The Rookie
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | The Rookie |
| Abbreviation(s): | |
| Creator: | Alexi Hawley |
| Date(s): | October 16, 2018 – present |
| Medium: | TV Series |
| Country of Origin: | United States |
| External Links: | at IMDb at Wikipedia at ABC |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
This article is a stub. Please help us out by adding more content. |
The Rookie is a crime-drama police procedural TV series following John Nolan,[1] who, after a life-changing event, joins the police in his fourties and becomes the oldest rookie on the force.
Some fans think the show qualifies as an example of copaganda.
Canon
The earlier seasons focus on the three rookies who join the LAPD[2] at the same time: John Nolan, Lucy Chen, and Jackson West. The difficulties they each face as rookies make up many of the story-lines and Nolan's story-lines often focus on the pushback he receives from the other officers at the station, with many believing that he only changes careers due to a midlife crisis and that he will drop out of the force sooner or later. As the episodes and seasons progress, attitudes towards Nolan and the other rookies change, and they progress through the police, with Nolan getting a rookie of his own to train.
Fandom
The show has been popular with wider television audiences since season one, with a lot of discussions about the show and fandom taking place on Twitter and Reddit. Some of the show's popularity was likely helped by Nathan Fillion playing a lead role and already having a substantial fanbase from his previous roles.
It had a slower start in other fannish spaces – for example, on Archive of Our Own there are only 59 works with creation dates during 2018 and 2019 – but has grown steadily, with a particular growth in 2022-23. As of December 2023, there are 4,903 works on AO3 and the popular pairing of Lucy Chen/Tim Bradford was in the Tumblr Fandometrics top pairings from 2021 onward.
F/M pairings make up most of the canonical pairings in the show and the fandom (4,434 works) , and platonic relationships appear with reasonable regularity in fanworks. F/F and M/M are vanishingly rare, even the 72 and 48 works respectively are an over-representation of the works in these categories on AO3. For example, in those categories, Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz and Henrietta Wilson/Karen Wilson from 9-1-1 are amongst the few relationships with more than 1 work tagged and just one pairing with character from The Rookie appears in the top 10 relationships for either category: Nyla Harper/Angela Lopez in F/F.
Most fanworks focus on the pairing of Lucy/Tim or, if they don't, their individual characters.
Pairings
Duaric (F/M) Pairings
- Tim Bradford/Lucy Chen aka Chenford - By and far the most popular pairing in fannish and social media spaces.
- Wesley Evers/Angela Lopez
- Lucy Chen/Chris Sanford
- Tim Bradford/Ashley McGrady
Platonic Pairings
- Tim Bradford & Lucy Chen
- Tim Bradford & Angela Lopez
- Lucy Chen & Tamara Colins
- Tim Bradford & Tamara Colins
- Lucy Chen & Jackson West
- Lucy Chen & Angela Lopez
Daddy Cop song
In season five episode, "Daddy Cop", Nolan and his rookie, Celina Juarez, are serenaded while they are trying to carry out a traffic stop by a band practicing in their garage[3]. Starting out with the line, "Is that a baton in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" the song goes on to reference both Nolan and Juarez, wanting to be arrested by them, and repeatedly describingNolan as a daddy cop.
The song became popular on social media, especially TikTok, where people shared clips and slideshows with the audio[4]. When season six came out, the song returned both as part of an episode and in official promotion[5] as a full song. The vocalist from the episodes, Zander Hawley, released the track on Spotify.
Common Tropes and Fanon
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Notable Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fics
Arts
Vids
Meta
Archives & Fannish Links
Archives
Communities
References
- ^ John Nolan is portrayed by Nathan Fillion
- ^ See: Wikipedia:Los Angeles Police Department
- ^ Clip from the episode "Daddy Cop" posted by jennrog3rs on TikTok
- ^ "You can't hear a picture..." (The Rookie) by th3rookiedits on TikTok
- ^ Daddy Cop video from therookieuniverse TikTok