ROOKIE BLUE: Executive Producer Tassie Cameron Teases a Messy Love Quad and Season 2

Is anyone else watching the ABC summer show, ROOKIE BLUE?

I recently caught up on the entire series and I enjoyed it so much, I had to find out what was coming up in season two.

Thankfully, ROOKIE BLUE executive producer Tassie Cameron took time out of her busy day — she and the rest of the RB writers are currently in development of a potential season three, with the hopes that the show will get renewed — to chat with Give Me My Remote about tonight’s brand new episode, the increasingly complicated love lives of our rookies, and why the consequences of their job will play a bigger role this season…

What can you tease about what goes down in tonight’s episode?
Tassie Cameron: Tonight’s episode? Hm. [The networks] do such a good job teasing it already that they sort of teased it all. Andy and Gail undercover at a nightclub, so that should make the boys happy. It’s a great episode for Oliver Shaw, a really interesting turn for him, which is really great to see when you get the chance to do an episode where one of the training officers gets a nice storyline. And then Dov crosses a line which will get him into some trouble.

Professional trouble or personal trouble?
TC: Um, professional trouble. A little bit of both. He pulls a real rookie move. He’s feeling pretty confident, by the start of the season, he’s feeling pretty good, and this is a bit of a setback for him.

They have grown a lot since the show started, but the season premiere gave them a bit of a reality check when Andy got shot. It seemed to hit them more than ever that this isn’t all fun and games and it could be really dangerous. Will that be lingering over them as the season continues on?
TC: I think this season — I wouldn’t say that it’s darker, but I think that the consequences of the job weigh heavier on them and because they have a little more responsibility, the mistakes can be bigger and more dire. So I think you’ll see that going through the season. And what we were trying to show during the first episode is that you can do everything right, but you can’t control things. And Andy’s a bit of a control freak and that’s something that’s always going to be a real battle with her doing this job — this chaotic job that you can’t control. That’s going to be tough for her, always.

Yeah, this might be one of the worst jobs she could have if she’s a control freak. You can be walking in the street and something happens or you can be at a concert and someone gets shot.
TC: Yeah, exactly. That was one of the ways we designed the characters — you want to figure out a lead character that’s going to have the most interesting journey with the job that they’re in. She’s an A-student, she wants to get things right, she wants to be able to control things, she comes from a chaotic life and so it’s really, really interesting — I think — to watch her in a job where you can’t control anything.

Of course, now her personal life is also getting out of her control. In season one, there was a bit of a triangle with Andy, Sam and Luke, but now we have a love quad with the addition of Jo. How much is that going to play into season two?
TC: Quite a lot, I think you’ll see. And the thing about the new character, Jo, is that she’s not just a fly in the ointment for Andy on a personal level, but she’s also her superior. It’s going to cause trouble for Andy professionally and personally. She’s someone who has power over Andy and that’s a dangerous thing when you’ve got a personal agenda.

Do you feel that Andy has any conflicted emotions towards the men in her life or is she secure in her platonic relationship with Sam and her romantic relationship with Luke?
TC: We tried to start season two in a place where Andy has made a choice, has really made an adult choice, maybe one some would argue was with her head more than her heart. But [she’s thinking], “He’s a good guy, he’s great for me, he’s communicated openly throughout season one. This is who I’m choosing” And in tonight’s episode, she tries to articulate why she made that choice.

She’s in the best of both worlds right now: she has her person in Sam, who she gets to ride-along with and have fun with, and she has that great professional and personal chemistry with him. But she feels that she made a very smart choice to be with a guy who loves her and that she loves.

Is Andy articulating her feelings that she made the right choice to someone or are we just seeing it through her actions?
TC: She is…[long pause] hm. [Laughs] She’s articulating it to somebody and other people overhear.

Uh oh. Like you said, Andy is comfortable, but it almost seems like if Sam started to drift out of her realm a bit or if Luke made a movement, the control freak in her might not like what was going on.
TC: Sam, we start [tonight’s] episode with Gail and he’s out having fun. They’re out rescuing babies and they’re out on the street. Andy’s in the station working with Luke and Jo. And I think Sam is saying, “We’re a good team.” And Andy answers him in this episode.

Good to know. Will we be exploring more of Traci’s quest to recreate a perfect home life for her son?
TC: You’ll see a little bit more on that tonight. You’ll see a little bit of where Traci’s heart is at.

Is that also going to play out throughout the season, or will that be resolved sooner versus later?
TC: I’m trying to remember what episode she made her decision in. A decision gets made for her, I would say, within the first half of the season.

Dov is clearly uncomfortable with the Gail and Chris relationship encroaching on his home life. Will that tension be spilling over to the workplace?
TC: Yeah, I think so. I think the bromance has evolved and now there is a third person in their house, in their life. And I think Dov is feeling a bit like a third wheel. He and Gail always have a kind of — they tell each other exactly what they think of each other. So that conflict definitely bubbles throughout the season.

What can you tease about the rest of the season?
TC: What can I tease? Well…I would say that Dov falls in love at least once.

With someone we know?
TC: [Laughs] Um, I’m going to leave it at that. At least once he falls in love this season. And I think that the Jo-Luke-Andy-Swarek story definitely gets more complicated. Jo definitely has an agenda. Somebody gets injured next week.

I think almost all the rookies this season find themselves in a dangerous situation. It’s not just Andy this season — we tried to make sure all the rookies have some kind of big story that puts them in a new jeopardy/danger/moral quandary. So I think that people who love Dov, people who love Traci, people who love Chris or Gail — we’re going to meet Gail’s mom.  We’re going to learn a little bit about more of everybody’s backstories and why they became the kind of cop they are. So I think you’ll have a much fuller understanding of who these characters are by the end of the second season. They move more from archetypes so you can really understand where they come from.

Speaking of backstories, will we be seeing more of Andy’s father?
TC: Not in season two.

Looking back at the first season, what was the biggest lesson you learned while constructing it that you’ve brought to season two?
TC: That’s a really good question. [Pause] I had lots of geeky, writerly lessons: things that we tried to fix or adjust in season two that are more how to structure an episode, what episodes worked for us and why, structurally. We’re always trying to remember to keep it simple. And not keep it simplistic, necessarily, but this is a show about our people. It’s not a show about the guest stars, it about our people, which we really tried to remember in season two. So lots of trying to make sure that people didn’t have “a ha!” moments in a weird way. Lots of writerly things we learned.

But we also got to know the actors playing the characters, so we got the opportunity in season two to tailor-make the characters around the actors, if that makes sense. You sort of nip and tuck and see what they’re good at that you didn’t know before. So we’re really getting to know the people we hired for these parts and tailor them around them a little bit more, which I think was the thing we had the most fun with.

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ROOKIE BLUE airs at 10 PM on ABC. Will you be tuning in?

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