Rank all of the TOs on the show 😈
(based on their ability to do their job. Not the way Tim’s arms look in uniform lol)
Very accurate emoji choice there... this is actually really hard. None of them are perfect. They've all done some great stuff and some not-so-great stuff.
TIM BRADFORD: I promise, this isn't just about his arms... or his face... or his hands. I mean, that stuff definitely doesn't hurt, but judging by actual training methods? Tim is a great training officer. He recognizes that everyone has different skills and doesn't use a one-size-fits-all approach. He has cute little acronyms (DEAR, LOSR, TRAIN). His Tim Tests, brutal as they may be at times, are nothing short of effective. And as tough as he tries to be, this man cares. About his job, about his rookies, all of it. The way he is with Barnes, what we've seen of him with his puppies civilians... he's such a guardian. And yes, he's hot as fuck, sue me.
LUCY CHEN*: There's a bit of an asterisk next to Lucy, because obviously we saw her filling in briefly, and we don't entirely know if this is her future or not, but! She was fantastic with Celina. And showed great promise as a mentor to Aaron, too. And given what we know about Lucy's personality and, of course, her own training, she's going to find ways to use what Tim has taught her to benefit rookies. Her compassion will obviously make her do things a little differently than he did, but she can also compartmentalize pretty masterfully, which is beneficial as well.
TALIA BISHOP: Talia was never a favourite for me, but you can't deny that she was a pretty solid TO, striking a great balance between strict and supportive. It's hard to truly place her though, because we only saw her in this role for one season.
NYLA HARPER: As much as I love Harper, she's not the greatest training officer? This is someone who spent her first shift adamant that she wasn't going to teach anything, and she certainly wasn't there for the right reasons. That said, she definitely came into her own eventually, and honestly the more she opened up and showed her caring side, the better training officer she became. And her history was valuable in her teaching as well. Honestly I think she was often a better TO/mentor to Lucy than to Nolan or Thorsen...
ANGELA LOPEZ: Okay, so my opinion of Lopez as a TO flip-flops, and honestly I think it's influenced by how much I love her? Because truly when you think about it, she was too soft with Jackson. Forget three strikes, she gave him more strikes than I can even count and never even wrote him up. Don't get me wrong, she also taught him a lot, and certainly made him into a marginally better cop, but... I don't know, it's hard to judge her off of one rookie experience (especially when Jackson is that rookie...).
JOHN NOLAN: Nolan is a bad TO. I've said it before, I'll say it a hundred times. He's self-centred and doesn't own his involvement in his rookie's mistakes. And sure, he's new at the job, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he can and will improve, but... yikes. The main character lens isn't fooling me.
WRIGLEY*: This is more an opinion of him as a cop than a training officer, but he's subpar. What is there to learn sitting around writing tickets? Snooze.
SMITTY*: Hilarious, but not training officer material.
DOUG STANTON: - Absolutely without a shadow of a doubt the worst. Forget just being a bad TO, he's a scummy cop and a horrible human being.
* Take these rankings with a grain of salt, because one episode isn't really enough time to judge.
I think I had the hardest time with Lopez, Harper, and Bishop's placement. There are very much pros and cons to each of them... I'm pretty sure if I went back and did this again I'd shift their rankings again (and again, and again).
Do you agree?? Disagree? I'm so curious!!