Rookie Blue is a Canadian cop drama tv series that started in 2010 with the first episode airing on June 24th in both Canada & the US. The series follows the lives of five rookie cops from 15 Division who have just graduated from the academy. Now that their training is over real cop work begins and each rookie is determined to do well and prove themselves to both their training officers as well as themselves. They must learn not only to deal with their duties as police officers, but also deal with the problems and expectation of their families and friends. Each rookie is paired with a training officer who will not be their usual partner when out on patrol but who will also evaluate them at the end of their first 6 months.

The rookies are Missy Peregrym Andrea as ‘Andy’ McNally, Gregory Smith as Dov Epstein, Enuka Okuma as Traci Nash, Travis Milne as Chris Diaz & Charlotte Sullivan as Gail Peck. Ben Bass, Matt Gordon, Noam Jenkins, Melanie Nichols-King plays their training officers while Eric Johnson plays a homicide detective who usually partners with Jenkins’ character and begins a relationship with McNally. Lyriq Bent plays the Sergent who heads the 15th division. As the season begins the eager detectives who are friends – with only Gail being aloof – are nervous but raring to go on their first day on the job. Unfortunately, their first call is to a domestic disturbance, which turns out to be a murder. In an attempt to catch the shooter, Andy McNally unknowingly arrests an undercover cop, ruining eight months of work. However she is able to redeem herself by apprehending the real criminal after a tense stand-off. It’s a really funny scene to see a cop, even a rookie cop, crying & pleading to a young man to not do anything stupid to make her first day as a cop any more difficult as she couldn’t bear it. The undercover cop, Sam Swarek is assigned as Andy’s TO. 15th Division is tasked with catching an escaped murderer. However McNally, who is paired with Swarek the undercover officer she previously arrested, defies orders to try and rescue an informant from a drug ring that Swarek was working on prior to his arrest. Epstein and Peck are able to apprehend the murderer; meanwhile McNally breaks the rules to secure both Swarek and the informant’s lives.

In the 3rd episode the rookies are tasked to aid in an undercover operation. Although the operation is a success, Nash disobeys orders to capture a fleeing suspect. Nash, who has decided to participate in Fite Night (an annual boxing event) is also under pressure to keep alive the tradition of 15th Division winning the event. Meanwhile, McNally and Peck try to help a woman who is being beaten by her husband. Despite their best efforts, the woman decides to return to her husband. Nash is able to win Fite Nite. McNally, Peck and Diaz are tasked as prostitutes in a sting operation. Nash however has been sent to work with Callaghan on a murdered John Doe. McNally is unable to perform and she is pulled; as is Epstein for blocking channels during a time of emergency. As a result, both decide to take down a weapons trafficking syndicate in an attempt to redeem themselves. Although their attempt is successful, they jeopardized a civilian in the process. Meanwhile Diaz manages to figure out the identity of the John Doe. After being called to a residence for a break and enter, McNally and Nash are left behind at the request of the mother. However Nash is forced to leave to get her son from day-care leaving McNally alone. Unknown to McNally, one of the robbers did not have time to flee and hid in the basement. The robber’s subsequent attempt to escape is stopped and he draws a gun creating a hostage situation. Despite McNally forgetting to load her gun, she is able to talk the robber down. Also, Diaz and Epstein go undercover at a wedding to stop a group who have performed a string of high end break and enters.

Nash and Williams stop a car-jacking and the suspect is then linked to a murder case that Callaghan has been assigned to. However, the murder charges will not stick as the bullet was never found at the scene. Callaghan enlists the help of McNally to watch a witness who actually has the bullet lodged in his skull after killing the victim. The witness manages to get away leaving McNally to find him before he is killed for what he knows. Despite being able to find the witness, he dies as a result of an operation to remove the bullet. Andy sees another side of Luke and turns to Sam for support. The summer heat seems to be driving people’s reckless behaviours. To make matters worse, there’s a blackout in the city. McNally and Swarek arrest a minor for stealing an ice-cream truck. Swarek believes that the theft was an act of rebellion; McNally who believes otherwise is sent out with Shaw to pursue leads. However, they’re shortly called to a residence where a mother is reporting her daughter missing. McNally’s instincts lead her to believe that two girls were abducted from the park and the minor they have in custody managed to escape. Her instincts are correct as McNally and Shaw trace the missing girl to an abandoned recreation center. Shaw is shot by the perpetrator leaving McNally by herself. After finding the girl, McNally comes face to face with the perpetrator and is forced to kill him in self-defense. She is in shock and goes to see Swarek, and ends up almost sleeping with him. Also, Epstein and Peck are forced to deliver a baby after a woman goes into labor. Complicating issues arise after the officers realize the woman suffers from agoraphobia and refuses to leave her residence. While the senior officers attend retraining the rookies are sent out to various schools to do community outreach. Epstein and Nash are paired together, but they soon find themselves investigating a group of girls who are taking amphetamines. McNally and Diaz are sent back on patrol after being told they have come on the wrong day. During their patrol they find a man who has been assaulted. Further investigation reveals that a detective assaulted the man. McNally and Diaz are forced to report it, much to the displeasure of Peck and her brother Steve. The accused detective is Steven’s partner. Andy must deal with the consequences of her previous actions.

15th Division diverts its operations into finding a young girl and her abductor. Shaw, who has returned from his injuries, leads Peck, Diaz and Epstein in the field; with Nash at the mother’s home. Epstein manages to get an ID on the abductor who is connected to the mother and a pedophile. Swarek believes the mother is hiding something and directs McNally to interrogate her, during which she reveals that she was high at the time of her daughter’s abduction. However, she does provide a possible location for where her daughter could be taken. This information proves to be correct as the officers manage to rescue the girl. Luke finds out about Andy’s run-in with Swarek. After all the rookies, except McNally fail their gun re-certification, Peck and Epstein are assigned to help a man with amnesia while Nash and Diaz help Detective Barber reconstruct notes that went missing for an upcoming court case. McNally is assigned with Swarek to do a prisoner transport. Although they find their situation awkward, they talk and reconcile. However the inmate escapes the custody of the two officers, leaving them in a frantic race against daylight to find the prisoner.

McNally and Swarek help investigate the murder of a suspected rapist and murderer. However upon finding evidence that implicates McNally’s father as the culprit, the officers search for proof of his innocence. McNally’s father is later cleared, after the wife of the deceased confesses to the murder. Meanwhile, a vigilante accesses police information via Diaz and Epstein’s squad car. However upon being caught it is revealed he has vital evidence that helps towards taking down a major drug ring. Also, Peck confides in Nash about the pressure of expectation she feels. During her evaluation, McNally confides in Best about her fears of ruining her life because of the job. It is revealed in her most recent shift, McNally had informed a mother of her daughter’s death. The shock of the news and the realization of the part she played in her daughter’s death drives the mother to try and commit suicide until Williams intervenes preventing her death. The pain that McNally felt she caused mirrored that of one of her father’s cases. Best tells McNally to bury her father’s skeletons and make a fresh start. All the rookies pass their evaluation and become fully fledged officers. McNally and Diaz make an untimely arrest, which compromises a major heroin bust; Swarek goes undercover posing as the buyer with McNally as his girlfriend, to try and salvage the operation. Peck and Diaz, who are part of the surveillance team, search a seemingly empty warehouse. As they are leaving Diaz is stabbed and as Peck checks on him the door closes and they find themselves locked in a room. In an attempt to get out through an air vent Peck sees the heroin is being prepared for the deal. Swarek and McNally try to make the deal, but the dealer has other plans and Swarek is forced to leave to get the heroin from an undisclosed location. When McNally is told that the buyer’s boss will be at the exchange, she realizes that Swarek’s cover will be blown and calls back-up, blowing her cover in the process. Nash and Epstein notice that Peck and Diaz have failed to check-in from their location, leading them to believe that the warehouse is where the heroin is. Tactical teams arrive at the warehouse and successfully save Swarek, Diaz, and Peck and also take down the drug ring.

The funniest scene of the season is the last one as McNally, Epstein & Nash sit on a squad car’s hood congratulating themselves for being on the biggest drug bust in the disvision’s history and that they are full fledged cops, a senior cop passes by and chides them telling the 3 rookies to get off the car. Which they do, like admonished children! Perfect end. While the series has been criticized for being lazy for focusing on the private lives of the 5 young good looking rookies (a la Grey’s Anatomy) I do find entertainment in the stories and the cast. Also I never liked Grey’s so I’m fine here. It’s cool, it’s harmless fun and some of the cases are really good. Now onto season 2.

From the latest shows to hit television & the internet now it’s time to go back to an older one. Back in time to 1998 and a Canadian cop show called Cold Squad. The show crime drama show, created by Julia Keatley and Matt MacLeod, followed the investigations of a part of the Vancouver Police Department Homicide Division tasked with solving cold cases ( a crime or an accident that has not yet been solved to the full and is not the subject of a recent criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, retained material evidence, as well as fresh activities of the suspect), the titular Cold Squad. This was the first purely Canadian drama show that I had ever seen and followed, watching it back in 2000-2002, watching the reruns on AXN-India. Not sure when they originally started airing it here but that is when I started watching it. Recently I started watching the show from the very beginning and just completed watching the 11 episodes that make up the first season.

The show was a vehicle & launching pad for actress Julie Stewart who was cast as Sgt. Ali McCormick who leads the small team of Cold Squad. Rounding out the team are veteran cop Lt. Tony Lugozzo (played by BSG‘s Michael Hogan) & trainee profiler Jill Stone (Joy Tanner). One of the peculiarities of Cold Squad was the constant changing of the cast & restructuring that would occur every couple of seasons. Anyways, also part of the main cast but in supporting roles were  Insp. Vince Schneider (Jerry Wasserman) who was incharge of the station, Det. Nick Galagher (Paul Boretski), Det. James Kai (Hiro Kanagawa) & in the lab pathologist Dr. Christine Lui (Linda Ko) & Dr. Sam Fisher (Jay Brazeau). Each episode was also named after the victim of the case that the team was investigating. Also to note, Cold Squad was the forerunner & part inspiration for the slew of police procedural shows that came up in the US shortly afterwards – like CSI and more importantly Cold Case! The latter was subject to a case filed by Keealey & McLeod due to the similarities in the shows.

In the first episode a young boy is found in the harbor, Ali tries to tie the case to the similar unsolved murder of Christopher Williams in 1977. Next Ali & Tony investigates the 12-year-old murder of a ex-detective’s daughter, which destroyed his career. Ali takes on the case of a teen-aged Jane Doe, whom Tony has named “Tess,” whose body was discovered 15 years earlier. Ali revisits the case of Barbara Taggert, a mother who was killed in a house fire in 1995 that was ruled an arson. Her daughter Lisa disappeared that night and was presumed abducted. While investigating a 1995 murder, Ali and Tony come upon a new lead on a suspect in the 1968 murder of a sailor in his cheap hotel room. Most episodes deals with case that could not be solved because of the technology issues faced during the time of the initial crime.

The final episode, episode 11, deals with a woman who was involved in drugs & possible prostitution when she was much younger, switched ids with a young girl, Amanda Millerd, who was killed while on vacation and deemed to be missing. She hid from her boyfriend at the time and his boss who is a major drug dealer. The drug dealer turned informant to the police at 12 years before the events of the episode and hence was protected by the department at the cops at that time including Isp. Schneider & the local chief. Ali’s investigations bring the dealings into the light hence putting both the chief & the inspector in trouble, despite Lugozzo warning her not to. Ali finds the prostitute who under the alias of Amanda Millerd lives a new life with her husband & young son, who have no idea of her past. The drug dealer & his associate, the boyfriend, are brought down but the chief is transferred and the inspector has to resign. Ali is persona non grata at the station with Lugozzo asking for a transfer.