Posted on 04/05/2014 11:23:38 AM PDT by JoeProBono
The television season’s best surprise is easily Blue Bloods starring Tom Selleck as the New York City Police Commissioner, and the head of a multi-generational family of cops. What looked in trailers to be a clunky cop drama is both a surprisingly original take on the genre and a provocative look at some hot-button issues.
But looking at the lineage of Blue Bloods would have given us a clue. Producers Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green have a lot of Sopranos episodes under their belts, (another family drama in a crime context) and Tom Selleck—other than a brief stint on Vegas—has been pretty choosy about his projects of late.
In a mere 7 episodes, Blue Bloods has taken on enhanced interrogation, profiling, vigilantism, and restrictions on the kinds of force a cop can use to protect his life. And while both sides of the issue are presented fairly, this is a show from a cop point of view, starring one of Hollywood’s most prominent conservatives.
And it’s just cool that perhaps the number one 80s television icon makes his big return in a show as a character named Reagan.Selleck nicely underplays Commissioner Frank Reagan as a dignified fatherly type, though we get hints that he was a singularly tough cop. Donnie Wahlberg (in yet another classy cop role) is his oldest son, Danny, a senior detective and Iraq War veteran, while daughter Erin (Bridget Monyhan) is an assistant D.A., and youngest son Jamie (Will Estes) is a rookie cop, though an Ivy League law school grad.
Veteran actor Len Cariou rounds out the cast as Frank’s father, a former police commissioner himself, whose fall from grace has so far only been hinted at.
The show does a nice job of bringing the family together and showing how the job effects every aspect of every family members life—both the rewards and the stresses—usually around Frank’s Sunday dinner table. The relationships there are convincing enough to turn what might have been a clunky cliché—the family of Irish Catholic cops—into a really effective (and affecting) part of the show.
Blue Bloods takes the opportunity of having the Reagans at every level of law enforcement to explore issues; and so far without seeming too forced—though it does seem like a Reagan is in the thick of every controversial case in New York City. If the show wants to run for years, that is something that will have to be opened up to guest stars.
But up to now, the device has worked beautifully. In the pilot episode, (which owed a lot to Dirty Harry) Danny waterboards a murderous pedophile in a toilet to force the location of the creep’s diabetic victim before time runs out. Then Danny, of course, lands in hot water.
A few weeks later, the Counter-Terrorism Task Force, which has been surveilling a Muslim radical message board raids the apartment after the bomber has already left. Both the necessity and the limits of profiling were examined in a gripping episode with a nice twist.
Blue Bloods can’t live forever on issue-oriented shows, (and I really hope it doesn’t become dominated by the conspiratorial back story it introduced in the pilot) but it has shown it can handle a standard crime plot, a good sign. And with its engaging cast and the smart people running things, I’d say this has the potential to be classic television.
And it’s just plain great to have Tom Selleck back in a worthy project on a weekly basis.
We most certainly would have known if he HAD repented. The homo-Gestapo would have told us loud and clear.
I like POI as a window into the dystopian digital future (and the humor to help escape from the present).
Contrast with what Donnie Wahlberg's more successful brother Mark is producing at HBO.
Gee...I remember a time when everybody wanted to beat up Donnie Whalberg!
Yup. I DVR POI too, though, as you say, it’s way out there. And I like hot gun totin’ women.
Really like the show, but he’ll always be Thomas Magnum to me. When I watch re-runs of Magnum PI, I marvel at Selleck, Hillerman, and especially Bellasario. Just great television.
CSI New York was surprisingly conservative, lead by conservative Gary Sinise playing conservative Detective Mac Taylor.
Those weekly dinners with family are some of the best scenes of the series. The characters debate their feelings (both liberal and conservative) yet at the same time the adults shelter the kids through non-explicit discussion.
A current, minor, plot thread is how the youngest cop will get a “normal” promotion without any appearance of nepotism. An episode from a previous season included a scene that illustrated the whole family is aware they have targets painted on them - one of the characters “hit the deck” when a code phrase was uttered.
I also like the Jessie Stone movies. They are, in my opinion, a rare case where the movies are better than the books.
Agreed. It's nice to see a "family" having a meal together.
Looks like it’s gonna’ become your fave, only one Justified left. And it’s going to have to be a doozy! I can’t think they would possibly leave Eva in prison. And if Wendy needs some comforting over Kendall, I’m on my way to Harlan County!!
Latest from Zap2it:
10:00 Show Rating Viewers/millions
CBS Blue Bloods 1.5/5 11.40
ABC 20/20 1.5/5 6.33
NBC Hannibal 0.8/3 2.32
I did a brief stint in Armed Forces Police in NYC in 1967. We were covering an antiwar protest at White Hall Street with the NYPD.
An old NYPD Sargent looked at some FBI suit running around and looking impressive before the cameras and said, “Kid, the three biggest lies in the world are Home Cooking, Home F##king, and the FBI.” Never forgot that.
One or two of my extended family don't like the weekly dinner scene. I think it adds spice...no pun intended.
Even their one or two anti-Catholic TV caricature type shows treated the Catholic Church with respect, not only in attitudes of the actors, but in script conclusions.
The show does, indeed, employ some fantasy, but what cop show doesn't? It took a good part of the first season for the actors to get comfortable in their roles. An interesting test will be what they do when any of the actors move on to bigger and better things. For today it provides a escape that I like to anticipate.
“Really like the show, but he’ll always be Thomas Magnum to me. When I watch re-runs of Magnum PI, I marvel at Selleck, Hillerman, and especially Bellasario. Just great television.”
Blue Bloods is my aging mother’s favorite show. We always ask if TJ is in this episode, that always gets a rise out of her.
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