The Latest Rookie Crossover Is Another Skippable Event
While there has been no shortage of police procedurals for viewers to comb their way through over the last several decades, shows like "The Rookie" reveal that there are still new ways to approach the genre. While protagonists in these types of shows tend to be plucky up-and-comers or grizzled old veterans, the ABC series takes a different path, focusing on a man in his mid-40s who decides to join the LAPD.
Like Rocky Balboa before him, the fact that John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) has already seemingly aged out of his prime before he even begins gives him an underdog quality in "The Rookie" that makes fans want to root for him to succeed. Fortunately for them, the show has absolutely succeeded, even garnering its own spin-off in the form of "The Rookie: Feds."
With that said, though, that doesn't mean that fans of the original series are going to take it easy on "The Rookie" spin-off. On the r/TheRookie subreddit, viewers were quick to point out their dislike for the newer series and once again agreed that you didn't need to watch the other half of the crossover event to stay connected to the main plot points.
Fans were decidedly underwhelmed by The Rookie crossover
u/GFVeggie6 questioned what occurred in "The Rookie" crossover event and whether they needed to endure more of the spin-off to find out in a discussion thread about Season 5, Episode 21 ("Going Under"). "I hope someone here is willing to tell me what happens on Feds that has to do with any of the Rookie's cast," they inquired. "I will not watch Feds. It is a terrible show."
Luckily, a hate-watcher was willing to clue them in about what they'd missed. "I left it on while I did housework instead of turning it off like normal," u/RecommendationTop594 explained. "Per usual, the big crossover was Nolan in a couple of scenes without his Rookie, which makes no sense. You missed nothing. I regret leaving the tv on."
While that's a pretty dour reading of the big crossover event that was no doubt hoping to bring more of "The Rookie" fans over to the fledgling series, it just goes to show that if you want to market a big event like this as must-see-TV, you'd better be ready to deliver, lest you lose the goodwill of those you're trying to persuade in the first place.
"No real point in crossing over other than cross-promotion," confirmed u/Sir_Nikotin. "Nolan was basically in two scenes." Well, it looks like fans who were already weary of tuning in to watch "The Rookie: Feds" for this event can rest easy and skip it with no worries.