The last season of The Rookie was not one of the show’s finest hours. The whole of season 6 faced issues, with a shortened episode length and an overarching villain story that didn’t work well, but season 7 aims to fix all that.
The Rookie has been one of ABC’s procedural drama fixtures for six years. Other than following the character of John Nolan (Nathan Fillion), who decides to make a huge career change in his mid-40s and become the oldest rookie in the LAPD, the show follows many of the standard tropes of the genre. Over the years, Nolan has made his fair share of enemies, including corrupt lawyer Monica Stevens (Bridget Regan). She was the overarching villain of the sixth season, which chronicled her rise and demise in just ten episodes.
Unfortunately, the season 6 finale did not focus purely on Monica, but brought back other villains from the past as well, making everything overwhelmingly messy. It was convoluted and rushed, though thankfully, they didn’t push for a Chenford reunion in the same episode.
It must be noted that season 6 struggled with Hollywood’s labor strikes last year, which is one of the reasons for its reduced episode count. This led series creator Alexi Hawley to lean into a more serialized season rather than an episodic one.
During an interview with The Wrap, Hawley stated that The Rookie season 7 will go back to a more episodic format:
“We’re looking forward to going back to a bit more standalone storytelling. We’ve always had serialized stories from episode to episode, but we don’t necessarily need to touch them every week. So I do like the idea that we can go back to a more ‘What are we doing this week?’ vibe.”
The season will also be longer, and with 18 episodes ordered, it will allow any long-form storytelling such as Chenford to breathe a little. The other plot the seventh season will likely address is the cliffhanger the finale left us on, with Bailey’s (Jenna Dewan) ex-husband having escaped prison as John and Bailey considered adoption. It’s been confirmed Dewan’s character will not be seen for the first few episodes, however, as she was on maternity leave herself. This also means it’s unlikely her ex-husband, Jason (Steve Kazee), will make an appearance early on in the season, either.
