There's a lot of shows that attempt to address current social issues these days. And to it's credit, the Rookie did a decent job. It definitely felt forced and cliche at points, but it wasn't totally one-sided.
In my mind, there are two things that could and should be done. First of all, if you're gonna try to create dialogue. Actually create dialogue. Any time Nolan talked to the new character, James, he was never given a chance to really speak. It was as if James had the final say everytime even though half of what he said didn't even make sense. For example, when Nolan mentioned arresting the dealers that come into the park, James' response was "more black and brown people in jail". Then a moment later he told Nolan to solve the communities real problem by getting meth out of the neighborhood. How might they do that you may ask? By arresting the dealers. It seemed rather than creating a dialogue, they were more interested in a self-righteous monologue.
They second thing they should do is to make Routh's character actually turn out to be a good guy. First of all, they've already done the racist white cop storyline. Second of all, having Jackson encounter another racist white cop is only going to make his character jaded against white cops.
Review of In Justice
