ABC’s police drama The Rookie follows John Nolan, a 45-year-old newly divorced man from Pennsylvania who moves to Los Angeles to pursue a new career as a police officer with the LAPD. Season 7 has reintroduced an idea viewers have been talking about for years: John Nolan is an irritating main character. After continually not suffering consequences for his actions, it’s safe to say that Nolan has become nothing more than an annoying part of the series. The show is designed so that there are multiple storylines going on at once, and Nolan is in at least a third of them. Complaints regarding the character, played by Nathan Fillion of Castle fame, include: “Why does he ALWAYS have to save the day?”, “His know-it-all attitude gets tiring after a while,” and “I personally just get a little tired of his personality and need to always do the right thing.” The Rookie has a Nolan problem, and it’s testing the patience of viewers. Already seven seasons in, the message boards are pretty much unanimous: No one likes a main character who can’t face real consequences for their actions, and it’s even more glaring when those around the character do. Whenever Nolan faces challenges, the series magically transports him out of them in due time. Nolan’s punishments — if you want to call them that — always turn into opportunities for him to play action hero and emerge as the white knight. That’s no accident. What most people don’t know is that Nathan Fillion is one of the executive producers of the show……..and therein lies the problem.
