‘The Rookie’ Fans Missing Season 9 Have the Perfect Replacement on Prime Video
Taylor Vollman is a contributor at Collider. She has long quipped, “T.V. is my name, TV is my game.” Fortuitous initials aside, at the heart of a tired joke is a simple truth — she has a lifelong passion for television. And along with it, an affinity for movies, music and pop culture.
In a childhood time capsule, she had listed Friends, PB&J Otter, and Days of Our Lives among her favorite shows. But her tastes have not narrowed with age. Her viewing habits span TV Land classics, network hits, buzzy reality shows and streamer critical darlings.
Hoping to merge this passion with her love of writing, Taylor earned a bachelor’s in media arts and design with a minor in film studies from James Madison University. After working in marketing for years, she wanted to sharpen her skills and went on to graduate with a master’s in journalism from Georgetown University. Taylor has since pursued entertainment writing and reporting.
There’s a new Watch Commander in the Mid-Wilshire Division. The Rookie has tapped Dulé Hill to take on the role, playing Lt. Hughes in the upcoming ninth season. Showrunner Alexi Hawley announced Hill’s casting at New York Comic Con in October. According to Deadline, he is “a distracted, 30-year veteran of the job trying to navigate his new job as Watch Commander while his personal life is in growing turmoil.” The position was previously held by Tim Bradford (Eric Winter), who was abducted in the Season 8 cliffhanger, and Wade Grey (Richard T. Jones), who has been working on a FBI task force.
Hill is a veteran television actor, starring in shows like The West Wing, Suits, Ballers, and The Wonder Years (2021). But he is perhaps best well known for his turn on another procedural — playing Burton “Gus” Guster in Psych. The USA Network series is the perfect placeholder for The Rookie fans biding their time until its premiere on January 6, 2027. It features many of the same genre touchstones, but with its distinctly more comedic tone. The easily bingeable series is the perfect introduction to Hill and an easy way to fill two months.
What Is ‘Psych’ About?
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Alan Zenuk / © USA Network / Courtesy: Everett Collection</figure>
Essentially a Sherlock Holmes retelling, Psych follows a fake psychic detective and his best friend who work as consultants for the Santa Barbara Police Department. James Roday Rodriguez plays Shawn Spencer, whose father trained him to be hyper observant as a child. After calling in a few too many case-solving details based in the evening news, Shawn pretends to be a psychic to avoid further questioning from the police. It sparks an idea, and he recruits is responsible life-long best friend, Gus, to open the show’s titular agency. While John Watson is a doctor in Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels, Hill plays a pharmaceutical sales representative which still provides some helpful medical tidbits throughout he series. And despite Shawn’s complicated relationship with his father Henry (Corbin Bernsen), a retired detective, he still keeps Shawn’s secret. The series also includes Police Chief Karen Vick (Kirsten Nelson), Lead Detective Carlton “Lassie” Lassiter (Timothy Omundson), his partner Juliet “Jules” O’Hara (Maggie Lawson), and eventually kooky coroner Woody Strode (Kurt Fuller).
Created by Steve Franks, Psych premiered in 2006 and ran for eight seasons on the USA Network, including a musical episode. It has even spurred three movies — Psych: The Movie, Psych 2: Lassie Come Home, and Psych 3: This is Gus.The series became known for its pop culture references and long-running bits, including a pineapple in every episode, plethora of catchphrases, Shawn’s revolving nicknames for Gus, and repeated damage to Gus’ iconic “blueberry” Toyota Echo Hatchback car. Despite all of this, the show’s cast had the dramatic chops to carry its more serious moments.
‘Psych’ Features the Same Procedural Tropes as ‘The Rookie’
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Alan Zenuk / © USA Network / Courtesy: Everett Collection</figure>
Hill has long proven his ability to play dramatic and comedic roles, so while The Rookie isn’t outwardly a comedy, he will be able to maintain its often playful tone. And while Psych does subvert the typical intensity of a procedural, it still upholds many of the genre’s tropes and similar touchstones as The Rookie — a steadfast leader, slow-burn romance, strong female characters, tight-knit co-workers, and even a sunny California setting. Both series also experiment within the genre. While Psych has homage episodes to films and shows like Twin Peaks, Friday the 13th and Office Space, The Rookie has documentaries and found-footage style episodes. They also both critique the police, exploring corruption storylines and impeding bureaucracy.
The Rookie and Psych both balance cases of the week with overarching villains. And viewers will notice some distinct similarities between the storylines of Rosalind Dyer (Annie Wersching) and Mr. Yang (Ally Sheedy). Not only are female serial killers subversive in their own right, they both share a similar proclivity for deadly games and obsession with the show’s leading man. And much like Lucy Chen’s (Melissa O’Neil) brush with death after being buried alive, Jules finds herself facing a ticking clock toward her death. Despite Psych‘s playful tone, it does showcase the aftermath of such trauma and how those emotions can resurface.
Psych even has its own brush with a later-in-life rookie. In the Season 1 finale, “Scary Sherry: Bianca’s Toast,” Lassie is paired with Mercedes Ruehl‘s Detective Goochberg, a woman who finally passed the detective exam after many years of failed attempts. Unlike The Rookie‘s John Nolan (Nathan Fillion), her attempt at a career pivot fails thanks to her lack of crime-solving prowess, skills, or really even empathy.
With two months to fill until The Rookie returns, Psych is the logical viewing choice. Not only will fans get a preview of Hill working on a procedural, but the series also maintains the genre’s classic appeal with some additional levity. That humor makes its an easy binge, despite being more than 120 episodes, and the three follow-up movies essentially provide fans with an epilogue. Psych is available for streaming on Prime Video and Peacock.
When a novice sleuth convinces the police he has psychic powers, he and his reluctant best friend are hired on as consultants to help solve complicated cases.
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