Series / Republic of Doyle

Oh yeah-ee-yeah-ee-yeah-ee-yeah!!

Republic of Doyle is a Canadian Private Detective Buddy Cop Show that aired on the CBC from 2010–14.

The series follows the lives and cases of the Doyle & Doyle private detective agency in St. John's, Newfoundland, headed by Jake Doyle, his father Malachy, and Malachy's girlfriend Rose. Also along for the ride are Jake's niece Tinny, his estranged wife Nikki (for the first season, at least), Sergeant Leslie Bennet of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, and a graffiti artist named Des.

Throughout the series Jake helps solve cases, gets on everyone's nerves, and sleeps with a lot of women. Although he manages to get the job done with the help of his family (alongside Des) and occasionally with the help of the RNC, depending on things.

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This Show Provides Examples of:

• Aerith and Bob: Seems to switch each generation. Malachy, his son Jake, and his granddaughter Tinny.
  • Note: Tinny is actually a nickname, the character's real name is Katrina.
• The Alleged Car: The GTO becomes this in season four since it was blown up in the previous season, and Des had only just put it back together when he gives it to Jake.
• Anyone Can Die: Averted. Twice. In the season finale of season three, Des is shot in the gut and it looks like he's toast. By season four, he's back to normal. Well, normal for Des, anyways. In season five's finale, Leslie is buried alive, but in the season six premiere she's revealed to have survived, albeit in a coma - which she comes out of by the end of the episode.
• Ascended Extra: Christian was only in the first season to get the plot of the season finale rolling. In season 2, he's seen more often because he runs the pub beneath the Doyle & Doyle offices. He also helps out the team more often.
  • He was Put on a Bus by the end of season four, with season five opening with Ned Bishop as the bartender, and no word on where Christian is. Malachy lampshades this in season six by saying he hasn't heard from Christian in over a year, although he returns for a few episodes, gets married and leaves again.
• Ashes to Crashes: Jake catches the urn containing the ashes of a client's dead husband...and holds it upside down.
• Babies Ever After: In the epilogue of the finale, Jake and Leslie are shown to have toddler twins, with another baby imminent.
• Badass Family: The Doyles, and Des by extension.
• Betty and Veronica: Chandra (Betty) and Tinny (Veronica) for Des.
  • Leslie (Betty) and Nikki (Veronica) for Jake. Bonus points for almost matching hair colors.
    • Leslie (Betty) and Monica (Veronica) for Jake - and this time the hair colours do match!
  • Martin (Veronica) and Malachy (Betty) for Rose.
  • Des (Betty) and Grayson (Veronica) for Tinny.
  • Kevin Crocker (Veronica) and Walter (Betty) for Kathleen.
• Bilingual Backfire: Season three episode "Mirror, Mirror" has a variant: several scenes establish that Jake Doyle doesn't speak French. At the end of the episode, love interest Sgt Leslie Bennett claims that a francophone police officer isn't her type, then switches to French to say that Jake is her man. Jake asks her what she said, and adds "You know I don't speak French." Bennett refuses to translate and leaves. After Bennett is gone, Jake says, in French, that she is the one for him.
• Bittersweet Ending: Season three, episode one. Hey, Doyle, you caught the dirty cop and solved the murder! Good on ya, b'y! Oh, but Leslie told you to stay away from her forever, and that any feelings she might have had for you were gone. Ouch.
  • Season three's ending has a nasty one: Malachy and Rose have been cleared, but Jake's GTO has been blown up... Oh, and Des has been shot and is bleeding out on the tarmac.
• Blackmail: Seen in many episodes pertaining to Doyle clients. Featured heavily in season six, when Saul blackmails Jake into working for him to pay off Sloan's debt, and in the last two episodes of the series when the judge in charge of Jake's case is being blackmailed to send him to a prison where Jake will promptly be killed by the Chevaliers.
• Bottle Episode: "Body of Evidence" takes place entirely in the police station.
• Bulletproof Vest: Averted in season 2, when Leslie is shot despite her vest. Played straight in season 5, when Leslie gets shot in the vest, goes down for a minute, and is then perfectly fine.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Season 4 saw Jimmy, an RCMP detective whose penchant for suffering injuries (aka: broken bones), revealed to be a surprisingly competent investigator with a little nudging. One episode revealed that he has stayed on the trail of a notorious art thief and has foiled many of her heists. Almost got the drop on her during the episode but the accidental intervention of Doyle ruined it.
• Butt-Monkey: Taylor Gossard in season four. No longer a suave criminal druglord, he's getting repeatedly whacked over the head/tied up and locked in small spaces (and he's claustrophobic).
  • Not to mention Jimmy O'Rourke.
• Car Chase: Every few episodes Jake is involved in a car chase on the streets of St. John's
• The Casanova: Jake Doyle, until...
• Celibate Hero: At the beginning of the second season, Jake takes a women sabbatical, deciding they're too much trouble. It lasts about as long as you would expect.
• The Chew Toy: Poor Jimmy...
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Nikki appears in the first episode of season 2 and then vanishes without explanation. Perhaps justified, since she and Jake were no longer romantically interested in each other by that time.
  • The bus came back as of season three - she's still working at the hospital. Only reason she stayed put was she got a new fiancee/husband and the hospital offered her a sweet deal for her to stay put in the province.
• Clear My Name: Jake's quest in season six after he's falsely accused of murder.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Des, bless his little heart. Also a bit of an extreme door mat/chewtoy/buttmonkey.
• Corrupt Politician: The mayor
• Cowboy Cop: When Jake is blackmailed into becoming a police officer, he takes this trope up to eleven. He still wants to catch bad guys but has no regard for police procedure whatsoever. A TV reporter even refers to this on the air as "Jake Doyle terrorizing the citizens of St. John's".
• Dark Action Girl: Harley. A Quebec bookie who will beat the crap out of you and look absolutely stunning while doing so.
• Darker and Edgier: Beginning in season 4, the bad guys get more dangerous, and there are more serious story arcs.
• Deadpan Snarker: Several people, Jake and Malachy being the most prominent examples.
• Dirty Cop: Jake's old partner. And in season three, Jake's boss' boss. Not to mention Picard in season six.
• Doesn't Like Guns: Jake. Not overly apparent in the first couple seasons, since a private investigator wouldn't necessarily have one. Becomes very obvious in the third season premiere, when Jake leaves the police force and says he doesn't have to hand in his gun since he never took one to begin with. Several times after this he mentions not liking guns, and a good indicator of when things are about to get serious is when Jake gets out a gun (like when Tinny and Des get kidnapped).
  • Mal also says he doesn't like guns.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul"/Embarrassing First Name: Wolf's real name is Elvis Nigel Redmond. Justified in both cases, though, since in addition to disliking it he's an undercover operative. People knowing his real name is a major security breach.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Jake hates when his older brother Christian calls him his childhood nickname, Buttons.
• Fair Cop: Leslie.
• Fake Crossover: "Republic of Murdoch" on Murdoch Mysteries features Murdoch and Crabtree pursuing a murder suspect to Newfoundland and, as the title would suggest, said suspect appears to be an identical ancestor of Jake Doyle. Obviously, due to the time difference, the two shows don't technically crossover themselves. This episode is followed by the 'Doyle episode "If the Shoe Fits", where Yannick Bisson guest stars as the implied Identical Grandson of Murdoch.
• Foreshadowing:
  • There are several quips near the latter half of season 4 about the Doyles having made a lot of enemies over the years after putting away so many powerful criminals. Come the season finale, where there's a prison break and many people realize that Jake and his family are going to be the targets of most of them - namely Taylor Gossard, Kevin Crocker, and Maurice Becker.
  • Season 5 episode "Firecracker" deals with Leslie possibly being pregnant, and therefore Jake is very concerned about whether he'd be a good father or not. The episode ends with Leslie being not pregnant - but the strong implication that Jake has already fathered a child in the Suspect of the Week Sloan. It's believed confirmed later in "Young Guns", but ultimately subverted near the end of season 6 when it's revealed that Sloan had been conning Jake all along.
• Frame-Up: The entire premise of season six (and the end of season five), as Jake has been framed for the murder of ex-mayor William Cadigan Clark.
• Freudian Excuse: Katherine Doyle (Tinny's mother) has appeared, and what with her sleeping around, reputation for being an airhead and generally not a good role model, it's no wonder Tinny is the way she is.
• Friend on the Force:
  • Leslie to Jake (and Malachy) from the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.
  • Not so much as of season three after Jake's idiot moment in season two.
  • Tinny is one as of Season 4, she's a cadet (and later constable) with the RNC.
• Generic Graffiti: In the earlier episodes, Des is usually seen tagging areas all over St. John's.
• Happily Ever After: The epilogue of the series finale, which takes place at Des and Tinny's wedding and reveals that Jake and Leslie are (presumably) married with two kids and another on the way.
• Hard Head: Jake gets hit in the face/ head at least once an episode, yet never suffers any long term damage.
• Heroic Lineage: Mal, Jake, and Tinny are all cops (though Jake quits and Mal is retired before the start of the series).
• Hero's Classic Car: Has a '68 Pontiac GTO as the heroes' main transportation. Fitting as the show was partly an Homage to 70s-style detective shows.
• Heel–Face Turn: Kevin Crocker, of all people. Well, mostly.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: How the Doyle team deal with a bad situation.
• Homage: Interviews with the ROD cast/crew reveal that the show was made partially as a homage to detective shows written and shown on TV during the 1970s with car and foot chases being the norm alongside detective work.
• Hostage For Macguffin
• How We Got Here: Many episodes start with some kind of ridiculous or dangerous situation, then flashback to however many hours earlier.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: A client loses all of her memories, but can recall names from her past that she used as a con artist.
• Little Miss Con Artist: Sloan, big time.
• Local Hangout: The Duke
• Luke, You Are My Father:
  • Tinny, to Kevin Crocker.
  • Later, Sloan tried to do this to Jake himself, but he eventually finds out she was conning him.
• Married to the Job: Tinny's mother had to travel for work, and Tinny was sent to live with Rose and Malachy.
• Mugged for Disguise: A female art thief does this to Constable Hayward in one episode, leaving her Bound and Gagged in her undies.
• New Old Flame: Callum, Leslie's husband who faked his death to go undercover eight years ago.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Jake uses Leslie's police code to aid in breaking out a convicted felon who had kidnapped Des and Tinny. She gets fired as a result, and now seemingly despises Jake.
• Noodle Incident: We're never explicitly told why Tinny is living with her grandparents in the first season. In the second she reveals that her mom ditched her to travel for work.
  • The origin of Jake's childhood nickname, Buttons, is also never explained.
• One Bullet Left: Subverted in "Dating Game," when Leslie and Jake are trapped in the van with one bullet left in Leslie's gun. Instead of using it to shoot the villains who are trying to break into the van (impractical since there are two of them), Leslie uses it to shoot a booby-trapped can of spray paint, temporarily incapitating the baddies.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Played mostly straight in "Dating Game" when Jake is shot in the shoulder. Despite... swooning (for lack of a better word) several times from the injury/ blood loss, he repeatedly escapes from the hospital to help Leslie with the investigation, and is perfectly fine by the next episode.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Tinny's actual name, Katrina, isn't revealed until season 3.
• Out of Focus: Nikki starting with season 2. Walter and Kathleen beginning in season 5.
• Papa Wolf: Subverted. Malachy could usually care less about Jake. He loves him, he just... doesn't like him very much.
• Put on a Bus: This happened to Malachy, Rose, and Tinny by the second season finale, and then to Christian as of mid-season three. Happens to Sloan in season six, after her con is revealed she tells Jake that she's going back to her aunt who lives in Gander.
  • The Bus Came Back: Rose and Malachy return in the season 3 premiere, and Tinny's back too - apparently she never left for London.
  • Happened to Kathleen, Christian and Sloan as of season six.
• The Precious, Precious Car: Jakes loves his GTO. He's distraught when it gets destroyed in by a bomb in Season 3, and subsequently elated in season 4 when Des tracks down all the parts and puts it back together - even though it ends up spending most of the season also being The Alleged Car.
• Putting the Band Back Together: In the third season premiere, Tinny is in London, Rose and Malachy are retired, Des is in college, and Leslie is unemployed, and then a traffic cop. Although Tinny went to London, went to enroll in the high school, couldn't do it and snuck back home.
• "Rashomon"-Style: The episode "Mirror, Mirror" does this as Jake, Becker, and later Mal attempt to relate a series of events to Leslie. Surprisingly (or maybe not), Jake's telling is by far the most straightforward.
• Retirony: Parodied in S 3 E 11 when a phone in the police station is shot and Jake's remarks that the phone had two weeks left before retiring.
• Revealing Cover-Up: One episode begins with Des being arrested (while wearing a snorkel) after robbing a convenience store and a male strip club while drunk, and leading every police officer in St. John's across the city to distract them from the real target that evening, a priceless statue.
• Romantic False Lead: Constable Greyson between Tinny and Des.
• Rogues Gallery: "Big" Charlie Archer, Martin Poole, Taylor Gauthier, Kevin Crocker, and Maurice Becker are just a few of the criminals that Jake and the rest of his family have had to deal with several times over. Jake would likely include Garrison Steele as well.
• Running Gag:
  • Jake gets beat up and hit in the head while Malachy stands by and does nothing to help. It happens almost Once an Episode.
    • Malachy's been on the receiving end of this as well (when Gerhardt smashed a vase on his back, for example), but Jake's usually the one being flattened. It's almost like Malachy wants him to develop some mettle. Or perhaps it's just for the lulz.
  • Jimmy's leg getting broken (and then walloped over and over with various blunt objects while it's in a cast) in the season three opener. All his subsequent appearances feature him getting injured in some way almost every time he appears in a scene.
    • He also gets hit by a car about once an episode. In season five he actually managed to avoid the car itself... but the driver nailed him with an open door.
• Second Love: Rose, after her husband went to jail, hit it off with Malachy. Malachy is a widower himself.
• Shirtless Scene: Jake takes his shirt off often and nobody complains. Des starts getting in on the action in season 5 with his subplot about trying to buff up to impress...well, everyone really.
• Shout-Out: The title of the fifth season premier: "Bon Cop, Bueno Cop".
• Sitcom Archnemesis: Garrison Steele to Jake.
• Smokescreen Crime: One episode begins with Des being arrested (while wearing a snorkel) after robbing a convenience store and a male strip club while drunk, and leading every police officer in St. John's across the city to distract them from the real target that evening, a priceless statue.
• Soft Glass: Jake smashes a glass against the head of a thug. It shatters and knocks the guy out but neither Jake or the thug seem to have been cut by the glass shards.
  • Same thing happens in the third season, with the same results.
• Special Guest: Russell Crowe, who is personal friends with star Allan Hawco, guest starred in an episode.
• Status Quo Is God: While Rose and Malachy's retirement, Leslie's unemployment and Jake's return to the police force last nearly a year in-universe, they are all over by the end of the third season premiere.
• Tagalong Kid: Des. In season 5, Sloan gets in on the action - although she's much more competent then Des was when he joined.
• Team Mom: Rose.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Arguably, Tinny and Leslie as of season three.
• Undercover Cop Reveal: Alicia, in the series finale.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Between Des and Tinny. There was a big damn kiss in the season two finale, but then Tinny left to go to England except she actually didn't, but Des didn't know that and Des began dating Chandra. Things became complicated and remained that way even after Chandra left the picture, until it was seemingly resolved with another big damn kiss near the end of season 4. Except now Tinny is seeing Constable Greyson.
• Voice with an Internet Connection: Rose.
• Wham Episode:
  • Season three's finale - Jake wins the fight with Sonia, disarms her, then hears a gasp of pain behind him. He turns, and Des has been shot in the stomach and is bleeding heavily.
  • "Firecracker" and "Young Guns" in season 5: the former implies, and the latter confirms, that Jake is Sloan's father... at least until season six, when Sloan's half-sister shows up and informs the Doyles that Sloan has been conning them all along.
  • "Gun for Hire" introduces Callum, Leslie's previously-believed-to-be-dead husband.
  • The ending of season five's "Brothers In Arms". Malachy gets shot and nearly dies.
• Wham Line:
  • Season 5 episode "Gun for Hire", when Jake and Leslie are discussing Callum.
  Jake: He's your boyfriend, isn't he?
  Leslie: He's my husband.
• Wham Shot: The early season five episode "Firecracker" has Sloan, the Suspect of the Week, looking at a picture of her dead mom and a picture of Jake. Then she looks in the mirror and realizes her resemblance to both.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Tinny gets one after she cheats on Des with her ex-boyfriend. Interestingly enough, she's the one giving it to herself while Des tries to encourage her.
• Where It All Began: Subtle, but there's some interesting wedding graffiti in the background of the epilogue of the series finale, presumably done by Des. The series began with Jake chasing down Des for his graffiti.
• Woman Scorned: Monica Hayward. Yikes. She nearly ruins both Jake and Leslie, but thankfully Leslie manages to put an end to her shenanigans.
• Wrong Guy First: Rose's first husband was a drug dealer.

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