‘The Rookie’s Best Recurring Joke Lets the Show Poke Fun at Itself

The big picture

• The Rookie
  balances police procedural drama with comedy, showing its willingness to have fun with its plot.
• The recurring gag of the garage band “Daddy Cop” highlights the entertainment value and joy of the show.
• The mix of comedy and drama has contributed to it
  The Rookie
  the success of television, turning it into a television comfort dish for viewers.

While we wait for season 7 of The Rookie, it's a good time to look back and reflect on some of the show's best moments. One of the strong points of The Rookie as a police procedural drama is that the show doesn't take itself too seriously. The series does not seek realism and always has a solid dose of comedy, which can be seen all the way back to the first episode. Whether it's the true crime documentary-style episodes or Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) and Lucy Chen (Melissa O'Neil) meeting their doppelgängers, Dim and Juicy, The Rookie it shows his willingness to have fun with his plot or simply poke fun at himself.

One of the most recent examples of this is a running gag that began in Season 5, where John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) has a frustrating encounter with a garage band. The garage band made a second cameo at the beginning of Season 6, marking the return of the song “Daddy Cop,” a recurring gag that perfectly illustrates why. The Rookie it's such an entertaining show.

The Garage Band first appears in the Season 5 episode, “Daddy Cop”

Officer John Nolan first encounters this mysterious garage gang in the chilling open sequence of Season 5 Episode 13, aptly titled “Daddy Cop.” Nolan and his rookie trainee, Officer Celina Juarez (Lisseth Chavez), make a routine traffic stop after a driver runs a stop sign. Officer Juarez begins to write a citation for the driver, and the officers just so happen to be parked in front of another house with a band practicing in their garage. While the officers write a ticket for the driver, the band begins to improvise a song about Nolan and Juarez; in particular, the lyrics are quite catchy, as the lead singer, credited as Rodge (Zander Hawley), begins to sing, “Take care of me, but make it sexy.” Even Officer Juarez enjoys the tune.

Nolan looks at the band to get them to stop, clearly without grace, but the band continues with their song before closing the garage door. The lead singer and leader of the band is played by Zander Hawleywho also happens to be the son of The Rookie creator and showrunner, Alex Hawley. The series has used his music before, but this is the first time Zander has appeared as an active character in the series.

The RookieCold open segments are often reserved for comedic moments like this, which usually involve Nolan or his colleagues finding themselves in some weird, wacky situation before getting into the regular meat of the episode. The show's central plots tend to be more serious, but cold openings traditionally provide a fun, humorous gag to set the mood for the episode. These sequences are often punctuated by the upbeat beat of the show's theme song, “Chin Chin” by Kings & Queens. The cold opener of “Daddy Cop” offers a nice variation on the main theme, with someone belting out the song's trademark lyric, “I'm gonna win for you like I know you want me to,” a cappella , offering a fun twist. with the usual gag.

Rodge and his garage band return early in 'The Rookie' season 6

Rodge and the gang make another appearance to cause more mischief for Officer Nolan in Season 6 Episode 2, “The Hammer”. Nolan and Juarez are back at the same house from the previous episode, responding to a noise complaint from shipping, and just as the garage door rolls up, Rodge cues the same song. The band adds insult to injury when a gospel choir comes out of the house for the song and another guitarist starts jamming to the music on the sidewalk. Nolan lets Juarez take over, but even the rookie officer can't resist the temptation and starts dancing to the catchy song. At this point, “Daddy Cop” Nolan has had enough and returns to his defeated patrol car before the scene cuts to an annoyed Sgt. Wade Gray (Richard T. Jones) reviewing the footage with Officer Juarez.

Nolan marries Bailey Nune (Jenna Dewan) in the same episode, so it's almost as if the band is serenading poor Nolan with a wedding present. As Nolan and Bailey seek to consummate their nuptials throughout the episode, a series of mishaps and misadventures occur, so the cold open sets a “just another one of those days” tone for the officer Nolan. It's a fun episode that also features the return of the hilarious Flula Borg as Skip Tracer Randy and Chastity (Meg DeLacy), the girlfriend of Nolan's half-brother Pete Nolan (Pete Davidson). The show comes up with a contrived reason for Randy to attend the wedding instead of Pete as Chastity's date, but that's par for the course. The Rookie. Still one of the funniest episodes of the abridged sixth season.

The Recurrent Gag Makes 'The Rookie' Television Comfort Food

The best way to sum up the garage band gag is that it exemplifies entertainment value The Rookie, Which one it could be compared to comfort food on television. It offers a traditional procedural style of old network shows, however it also has that more modern, dramatic sheen that makes for an easy viewing experience. The gag also pokes fun at the show's premise, which features older single dad John Nolan, who became the LAPD's oldest rookie police officer in the first episode.

The Rookie often depicts strange and unrealistic moments that are difficult to digest, but the show does not go for the dark and gritty realism of other police dramas such as The shield or Southland. From the beginning, The Rookie it has been part police procedural drama and part comedy, and has maintained that balance relatively well over the past six seasons. The comedy enhances the series, along with the likability and charm of its main characters. This formula is definitely the reason The Rookie has proven to be the little engine it can be over the last few years, slowly becoming one of the most broadcast shows on the planet. It's this mix of comedy and drama that global audiences find so compelling that has pushed the show into a seventh season renewal.

The Rookie is available to stream on Hulu in the US

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