Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Rookie Blue - The Complete Third Season

he Third Season of Rookie Blue continues to looks at the latest crop of police academy graduates now serving in uniform with the 15 Division. Three seasons in you can't really call the group rookies any more, but the show's continued focus is the growth and development of its five young officers (and their, at times soap operatic personal lives): Andy McNally (Missy Peregrym), Gail Peck (Charlotte Sullivan), Traci Nash (Enuka Okuma), Chris Diaz (Travis Milne), and Dov Epstein (Gregory Smith).

Season Three includes more romantic troubles for the rookies. Nick Collins (Peter Mooney) in introduced as a new rookie as well as the Gail's old flame (and potential new love interest). We also get an annoying amount of Andy's on-again/off-again relatinship with Sam Swarek (Ben Bass), Epstein getting romantically involved with the sister (Mouna TraorĂ©) of a gangbanger he shot and killed, and the tragic end of Traci's relationship with Jerry Barber (Noam Jenkins) when Barber is killed in the line of duty.

Other events from the Third Season include William Shatner's guest-role as a confused man who causes a traffic accident to save his missing granddaughter, Shaw’s (Matt Gordon) daughter Izzy (Chloe Rose) witnessing a stabbing at an underground party, an Internal Affairs investigation into the events of a shooting inside the precinct, and a two-part episode dealing with the ramifications of Gail going undercover to catch a killer with a thing for young blonde call girls.

The show's insistence to still find a way to get everyone involved on the same case is still an issue, as are the romantic subplots (which are only entertaining about half the time). On the plus side this season does offer real character development, especially for Gail Peck whose kidnapping experience makes her rethink her current view of the job (and of Nick) and Epstein who continues making questionable choices following his shooting which lead him deeper and deeper into a problematic relationship he can't seem to escape.

The four-disc set includes all 13 episodes from the season, seven short making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes, and on-set cast interviews.

[Entertainment One, $39.98]

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