Shows Like The Rookie
If you were moved by The Rookie, will enjoy these picks that questions the purpose and weight of our choices while grounding the story in targets the intellect with complex, multi-layered ideas. Carefully balances character depth with narrative flow makes this a compelling continuation of these themes.
Standard feature-length experiences.
Best for fans of who appreciate concise storytelling.
★ Top Picks
Dragnet
Follows the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from the police term "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.
Adam-12
Adam-12 is a television police drama that followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12.
T. J. Hooker
Sergeant Thomas Jefferson Hooker is a tough-as-nails veteran police officer with the LCPD who turns his back on a gold badge and goes back to patrolling the streets and training recruits. Along with his young partners in blue, Hooker take on Lake City's toughest criminals.
Angie Tribeca
Lone-wolf detective Angie Tribeca and a squad of committed LAPD detectives investigate the most serious cases, from the murder of a ventriloquist to a rash of baker suicides.
The Closer
Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson transfers from Atlanta to LA to head up a special unit of the LAPD that handles sensitive, high-profile murder cases. Johnson's quirky personality and hard-nosed approach often rubs her colleagues the wrong way, but her reputation as one of the world's best interrogator eventually wins over even her toughest critics.
Southland
A raw and authentic look into the Los Angeles crime scene, going far inside the lives of cops, criminals, victims and their families. The show centers on four main characters: Officer John Cooper, a seasoned cop who will have to prove himself again after recovering from surgery; Officer Ben Sherman, who still has much to learn after recently completing his training rotation; Detective Lydia Adams, whose unending caseload hits closer to home; and Sammy Bryant, a former detective who decided to go back to being a uniform cop after the traumatic death of his partner.
Lethal Weapon
A slightly unhinged former Navy SEAL lands a job as a police officer in Los Angeles where he's partnered with a veteran detective trying to keep maintain a low stress level in his life.
Law & Order: LA
From the tony Beverly Hills to the seedy side of Hollywood, LAPD’s elite Robbery Homicide Division is on the case. Fusing classic ripped-from-the-headlines storytelling with the backdrop of LA, the series delves into the high profile crimes of the west coast.
More Shows Like The Rookie
On Call
Traci Harmon, a veteran female training officer, and her rookie male ride-along, Alex Diaz, navigate the loss of a fellow officer and politics of modern day policing — in the department and on the streets of Long Beach.
Hill Street Blues
A realistic glimpse into the daily lives of the officers and detectives at an urban police station.
Major Crimes
Major Crimes explores how the American justice system approaches the art of the deals as law enforcement officers and prosecutors work together to score a conviction. Los Angeles Police Captain Sharon Raydor heads up a special squad within the LAPD that deals with high-profile or particularly sensitive crimes.
9-1-1
Explore the high-pressure experiences of police officers, paramedics and firefighters who are thrust into the most frightening, shocking and heart-stopping situations. These emergency responders must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the problems in their own lives.
Barney Miller
Barney Miller is an American situation comedy television series set in a New York City police station in Greenwich Village. The series originally was broadcast from January 23, 1975 to May 20, 1982 on ABC. It was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker. Noam Pitlik directed the majority of the episodes.
21 Jump Street
21 Jump Street revolves around a group of young cops who would use their youthful appearance to go undercover and solve crimes involving teenagers and young adults.
Ballard
Detective Renée Ballard plunges into a web of murder and corruption as she hunts a ruthless serial killer and uncovers a sinister police conspiracy that threatens everything she stands for. With her own demons nipping at her heels, Ballard must outwit both criminals and colleagues to bring long-overdue justice to the victims and their families.
The Good Guys
Once upon the 1970s, Dan Stark and his partner, Frank Savage, were big-shot Dallas detectives. So big, in fact, that they were lauded as American heroes after saving the Governor's son. Thirty years later, Dan Stark is a washed-up detective who spends most of his time drunk or re-hashing his glory days. Dan's new partner, Jack Bailey, is an ambitious, by-the-book and overall good detective, but is sometimes a bit too snarky for his own good. His habit of undermining himself has earned him a dead-end position in the department, and he is stuck solving annoying petty theft cases that nobody else wants. Worse, he's been given the thankless task of babysitting Dan, the drunk pariah who can never keep partners for long.
Countdown
When an officer with the Department of Homeland Security is murdered in broad daylight, LAPD detective Mark Meachum is recruited to a secret task force, alongside undercover agents from all branches of law enforcement, to investigate. But the hunt for the killer soon uncovers a plot far more sinister than anyone could have imagined, kicking off a race against time to save a city of millions.
Vexed
Comedy drama following a mismatched pair of police officers who disagree on everything with their partner, from policing to their personal life.
Take Two
Sam Swift, the former star of a hit cop series whose epic breakdown is broadcast to the public and sends her to rehab. Desperate to restart her career, she talks her way into shadowing lone-wolf private investigator Eddie Valetik as research for a potential comeback role. Though Eddie resents the babysitting gig, high-spirited Sam uses the skills she learned as an actor playing a cop and proves herself to be surprisingly valuable.
Why These Shows Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with The Rookie (2018): Crime and Drama themes, similar pacing, and comparable production quality. NoBadPicks uses TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface series most likely to resonate with fans of The Rookie.
See full details for The Rookie (2018)
