The Rookie, season 2, episode 2. I like the additions of Ali Larter and Harold Perrineau. Perrineau I've seen in a million things. He and I go way back. In fact, we go back even further than I realized - years after seeing him in things like
Lost and
The Matrix Reloaded, I learned that he was one of the backup dancers in the television series
Fame. Larter I've only seen in
Heroes, in which she played what I thought was an interesting variation on the Incredible Hulk/Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde character, until that show decided to suck.
Perrineau's character in
The Rookie seems a little too good to be true. It's possible he's taking the place of Captain Anderson as Nolan's superior-in-uniform-yet-peer-in-age. In the first episode, it was Sergeant Grey, so maybe they're having tryouts for that position. Anyway, with Detective Armstrong, I kept getting vibes of Wendell Pierce's "Officer Candyman" in
Third Watch, if anyone remembers that show, so I'm kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Armstrong is too nice, too wise, too honest, too competent. Clearly, there's something going on with him.
And the writers have been working pretty hard to set up Russo (Sarah Shahi) as being the kind of cop Nolan doesn't want to become, if not a full-on
Fatal Attraction-style psycho, so the appearance of "the one that got away" in Nolan's life kind of fits. I like the little twist that he ditched her, and not the other way around. By the end of the episode it seemed like she had forgiven him pretty fast, and I hope that's not so neatly resolved.
