie," now in its fifth season, never seemed like an obvious choice for the Dick Wolf treatment.
Not because the show lacks ambition, though it does have the carefree quirkiness of an American drama from the "Characters Welcome" era. But "The Rookie" puts its full weight on the title character and stars the preternaturally charming Nathan Fillion, the kind of actor whose charisma can cut through even the silliest material. Creating a spin-off would require an equally charismatic actor who, like Fillion, can go from serious to goofy at a moment's notice. Enter Niecy Nash-Betts, one such artist, to headline "The Rookie: Feds," a show that's well-crafted and thoughtful enough to feel like more than a superficial expansion on the franchise.
Instead of taking out a pair of cops from the original series, "Feds" stars Nash-Betts as Simone Clark, a new character introduced in "The Rookie" in a two-part pilot in April. Like Fillion's John Nolan, who reappears in the first few episodes of "Feds," Simone is in the midst of a radical career reinvention. After spending decades immersing herself in abnormal psychology as a high school guidance counselor, she decides her experience would apply well to criminal profiling and becomes the oldest recruit to join the FBI.
Creators: Alexi Hawley, Terence Paul Winter
Stars: Niecy Nash, Frankie Faison, James Lesure
Following a tornado in Emerald City, Simone is out of Quantico, back in Los Angeles and sharing a room with her father Cutty (Frankie Faison), who was also featured extensively in the Backdoor pilot. As a survivor of wrongful imprisonment, an activist for police reform, and a silver fox on the prowl, Cutty is justifiably worried about how living with his cop's daughter might get in the way of his style. Police shows have struggled to adjust to a post-George Floyd world in which audiences have less of an appetite for uncritical hero worship when it comes to law enforcement. The relationship between Simone and Cutty builds an organic voice of dissent on "Feds" from the start.
That's just one of the astute choices in a devilishly clever premise from creators Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter, who prior to their work on "The Rookie," served as showrunners for the previous character-based Fillion procedural, "Castle." . Simone's hard left in law enforcement is different enough from John Nolan's that it allows "Feeds" to tell the kind of stories "The Rookie" can't pull off these days. After all, once fish have thrived on land for four seasons, plots without fish out of the water produce diminishing returns. And with Simone's FBI unit in the same city as John's LAPD squad, the two shows are able to resolve jurisdictional disputes in potential crossover episodes without much gimmickry.
Simone's new team includes top man Matt Garza (Felix Solis) and seasoned agents Laura Stenson (Britt Robertson) and Carter Hope (James Lesure), both tasked with training the rookies. There's also Brendon Acres (Kevin Zegers), another FBI guppy trying to make a living alongside Simone after leaving an acting career behind. Acres' character threatens to tip "Feds" too far in a comedic direction: he previously starred in a show called "Vampire Cop," especially with a seasoned comedic actor like Nash-Betts in the lead. That said, it's interesting to have two pairs of odd couples, even though the show is lopsided in favor of Simone and Carter's prickly partnership rather than Brendon and Laura's.
Of course, the entire show is based on Simone's foundation, and the character is intriguing and funny. That's in part because Nash-Betts brings his whole self to the character, including his fluid sexuality, which is featured in all three episodes submitted to critics. There's even a guest spot from Jessica Betts, Nash-Betts' real-life wife, who plays Simone's love interest. The casting trick falls somewhere between "halfway too cute" and "genuinely adorable," but it's part of an admirable and fruitful effort to create a unique character in a genre full of brooding generic men. As long as producers continue to rely on Nash-Betts' deep charm and character, "Feds" has real potential.
Of course, the entire show is based on Simone's foundation, and the character is intriguing and funny. That's partly because Nash-Betts brings her whole self to the character, including her fluid sexuality, which is featured in all three episodes submitted to critics. There's even a guest spot from Jessica Betts, Nash-Betts' real-life wife, who plays Simone's love interest. The casting trick falls somewhere between "half-cute" and "genuinely adorable," but it's part of an admirable and fruitful effort to create a unique character in a genre full of brooding generic men. As long as producers continue to rely on Nash-Betts' deep charm and character, "Feds" has real potential.
“The Rookie: Feds” premieres on September 27 at 10 p.m. on ABC and airs on Hulu the next day.
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