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.
My favorite show.
Surprised the network permits the praying.
I hear those scenes take all morning into afternoon
I just couldn’t get into it. I would rather he would do more Jesse Stone Movies for TV. I can’t get enough of them!
The author makes the show seem interesting.
Yet, it seems to me pure fantasy.
I love this show, but Friday night????? Horrible night to be on. It is LUCKY that CBS is so generous to this show. The ratings are horrid.
Can’t really forgive Selleck for playing a fag in the homo-propaganda film “In and Out.” Unless someone can point to proof that he has repented of this contribution to present day homo-fascism, he is complicit in it still.
Surprised the network permits the praying.
Oh brother. The network allowed Touch by an Angel, Waltons, and so so many other incredible family shows. CBS is really the best network of them all. They just have to work on their comedies….they are a bit on the raunchy side.
Six guys I grew up with were on the NYPD. None of them cared about any case 1/10 as much as depicted on this show.
I love Blue Bloods.
That was on decades ago. Perhaps he was strapped for money. Maybe he confessed his sins. We don’t know.
I watched it for the first time last week and it centered on the knock out game. And they didn’t PCify it. They clearly went after the young black gangs. And even mocked the PCness of politicians. The writers are not liberal.
“multi-generational family of cops” should be illegal because it breeds arrogance, contempt, and aloofness from other types of works in life.:
viz.
I, Perchance, being of the ignorant peon class,
would proffer the following proposition:
A. for a legislature bill that in each state for local, state and federal agencies that all law enforcement personnel be restricted by LAW to a maximum of 5 years on a public police/peace officer/state trooper etc., taxpayer funded institution employed position. Said law would allow only a one-time 5-year hire for the entire life of the officer/LEO. Said law would not allow said ex-officer to be hired again by ANY LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY or private security company ANYWHERE IN THE USA for employment in the USA. This would allow new citizens to be hired FROM THE PEOPLE who are uncontaminated by the “master-race syndrome” of present day LEO`s. This would prevent abuses by former bad cops going into private industry employment marketplace.
This would include ALL FEDERAL AGENCIES including EPA, DHS, BORDER PATROL, IRS Etc. [US MILITARY EXCLUDED]
B. No more than one member from each three generation family [grandfather-father-grandson/daughter etc.] would be allowed to be hired as a police office each 20 years.
This would obfuscate the hand-me-down illegal “me-master-family-you -peon attitude of present day police families.
C. Every year each police office would be required to take a required course on the U.S. Constitution and their respective state constitutions addressing the Second Amendment historical bases, precedents, principles and practices up to the year 1914.
No gun control classes would be allowed by any police officer as it would result in his/her/it immediate dismissal.
After said 5 years, no more duty would be available unless it is a national emergency call-up terrorist attack from a foreign-based country.
This would offset the arrogant -cop-for-life milieu that illicitly pervades America`s armed police.
Blue Bloods is my favorite TV show, second only to Justified.
This season we have a case on drag queens and we find out that Detective Danny Reagan is a big fan because he followed them on a reality show. He refers to the men by their female on stage names as a sign of respect then goes to the draq queen bar after the case is over to grab a drink.
Then on another show he goes out of his way to protect a closeted Hollywood A lister. Hollywood star goes under cover to help him get a mugger and they become pals based on mutual respect.
Danny Reagan is the go to Detective for the LGBT club.
Still, having said all that, one of the least liberal shows on TV. Do I DVR it.
Some of the women are hot.
You need to check your facts. The program has been renewed for a fifth season. Viewers average between 11 and 12 million each week.
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