Rookie Blue

They're just trying to get through the day.

Rookie Blue is an ABC (Global in Canada) series focusing around five new rookies assigned to Division 15 straight out of the academy. The show focuses a lot more on the personal lives of the rookies than other crime shows, and has been described as "Grey's Anatomy with rookie cops". It follows their introduction to real policing under the guidance of the senior officers and detectives at Division 15, and how they struggle to cope with the toll the job takes on them and their lives. While there is a main character, Andy McNally, the show utilises its ensemble cast very well and every episode will follow each of the rookies and some of the senior officers.

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Tropes used in Rookie Blue include:

• Action Girl: Played reasonably realistically. Expect Andy to lose as often as she wins in a fight.
  • Maybe turning into Faux Action Girl, given how often she needs to be rescued in season 2.
    • Faux Action Girl or not, it played realistically as Andy is a bit headstrong and her headstrongness has lead her to do stupid choices in her career.
• Affably Evil: Jamie Brennan.
• Actor Allusion: In the Season 2 episode A Little Faith, Andy assumes the undercover name of Candice. On Heroes, Missy Peregrym played the illusion-generating Candice Wilmer.
• Always Murder: Averted. The 15th has dealt with a variety of crimes, ranging from child abduction to drug trafficking.
• Alone with the Psycho: Happens to Luke, Oliver, Andy and Sam.
• Badass in Distress: Sam in the season 2 finale.
• Betty and Veronica: Sam (Veronica) and Luke (Betty) for Andy (Archie). Initially at least.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Sam and Andy, Chris and Gail.
• Big Damn Heroes: Luke, for Andy. Then later, Shaw and the others for Sam.
• Brick Joke: The table umbrellas from the episode 'Class Dismissed'.
• Bulletproof Vest: Played very realistically, a standard vest protects a main character from a bullet. It knocks them down and leaves serious bruising, but saves their life.
• By-The-Book Cop: Played straight with Chris amongst the rookies, averted by Dov and notably by Sam.
• The Cavalry Arrives Late: Usually averted, played straight notably when Andy is confronting the child-killer in the park rec centre.
• Clear Their Name: Andy's father becomes a murder suspect in one episode, leading Sam and Andy to try and find evidence to clear him.
• Cool Big Sis: Noelle Williams.
• Damsel in Distress: Andy from a psychopathic army sergeant and murderer.
• Dirty Harriet: Andy and Gail do a stint as prostitutes in a sting operation. Later in the season Andy has to pretend to be a stripper and Sam's girlfriend in an undercover operation.
• Donut Mess with a Cop: Shaw is always hungry, though not necessarily for donuts.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Chris to Gail after he's been stabbed and they are trapped in a warehouse with no way out. Although he does not come out and declare his love, he does say he misses her and still has feelings for her.
• Everyone Can See It: The chemistry between Andy and Sam. Even her boyfriend can see it.
• Fair Cop: All of them.
• Fan Service: Three of the rookies undercover as prostitutes in a sting operation in episode 4, with Andy and Gail wearing very revealing outfits.
  • Season 2 begins with Andy (female) dancing at home in her underwear for a few moments before anything remotely resembling a scene begins.
• Funny Background Event: Nick and Gail stake out a beach to catch kids in a Scavenger Hunt (they're after the big pink umbrellas there). Nothing happens while they're there, but at the end of the episode they get drunk and kiss - and in the background a group of kids can be seen rolling one of the umbrellas away.
• Genre Savvy: During the 'scavenger hunt' exercise Dov realizes that the key part of undercover police work is to get a criminal to trust you and then being able to betray that trust to make an arrest. He does this in a very straightforward manner while Andy and Traci spend a lot of time creating new personae for themselves.
• Good Cop, Bad Cop: Used sometimes. Lampshaded early in season 2.
• Good Guy Bar: The Black Penny, where all the cops hide out after each episode.
• Interrupted Intimacy: Sam and Andy get interrupted by his boss. Since he's undercover working for a very nasty drug dealer, this is not played for laughs.
• Love Triangle: Sam/Andy/Luke. For a while it was resolved in favour of Luke/Andy. Then Luke's former girlfriend Jo shows up and decides to stick around the 15th.
  • Might be one forming involving Gail/Chris/ Dov.
• Love Confession: Dov takes too many painkillers and ends up high as a kite. He ends up telling Gail that his new girlfriend is amazing but she is not perfect like Gail. He then tells her that he wants to marry her and have kids with her. When the drugs wear off and he realizes what he said, things get really awkward between them.
• Meddling Parents: Superintendent Elaine Peck. She's actively trying to manage her daughter's private and professional life.
• New Old Flame: The new detective, Jo Rosati, that Andy has to work with the season 2 opener. Turns out she's Luke's ex-partner, in more ways than one. At the end of the episode, she joins the 15th.
• Old Cop, Young Cop: Obviously. However the senior cops are not that much older than the rookies.
• Once an Episode: During Season 1, near the start of the episode there's a scene in the squad room, at the end of which the officer in charge says "Protect, Serve and (plot significant statement the rookies will not follow)". By the start of Season 2, it seems they are doing this off and on.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: When Dov and Chris promise to openly compete for everything, Chris is obviously referring to future promotions/transfers etc. Dov seems to have something else in mind.
• One Head Taller: Luke/Andy, Chris/Gail. Sam/Andy if that counts.
• Rank Up: At the end of the first season, the rookies get promoted to regular officer status. Though they're still rookies compared to everyone else at the division. Lampshaded in the last scene of the first season in the a Crowning Moment of Funny.
• Rescue Introduction: How Dov meets his new girlfriend after she rescues from a booby-trap bomb.
• Rescue Romance: Ensues between Dov and his new bomb-disposal squad girlfriend when she rescued him from a bomb-trigger trap.
• Sexy Mentor: Sam for Andy.
• Shout-Out: One episode opens with Sam quoting, almost word-for-word, What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!.
  • The quote is actually from Andre Malraux, a French author and politician.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: Chris to Gail.
• Slice of Life: Despite the official genre being labeled as drama, it falls more into this category due to the fact that several episodes end on quite optimistic notes.
• There Are No Therapists: Andy has shot and killed a man, been shot, been spattered with the blood of a victim standing next to her, had to suspect her own father of murder, almost witnessed a suicide and much more, just months out of the academy, but has had no counselling beyond her friends and colleagues.
• Token Minority Couple: Noelle and Frank.
• Undercover Cop Reveal: In the first episode, after Andy arrests a him as a murder suspect and brings him back to the station.
• Unrequited Love Switcheroo: When Andy finally is ready to act on her feelings Sam takes up an undercover assignment where he can't have contact with her.
• Will They or Won't They?: Sam and Andy. They do and by the end of season two are trying to start a 'normal' relationship..
• What the Hell, Hero?: Chris delivers one to to each Dov and Gail after finding about Dov's Love Confession to her.
• You Fail Law Forever: This Troper isn't incredibly familiar with Canadian laws regarding search and seizure but I am pretty sure all of those guns from episode 4 would be inadmissible in court seeing as how both officers entered without a warrant.
  • You can enter without a warrant, and anything in plain sight is admissible. McNally was invited in, and Epstein went in searching for her (not needing a warrant because someone's life being in danger is probable cause).
• You! Get Me Coffee!: For all the rookies, but especially in one scene for Chris as he detailed to help Sam, Jerry and Shaw (all senior officers). Lampshaded for Andy as she makes Sam coffee.
• Your Cheating Heart: Whoo-boy:
  • Traci cheats on her partner Dex with Jerry.
  • Luke cheats on Andy with Jo.
  • Chris believes this with Gail and Dov.