The Rookie Fans Spit At S5 Episode 18 For Its Disappointing Documentary Attempt

"The Rookie" isn't the only ABC show to take advantage of the storytelling opportunities that a documentary format presents. "Modern Family" employs a mockumentary style, "Grey's Anatomy" once tried their hand at it, and "Castle" even did a documentary episode back in the day. "The Rookie" is far from the first show to use this method, but if fans were flat-out unimpressed with other Season 5 episodes, then they were absolutely fed up with the most recent installment. "One of the worst episodes ever! It's all over the place. I [hate] documentary episodes," said Reddit user u/Southern_Tangerine_7.

Viewers are tired of watching documentary episodes, which they see as clumsy attempts to take advantage of a genre that doesn't mesh with the tone of the series. Reddit user u/TheBlackSwarm couldn't help but wonder about the decision, writing, "I don't know why this show would do another documentary episode when the last one was one of the worst-rated episodes of the entire series. ABC made us wait three weeks for this?"

Fans were disappointed across the board. "I am tired of documentary episodes. Too many already. The Feds got one and it hasn't been a season yet. No reason to wait three weeks just for a documentary episode. Didn't expect anything big, just not this," commented Reddit user u/EMPIREVSREBLES.

The documentary episodes may be few and far between, but it sounds like "The Rookie" viewers wouldn't mind if they stopped altogether.