LITTLE ROCK — ABC is unveiling a couple of new series today - Rookie Blue and Boston Med.
More cops and docs.
First up is Rookie Blue at 8 p.m. Don’t expect much more than eye candy. Maybe that’s just fine for a lightweight summer series. The tagline making its way around TV critic circles is the show is “Grey’s Anatomy with guns.” That means there’s lots of extracurricular activity.
Rookie Blue follows the adventures of five impossibly pretty young people fresh out of the academy. Not breaking any new dramatic ground, the newbies are immediately plunged into the harsh reality of the mean streets “where even the smallest mistake can have life-or-death consequences, coupled with some serious emotional fall-out.”
My first reaction when I previewed the pilot was that three months in the academy wasn’t enough to prepare these folks for their first day. A series of mishaps befuddle Andy McNally, the rookie officer played by the exceedingly comely Missy Peregrym.
What kind of a police force is it where the rookies could all moonlight as models? Only in TV land.
Peregrym, who turned 29 last week, started her career as a fashion model in her native Canada. You might recognize her from roles on Heroes and The CW’s short lived series Reaper.
I suppose if all the rookies were instantly adept, we wouldn’t have much drama. It all works out in the pilot in time for the requisite episode-ending bar scene where they all congratulate one another.
Still, it’s a miracle they all survive long enough for the obligatory undercover sting episode, where the gals get to play prostitutes - not real-life, skanky, strung-out street walker prostitutes, but gorgeous Julia Roberts Pretty Woman-ish prostitutes.
The undercover episode airs July 15 (set your recorders) and will allow OfficerAndy and Officer Traci Nash (Enuka Okuma) to channel their inner hookers in the name of the law and ratings (see photo).
Andy is the center of the close-knit group of “boyfriends, best friends, mentors and competitors.” ABC tells us there will be trials and tribulations, triumphs and tragedies as the rookies “learn that no amount of training can prepare them for life on the street.”
Here’s the rookie scorecard.
Andy is 26 and a perfectionist. Her father was a police officer and instilled in her a sense of family with the force.
Traci is Andy’s best friend and a single mother with a 6-year-old son. She’s black, so naturally on TV she’s “street smart with an attitude.” All that covers a deep sense of insecurity.
Dov Epstein is played by Everwood’s Gregory Smith. He’s way too gung-ho and a bit of a thrill-seeker. ABC says he got that way because “he was raised by ‘hippie’ parents.” (Who says “hippie” anymore?)
Gail Peck (Charlotte Sullivan) is the self-serving character whose godfather is the chief of police. She’s ambitious and will stomp on anyone who gets in her way.
Chris Diaz is played by Travis Milne. He’s the bythe-book, straight-arrow character who is “a walking, talking police manual.”
There they are. Thirteen episodes were produced.
Boston Med. Airing after Rookie Blue at 9 p.m. is Boston Med, an eight-part documentary that follows in the footsteps of the network’s previous hospital documentary, Hopkins.
The series was filmed over four months at Massachusetts General, Brigham and Women’s, and Children’s Hospital Boston. Each hour follows nurses, doctors and patients so that it seems as intense as any hospital drama ever written. It blends lots of medicine with melodrama.
Hopkins won a Peabody Award. Boston Med appears every bit as well-done.
Futurama. Don’t forget, Futurama is resurrected from the dead with new episodes beginning at 9 p.m. today on Comedy Central. Dig out Sunday’s TV Week from the pile of papers over in the corner for all the details. It was the cover story.
She’s baaaack. In case you missed it, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List has returned to Bravo for Season 6. It airs at 8 p.m. Tuesdays.
Surely Griffin has worked her way up to at least C-list status by now. The quick-witted comedian is a hoot if you don’t mind her potty mouth and in-your-face humor.
Back to soaps. Vanessa Marcil, 41, who had a nice run as Sam Marquez on Las Vegas, is returning to ABC’s General Hospital as Brenda Barrett, the role she created in 1992. Look for her beginning Aug. 11.
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Weekend, Pages 32 on 06/24/2010