Summer’s first hit among new scripted series is ABC’s “Rookie Blue,” which follows five newly-minted cops as they struggle to make their way in the make-it-or-break-it world of law enforcement.
Missy Peregrym (“Reaper”) stars as Andy McNally, the child of a former cop who’s too empathetic for her own good. While the show features an ensemble cast — including Gregory Smith (“Everwood”) as Dov Epstein, and newcomers Enuka Okuma as tough but tender Traci Nash, Charlotte Sullivan as politically-minded Gail Peck and Travis Milne as the group’s sweetheart Chris Diaz — most of the show’s stories center on Andy.
“Casting the character of Andy was crucial,” says show creator and executive producer Tassie Cameron. “We wanted someone that people would look up to, not just someone that men would find stunning. Finding a woman who is likable to both men and women is quite hard to find, but Missy is so laid back and funny and real, we knew we had found our Andy right away.
“I think it’s important, even in an ensemble show, to have someone who is the audience’s way in to the world, especially in the first season,” Cameron says.
Andy’s only about an hour into her new gig when she encounters her first crisis: her instincts are sharp, but, boy, is she naive. After entering an empty building to find a gun, she fails to pull her own, and is surprised when a scared suspect brandishes his own weapon at her. Andy begs the suspect, “Please don’t make me shoot you. This is my first day.”
She emerges from the building with the suspect in handcuffs, but her first day could have easily been her last.
Later, Andy promises a victim of domestic abuse that the husband will be locked up for the night and that she will be safe, only to learn the hard way that she has no power to promise anyone anything.
“Andy is vulnerable but she has her strengths,” says Peregrym. “For every pro to Andy, there’s a con. For every good intention, another one goes wrong. She is almost empathetic to a fault. Those kinds of things get her in trouble.”
The plots on the show are drawn from the files of Cameron and her producing partner, Ilana Frank.
“We have worked together on a bunch of different shows,” says Cameron. “And we have talked to all of these different police consultants. They all have these amazing rookie stories that were sad, funny, emotional and hilarious. All of these stories just started to accumulate, and Ilana thought putting them together was the perfect idea for a show.”
Creating a show about police rookies gives the writers an advantage, says Cameron. “We’re writing it as newbies ourselves, so it’s easy to put ourselves in our rookies’ positions.”
Peregrym, 28, a former model and competitive soccer player who hails from Vancouver, is a bit of a reluctant actress. She counts herself lucky, but admits that living out of a suitcase for months while on location can be tough.
“It’s all worth it when you are doing a job that you love. I invest everything I am into the character I am playing, and that sets the tone for the next few months of my life,” she says.
Andy makes her share of mistakes, but she also has guts and street smarts. And it doesn’t take long before the stunning brunette has caught the eye of some of the vets among Toronto’s finest, particularly a charming homicide detective, Luke Callaghan, played by Eric Johnson of “Smallville” fame.
One thing that helped Peregrym settle in to “Rookie Blue’s” Toronto set was forming a fast friendship with cast member Smith, who also grew up in Vancouver.
“Greg and I were the first people to meet before we started filming, and we immediately got along so well,” Peregrym says. “We played basketball together and we’re both incredibly competitive. That immediately translated to our characters, who are always bickering like brother and sister.”
For Smith, Dov is a welcome change of pace from Ephram Brown, the quietly angry character he played on “Everwood.”
“That was a condition for anything new I was going to do,” says Smith, 27.
Dov is someone who’s wanted to be a cop since before he knew what a cop was. “He reminded me of a guy I went to kindergarten with who wanted to be a cop so badly that he used to pull us over in the playground if we were running too fast,” Smith says.
The performance of “Rookie Blue” has impressed ABC executives enough to renew the show for a second season, proving that hot cops in uniform can be as watchable as the hot docs in scrubs on “Grey’s Anatomy.”
“We are telling stories that offer a fresh perspective into this world,” says Cameron.