“A well-written, fun, action-packed drama!”
Season 5 of popular Canadian cop drama, Rookie Blue is released today on DVD in the UK. The show may be a little under the radar for UK audiences but don’t be fooled into thinking that this is one to miss. An addictive, quality drama with a great cast livens-up the police procedural genre.
We rejoin the five rookies: Andy McNally, Gail Peck, Chris Diaz, Dov Epstein and Traci Nash, alongside their friends and colleagues of Toronto’s Fifteen Division police force as they vow to ‘serve and protect’ for eleven new episodes.
Season 5 picks straight up from the explosive (pun intended) finale of season 4, which left Chloe (Priscilla Faia) and Sam (Ben Bass) fighting for their lives after being shot; Oliver recovering after being kidnapped; and Andy McNally (Missy Peregrym) just missing being blown to smithereens by the evidence room bomb. With the elite Division facing tough questions from the higher-ups about how the attack could have happened at the station, pressure is on to apportion blame and to prove the Division is up to standard.
The crime and relationship drama, which aired in the UK earlier this year on the Universal Channel, successfully interweaves tension and suspense alongside humour and witty one-liners (mostly from Gail Peck, played by the amazing Charlotte Sullivan). This season sees relationships being tested both professionally and personally, with the theme being the tagline: “Life is not a Fairytale” accurately describing the tone.
Season 5 sees Andy stepping up to become the new hapless rookie’s training officer and Oliver Shaw (Matt Gordon) getting a promotion to Sergeant – a decision he’s definitely not happy with. On a personal note, Andy realises she’s still in love with Sam after his brush with death, leaving her boyfriend Nick (Peter Mooney) out in the cold; Gail is growing and realising her feelings as she explores her newfound relationship with the division’s Forensic Pathologist, Holly Stewart (Aliyah O’Brien) – but as usual her insecurities get in the way jeopardising her love for “the most wonderful person she’s ever met”; Chris (Travis Milne) is spiralling, jeopardising his career; Chloe’s ordeal brings her secret husband Wes out of hiding threatening her relationship with Dov (Gregory Smith). Meanwhile, now a Detective, Traci Nash (Enuka Okuma) continues to struggle to balance her job and her son Leo, with her ex now vying for custody of their son. However, Steve Peck (Adam Macdonald) decides to help out in a show of commitment to Tracy, unfortunately much like his sister, his relationship skills need some serious work if he doesn’t want to self-sabotage.
Rookie Blue is a well-written, fun, action-packed drama with likable characters to root for, but flawed enough to identify with. My only criticism would be the focus is very much on Andy and Sam’s relationship, which is fine if they’re your favourites, but annoyingly short-changes some of the other more interesting characters for the rest of the viewers.
Rookie Blue Season 5, produced by eOne, is out to buy now (7th September) as a three-disc set, including special features: “Life is not a Fairytale” Featurette, and Webisodes.
