History Series / TheRookie2018

The show is currently airing the fifth season, where Nolan is now himself training a rookie. Additionally, a spin-off entitled ''Series/TheRookieFeds'' was picked up following a two part BackdoorPilot in the fourth season.

* ThisIsReality: West and Chen are assigned to be "consultants" on a TV cop show set and educating the actors in how "real" cops operate.

** Creator/KatyOBrian plays LAPD officer Katie Barnes. Katy used to be an officer with the Carmel Police Department in Carmel, Indiana before she decided to pursue a career in acting.

** Katy M. O'Brian plays LAPD officer Katie Barnes. Katy used to be an officer with the Carmel Police Department in Carmel, Indiana before she decided to pursue a career in acting.

* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: This comes into play during a domestic incident, when Nolan suspects the much larger husband is being abused by his wife. He thinks about bringing it up, but leaves it be. [[spoiler: Which proves a fatal mistake when the wife stabs her husband to death]].

** Bradford's father was an abusive [[TheAlcocholic alcoholic, as revealed in season 4, who would physically abuse him through violence. His sister mentioned how he had left a young Tim in the middle of the street with nothing but a compass to find his way home. It's clear that part of Tim's anger issues stems from being raised by such a horrible monster of a father. His father, on the flip side, views what he did to Tim as ToughLove, but Tim doesn't buy that for a second.

** Nolan's father abandoned him at ten, and his mother's scheming ways have repeatedly come close to ruining his life and livelihood. She gets verbally abusive when she doesn't get her way.
** Grey's wife has an alcoholic father who Nolan's mother reminds her of.
** Chen's parents have no respect for her choice to become a cop. Her father practically [[IHaveNoSon disowns her]] when she arrests one of his patients... for breaking ''his'' arm. When she is invited over to her daughter's small celebration about being promoted to P2, her mother spends the entire time insisting that Lucy leave the police job, not viewing it as a worthwhile career while also not respecting how Lucy enjoys making a difference as a cop.
** Bradford's father was an abusive alcoholic, as revealed in season 4, who would physically abuse him through violence. His sister mentioned how he had left a young Tim in the middle of the street with nothing but a compass to find his way home. It's clear that part of Tim's anger issues stems from being raised by such a horrible monster of a father. His father, on the flip side, views what he did to Tim as ToughLove, but Tim doesn't buy that for a second.

* ManipulativeBastard: A good description of [[spoiler:Bailey's ex-husband Jason; according to Bailey he spent the better part of a year after they married making her see herself as worthless, to the extent that she was seriously considering killing herself. After he gets out of prison two years early on good behaviour, Jason frames Bailey for drug possession and later turns himself in to act as a confidential informant once it's discovered he was laundering money. Fortunately, with some "help" from Oscar Hutchison, Nolan is able to arrest Jason once more, this time getting him sent away for eight years]].

* PragmaticVillainy: Oscar Hutchinson is a notorious criminal who meets Nolan during two past escape attempts, but when he and Nolan are caught in a prison riot, Hutchinson agrees to help Nolan rescue the prison warden after she's taken hostage by other prisoners as Nolan recognises that Hutchinson is an opportunist; he ''can't'' escape in the current situation, but if he helps the warden now Nolan and Harper will put in a good word for Hutchinson to receive certain privileges later. Hutchison returns on other occasions when Nolan [[ConsultingAConvictedKiller requires his insight]], offering his aid in finding certain criminals in exchange for a transfer to a different prison.

** Oscar Hutchison assisting the police on occasion has made him a pariah in his current prison, to the extent that is shown with black eyes, an injured arm and various other injuries. At one point Hutchison only agrees to assist Nolan again in exchange for letters of recommendation that he be transferred to a different prison.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: After [[spoiler:Jackson's]] actor leaving the show, we get introduced to Aaron Thorsen, who seems to carry over many of his traits, namely [[spoiler:being Black police officers with inherent mistrust of the system, Jackson's dad being in IA, and Aaron being framed for murder in a well publicized case. ]] He even comes to [[spoiler:strike up a close platonic friendship with a fellow rookie]].

* CastingGag: Creator/EmilyDeschanel is later cast as Nolan's Ex-Wife. {{Series/Bones}} was long considered a [[DuelingWorks DuelingShow]] with {{Series/Castle}}, and Creator/NoahHawley, who wrote for Bones, is the Brother of Castle/Rookie showrunner Alexi.

** Nolan observes that after his father left, his mother initially lied and claimed that his father was a spy. In Fillon's [[Series/{{Castle}} previous famous role]], his character's father really ''was'' a spy.

--> '''Grey''': Your son is about to destroy everything you built because his girlfriend yelled at him.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Captain Andersen, in the first season. She cares deeply about her officers, and while she's quick to chew them out when they actually screw up, she's also the first to defend them when InternalAffairs is out for blood. Her officers respect the hell out of her.

** Nolan's father abandoned him by at ten, and his mother's scheming ways have repeatedly come close to ruining his life and livelihood. She gets verbally abusive when she doesn't get her way.

* ZombieApocalypse: "A.H.C." features a minor breakout in LA when users of a new drug are driven rabid by it, closely resembling zombies (though it's not infectious), on Halloween appropriately enough.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Union president Landon Briggs may not be this most of the time, but he gets so frustrated with Nolan's attempts to make changes that he takes steps to [[spoiler:prevent Nolan becoming a training officer by assigning him to a remote precinct for a week just so that Nolan will miss his T.O. exam. Jokes on him though, Nolan's case in Frontera leads to him getting a "golden ticket" so he's still right on schedule.]].

* BulletproofVest: West's uniform top gets covered in vomit and he didn't bring a spare so he ends up wearing a bulletproof vest for the rest of the shift. It comes in handy when he takes a shot in the shoulder which would have been fatal without the vest.

* ChainOfDeals: After [[spoiler:Bradford transfers to the role of Court Liaison Sergeant so that he can stay in the precinct and be in a relationship with Chen, she sets up a complex network of deals to convince other officers to transfer to other divisions so that Bradford can move to Metro, which includes volunteering Tamara as a babysitter and Chen herself helping Smitty clean his RV]].

* DoubleStandard: In season 2, Chen is rocked that Bradford is angry because she didn't write down on a report how [[spoiler: he was ready to kill himself rather than face death by a virus]]. She's amazed he's so rule bound as he snaps that any important incident should be on a report if it plays into a cop's mindset. Chen fires right back that if that's the case, she should have been writing down the ''many'' times Brandford covered for his wife and Brandford shouldn't be acting so high and mighty.

* FrameUp: In the second season finale, [[spoiler:Nolan is framed for [[DirtyCop corruption]] by the Armenian mob with evidence planted in his house]].

* HiddenDepths: Bradford may seem a thick-headed lunk but has a deep understanding of people. At a lunch, he expertly points out the issues Bishop and Lopez have with each other in a way that would do the department shrink proud.

* MistakenForDying: "Long Shot" sees Bradford and Chen hunting a woman whose crime spree was actually provoked by the realisation that she ''wasn't'' going to die. Having spent years believing that she would die of the breast cancer that killed her mother, she spent what she thought was the past year taking abuse such as her boyfriend leaving her, getting fired from her job because she was late while attending chemo, or her landlord increasing her rent while she was unemployed, but upon learning that she was in remission she struck back out of a sense of loss of what she was to do with herself now.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Union president Landon Briggs may not be this most of the time, but he gets so frustrated with Nolan's attempts to make changes that he takes steps to [[spoiler:prevent Nolan becoming a training officer by assigning him to a remote precinct for a week just so that Nolan will miss his T.O. exam]].

* ThatCameOutWrong: While searching for a missing baby Bradford tries to prepare Chen for the worst case but does so at first by stating she has been "lucky" so far on the job which earns him a "wtf" look from her before he backtracks and clarifies.[[note]] This takes place after Lucy has been among other things in her first year involved in several active shootings as well as [[spoiler: kidnapped and BuriedAlive by a serial killer.]] [[/note]]
* ThatLiarLies: Lucy comically says Jackson is a "[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Lying liar... who lies]]", in "Brave Heart" during an argument.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: In one episode, Chen and Bradford rescue a store-front psychic from a man who attacked her after she mentioned that she saw him with a beautiful woman in the woods; as it turns out, the man was suspected of murdering his wife and disposing of her in the woods, but the psychic just said something that sounded good.
* RightHandVsLeftHand: Wesley goes to negotiate for Angela being released, while her colleagues mount a rescue operation. Not surprisingly, their plots turn out to get in each other's way (they end up having to rescue Wesley as well). This could have been avoided if they talked first (since they had the same goal, after all).
** They did talk first since they were all together when they planned it.

** Harper takes it up to eleven while testing if Chen is up to long-term undercover work. Taking her to meet with a drug dealer where she has to maintain her cover with a guy violently pushing his girlfriend around across the street turns out to be a big setup from everyone involved. Then she goes even further by faking that she's been found out herself and will be tortured unless Chen gives up what the cops know, even deliberately triggering Chen's PTSD over her prior kidnapping, since that may well be an issue on the job.

** Bradford's father was an abusive alcoholic, as revealed in season 4

* SadisticChoice: In Season 2, Nolan is faced with a difficult choice. Does he save a known killer from drowning in wet cement or does he save a grieving father who just hanged himself after putting the killer in wet cement?[[note]]The show frames the situation as a learning experience for Nolan, as he has to choose to help the killer as it's easier to save the killer rather than the man who doesn't want to be saved. Detective Armstrong explains to Nolan that he will be faced with horrific decisions as a cop, but he will have to confront each one based on the situation at hand rather than his own biases. In those times, there will be no happy endings, but Nolan will have to learn to live with them and know that he will have to face more horrific situations as his career progresses.[[/note]]