‘The Rookie’s Latest Episode Calls Out How Exploitative True Crime Can Be and It’s About Time

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Rookie Season 7, Episode 14.In its seven seasons on the air, ABC’s The Rookie has explored a whole host of compelling issues. The characters have experienced addiction and domestic violence, and seen the dangers of social media’s influence and drug cartels. This season, the series has even tackled the issue of police brutality. In its latest episode, the show dives into another fascinating topic when Celina Juarez (Lisseth Chavez) becomes the subject of a true-crime podcast. The Rookie raises the question: is the true crime genre mere entertainment or is it just harmful to the victims and their loved ones?

‘The Rookie’ Looks at the Dark Side of the True Crime Genre

Celina’s character is introduced to the Mid-Wilshire Police Department in Season 5. When she was nine years old, her younger sister, Blanca, was kidnapped from their front yard. After three weeks, Blanca was rescued, but she died after spending two weeks in the hospital. Celina is forever changed by the experience of losing her sister and decides to become a police officer to make sure that no other family goes through what she did. In Episode 19 (in the same season), Celina discovers that the man responsible for her sister’s death is actually another cop named Joel Chambers (Don McManus). He is eventually shot and killed by Tim Bradford (Eric Winter), but the influence he has on Celina is already a lasting one.

Now in Season 7 (in an episode that aired on April 15), Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) is listening to a true-crime podcast that just so happens to be covering Blanca’s murder. She tells Celina about the podcast, and Celina is incensed that someone would be mining her family’s tragedy for attention and money. She heads to meet with the podcaster, a woman named Heather Marie (Amanda McCants), and finds that her mother, Carla (Marlene Forte), is in the process of giving an interview. She stops her mother from continuing, but Celina is unable to shut down the project completely. Heather lets her know that the loved ones of Chambers’ other victims have been willing to participate. She continues to try and get Celina to take part, but Celina refuses, saying that she carries Blanca with her every day, and doesn’t need to do a podcast to honor her memory.

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Lucy and Celina Have an Honest Conversation About True Crime in ‘The Rookie’

In Episode 14, Lucy and Celina have a compelling heart-to-heart about how the true crime genre walks the line between “entertainment and exploitation.” Lucy’s love for the genre is completely relatable, since there are plenty of true crime junkies out there. Even though Lucy sees how these types of crimes play out in the real world every day in her line of work, there is still something about these stories that she finds inherently interesting. But Celina is able to offer a very different perspective for Lucy. Her experience is that an outsider (Heather Marie) is taking the most painful event of her life and combing over the horrific details, only to then capitalize on the agony her family went through, just for public consumption. It is a point of view that doesn’t often get spotlighted when people are discussing this super popular genre of entertainment.

Celina’s perspective reminds us that the victims and their families are often forgotten about, because their stories are picked over for only the most salacious or heartbreaking bits. Even when they participate, like Carla is willing to do, they can be misrepresented. There are many times when their stories are depicted in an inaccurate way, simply because it makes the television show or movie more entertaining or shocking. By focusing on these elements, the projects can make more money, but at what cost? By having their trauma turned into entertainment, the victims and their loved ones are then linked to a project that doesn’t always pay proper tribute to their pain. Most of them never even see a dime from the projects that focus on the crimes that ruined their lives. The Rookie reminds us that the people behind these stories are real, and they’ve experienced heinous things that no one should go through. Their voices should be honored and lifted up, and not just used for financial gain.

Shows Like ‘Dahmer,’ in the True Crime Genre, Have Received Criticism Before for Exploitation

The true crime genre has never been more popular, but many of the projects in this genre have been criticized by victims and their loved ones for being exploitative. Many family members and friends spoke out when Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story came out on Netflix in 2022. They lambasted the series for giving very limited screen time to the victims (thus focusing much more on Dahmer himself) and following the stories of Dahmer’s loved ones instead of the murder victims’ friends and family. Many of the people connected to the crimes were also upset that no one from the series ever contacted them about making the show. Rita Isbell, the sister of Dahmer’s victim Errol Lindsey, spoke about how re-traumatizing it was to see her tragedy re-enacted on the screen. But the most upsetting aspect was that Netflix never reached out before the series aired. She said, “I feel like Netflix should’ve asked if we mind or how we felt about making it. They didn’t ask me anything. They just did it.”

There have also been claims of misrepresentation and inaccuracies from recent projects, such as Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and The Staircase. Many of the real-life participants in these cases feel their lives have been sensationalized to draw in more viewers rather than to tell a truthful story. It is a tribute to The Rookie that they are able to raise the question of whether true crime has an obligation to its victims or should be viewed as merely entertainment. By framing this discussion with Celina’s character, the series allows us to explore the issue from the point of view of the victims’ families. This isn’t typically done on procedural shows, and it’s possible it’ll make it a bit tougher for true-crime fans to enjoy this genre in the same way going forward. Although these shows can spark a lot of watercooler discussions and social media buzz, it’s important to remember who is truly at the heart of these stories. The victims and their loved ones, just like Blanca and Celina, deserve to be honored in an honest and thoughtful way.

New episodes of The Rookie air Tuesday nights on ABC, with episodes available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

The Rookie

Release Date

October 16, 2018

Network

ABC

Showrunner

Alexi Hawley

Directors

Tori Garrett, Chi-Yoon Chung, Michael Goi, Sylvain White, Lisa Demaine, Lanre Olabisi, Bill Johnson, David McWhirter, Liz Friedlander, Daniel Willis, Toa Fraser, Anne Renton, Jon Huertas, Cherie Nowlan, TK Shom, Rob Seidenglanz, Valerie Weiss, Barbara Brown, Charissa Sanjarernsuithikul, SJ Main Muñoz, Nelson McCormick, Marcus Stokes, Adam Davidson, Anna Mastro

Writers

Corey Miller, Bill Rinier, Zoe Cheng, Mary Trahan, Ally Seibert, Liz Alper, Nick Hurwitz, Racheal Seymour, Madeleine Coghlan, David Radcliff