Before you write this off as some hater, know that I'm a person of color. I appreciate the attempt at bringing real life issues into the show, but that does not forgive bad writing or a shove-it-down-your-throat attitude. Season 3 has so far been only about 2 things. Women suffering from men and people of color suffering from bad cops. There's no longer policing, there's no longer "The Rookie". This is another show, and it's the wrong show.
This used to be a goody-two-shoes comic relief police show with just enough drama to make us invested. That doesn't go with this. If you want to talk about these issues that deeply then make another show dedicated to them.
And if you wanted to simply give them an appearance in "The Rookie", then you could have done it more subtly and without simply pulling us out of the story and environment we were used to. For example, Officer Smitty would have been a good character to involve in the racism issues. He's a slacker, comic-relief, but what if we show him when he feels endangered, because of a person of color who doesn't show any cause for danger? That could have been a good tip of the hat towards the issue, and showing it through a character we're familiar with.
One other thing is the death of logic in this third season.
SPOILERS IN THE NEXT LINE. (Check below for Spoiler end and start reading there to avoid season 3 spoilers)
The fact that Jackson's TO would be this stupid when he has the IA commander's son as a boot just doesn't make sense. And if he's as smart and cautious about his racism as they make him out to be, he'd have actually acted like a goody-two-shoes in front of Jackson, which the latter could have noticed and created another plotline about that, but we're past that now.
SPOILER END.
At the moment, I'm conflicted about even finish season 3, I'm at episode 5, and frankly I don't want to watch it. I just want this whole mess over with and for us to get back to the story of The Rookie.
