From Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star:

• Rookie Blue writer sees reality of arrest
  “Noelle Carbone couldn’t believe the timing. On Wednesday, the day before Rookie Blue debuted, the 29-year-old writer on the new Canadian-made police series (airing on Global and ABC), was out with two engaged off-duty officer friends, when they had to leap into action to help corral a shoplifter.” Read more.

From Louis Peitzman of TV.com:

• Rookie Blue’s Greg Smith comes in for questioning
  “TV fans first took notice of Greg Smith during his four-season starring role as Ephram on Everwood. But his days of teenage angst are behind him, and he’s moving on to something a bit more high-stakes. In Rookie Blue, Smith stars as Dov Epstein, a police officer fresh out of the academy. I spoke to him about police training, the show’s twist on the police procedural, and why Canadians are awesome.” Read more.

From Casey Gillis of the News & Advance:

• ‘Rookie Blue’ more than summer fluff
  ABC’s Rookie Blue is that rare summer series that could probably make it during the regular TV season.” Read more.

From Joel Keller of TV Squad:

• Early Look: ‘Rookie Blue’ is Bland but Harmless Summer Fare
  “‘Rookie Blue,’ which ABC debuts tonight at 10PM ET, is harmless, good for a summer night when all that’s on is reality and baseball, and you’re not in the mood to watch either. Unfortunately, the harmlessness of the show is its biggest problem.” Read more.

From Todd VanDerWerff of AV Club:

• Rookie Blue – “Fresh Paint”
  “The show is an utterly generic cop show with Grey’s Anatomy trappings that mostly doesn’t try to upset anyone. It’s every cop show ever, tossed into a blender and set in a non-specific Canadian city that tries to stand in for the United States if you aren’t paying that close of attention. Now, passing off Canadian cities as our own is a long-standing tradition in American TV, but everything about Rookie Blue is as generic as can be, which makes the generic Canadian streets feel even more generic than they probably should. Everything about this show feels like an off-brand medication.” Read more.

From Brad Oswald of the Winnipeg Free Press:

• Canuck cop show walking the same tired beat
  “Rookie Blue is on probation, and the very strong likelihood is that summertime TV viewers are going to take one look and say thanks, but no thanks.” Read more.

From Daniel Fienberg of HitFix:

• TV Review: ABC’s ‘Rookie Blue’
  “Other than a couple actors I like, “Rookie Blue” didn’t do anything to tease my high hopes and it pretty well lived down to my expectations. Like “Scoundrels” and, to a slightly lesser extent, “The Gates,” “Rookie Blue” looks and feels like exactly what it is: A zero-risk summer burn-off for ABC. Viewers probably don’t expect much quality and ABC probably doesn’t expect many viewers, so if there are times when stars Missy Peregrym and Gregory Smith at least keep things vaguely likable? Well, there’s that.” Read more.

From Brian Tallerico of Hollywood Chicago:

• TV Review: ‘Rookie Blue’ Will Have to Handcuff Viewers to Keep Them
  “We’ve learned how to shoot and fight and drive a police car really fast.” I couldn’t make narration like that up. Even if it is tongue-in-cheek in its over-representation of the rookie class of police officers that make up the ensemble of ABC’s new Thursday night entry, it’s still a great example of why this show doesn’t work — it doesn’t sound like anything anyone would ever say in the real world.” Read more.

From Steven Herbert of the Daily Breeze:

• ABC police drama ‘Rookie Blue’ debuts tonight
  “The series was inspired by conversations executive producer and co- creator Tassie Cameron had with officers with a variety of specialties who served as consultants for Flashpoint, the CBS/CTV series she wrote and produced. ‘The one thing they had in common were these amazing rookie stories — heart-wrenching, funny, emotional,’ Cameron said in a telephone interview from Toronto.” Read more.

From Jarett Wieselman of the NY Post:

• Gregory Smith: If ‘Rookie Blue’ is a hit, I hope to get out of tickets forever
  “First up is “Rookie Blue,” ABC’s new cop drama that is more concerned with characters than crimes. As Dov Epstein, one of five newbies to the force, Gregory is put through the ringer — dealing with shoot-out’s, women in labor and posing as a prostitute. Yep, you read that right.” Read more.

From Tom Conroy of Media Life:

• ‘Rookie Blue,’ crimes of the heart
  “The premiere episode of ABC’s new cop drama “Rookie Blue” actually has two meet-cutes, signaling that in this show, the important crimes will be of the heart, with a secondary focus on the professional formation of a group of puppyish young police officers.” Read more.

From Matthew Gilbert of the Boston Globe:

• ‘Rookie’ mistake: a generic cop show
  “One of the most tired plots on every cop drama ever made is the rookie plot. Some newbie comes on the job, and some smug, hard-bitten veteran inevitably shows this “Bambi” the ways of the street. Rookie mistakes are made, lessons are learned, first days are finished with whiskey shots at the local bar.” Read more.

By Diane Wild
Article first published as A Chat with Gregory Smith and Missy Peregrym of Rookie Blue on Blogcritics

When two attractive young actors are sent to do the media rounds for a series, especially a series that’s basically Grey’s Anatomy with guns, the natural assumption might be that their characters will hook up.

Gregory Smith (Everwood) and Missy Peregrym (Reaper) of Rookie Blue destroyed that assumption.

“We’re like brother and sister,” Peregrym said. “We have a bit of a sibling relationship,” agreed Smith in a separate interview. “We bicker good-naturedly.”

“There was a little confusion at first because I thought I was playing the cool, sexy guy, but people kept asking me what it was like playing the dorky guy,” joked Smith. “So I had a bit of a reality check.”

“Dorky’s the new sexy,” he added with a laugh.

Smith and Peregrym play cops just out of the academy fumbling in their new roles – literally, with handcuffs and holsters, and figuratively with instincts and emotions.

“You have to think completely differently,” said Peregrym about the transition from civilian to rookie. “I think it’s difficult in real life for every cop to be able to transition into that. As much training as you go through, you’re never really prepared for how you feel in every situation, which is what we focus on more than the procedural stuff.”

“It’s not really about the cases and cracking cases and making arrests,” Smith said. “It’s more about jamming your finger in the door when you’re closing it, or accidentally handcuffing yourself – all the trials and tribulations of how to be a cop instead of the beat of being a cop.”

Smith, who plays Dov Epstein, says his character is a “fun guy who tries to be super-serious and cool.”

“At first he talks about all the ménage- a-trios, crazy sexcapades he’s having, but it seems to be a bit of hot air. Then he finally meets someone later on in the season and it’s one of those be careful what you wish for things.”

The Toronto-born star grew up in Vancouver, where he filmed a lot of guest starring roles, shot Everwood in Utah, and calls Toronto, where Rookie Blue was filmed, his favourite place to shoot. “I’ve become accustomed to the nomadic lifestyle,” he said. “I love it, meeting new people and seeing new cities. It’s one of my favourite parts of the job.”

Peregrym was also raised in Vancouver, but is less enamoured of the actors’ life, saying having a family is “the only thing I’ve ever known I wanted to do.” When she’s more settled, she’d like to get involved with a church group that helps girls develop self-esteem.

“I can use this career for other things,” she added. “It’s kind of a difficult career to be in, because it’s very easy to be all about yourself. The only time I feel I’m doing something of worth is when I know I’m affecting other women in a positive way.”

Her character, the daughter of a disgraced detective, is similarly idealistic. “Andy has a really big heart and wants to do the right thing,” said Peregrym. “She likes helping people so much, and that’s why she became a cop. But it’s really difficult to do that in this career because you have to put your emotions aside.”

The show’s not as deadly serious as all that, though. Smith, who’s never seen Grey’s Anatomy – in fact, doesn’t have a television – calls it roughly “70% drama and 30% comedy. There was a good laugh every minute or so. But maybe that was just me laughing at myself.”

Rookie Blue premieres Thursday on ABC and Global. Follow Smith and Peregrym on Twitter for behind the scenes video, pictures, and chatter.

Thursday, June 24 – 9pm ET/PT *Series Premiere*

“Fresh Paint”

Andy McNally’s first shift on the job turns into mayhem when shots are fired in a downtown rooming house. In the midst of the chaos, Andy triumphantly makes her first big arrest – a suspected drug dealer – who turns out to be Sam Swarek, an undercover officer from her own division. She makes up for her grave mistake by going face-to-face with a dangerous gunman who already has one man’s blood on his hands.

From Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

• ‘Rookie Blue’ proves too vanilla
  “Andy McNally (Missy Peregrym, “Reaper”) narrates tonight’s premiere as one of a handful of rookie police officers who experience their first day on the job. Occasionally it’s a little like watching kids play cops and robbers, which is the point, but Andy seems overly tentative.” Read more.

From Phil Brown of Metro Canada:

• Rookie Blue’s cast packed with TV veterans
  “It was a surreal experience for actors Missy Peregrym and Gregory Smith to don their cop uniforms for the first time.” Read more.

From Bill Burke of the Boston Herald:

• ‘Rookie’ cop Missy Peregrym a pilot-season survivor
  “Pilot season in Hollywood can be a series of crushing rejections – which is why Missy Peregrym would rather avoid going through it again. If viewers take to her new series Rookie Blue, Peregrym, who plays a young police officer fresh out of the academy, won’t have to worry about getting kicked around again.” Read more.

From Kevin McDonough of South Coast Today:

• ‘Blue’ serves and protects TV cliches
  “Put the gang from Grey’s Anatomy in police uniforms and you have a rough idea of Rookie Blue. The show opens in a crowded bar where a graduating class of newbies are handcuffed and then challenged to break free. The first unshackled grad gets to drink for free. Frivolity and squealing ensue.” Read more.

From Amy Amatangelo of the Boston Herald:

• True ‘Blue’
  ““People can smell new cops like they can smell fresh paint. You look new. You sound new,” her training officer tells Andy on her first day. But this is the kind of show where the rookies are smarter than the cynical cops who are world-weary from years on the job.” Read more.

From Robert Bianco of USA Today:

• Critic’s Corner Thursday: ‘Rookie Blue’
  “For the sake of our ability to sleep at night, let’s assume ABC’s Rookie Blue is nothing more than just another terrible summer TV show. That assumption is vital, because if for even one second we thought the bumbling prom-king-and-queen wannabes masquerading as cops in this cheap Canadian import actually represented the real-world men and women who risk their lives protecting us, we’d never be able to close our eyes again.” Read more.

From Liem Vu of the National Post:

• Q&A: Rookie Blue’s Missy Peregrym and Gregory Smith
  “Missy: We had three days of training. They had officers come in to teach us the main things like how to hold a gun and how to handcuff people which none of us ever got the hang of at all. They had someone on the set all the time to take us through how to approach the scenes so we didn’t look too stupid. We were allowed to be rookies but we had to know some stuff because we’re supposed to be coming from five months of training.” Read more.