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.
You just over forty years in your comment (The Walton's debued in '72) and you named two shows (last year is shown in parenthesis), hardly a strong record.
There may indeed be 'many others', but I am sure the number is low and the ratings lower compared to most of the tripe on TV.
He was lance white in a few episodes of Rockford as a practically perfect PI. I prefer that over magnum which was an OK series.
There were several good laughs in the recent 'high school reunion' episode.
The Shah-Reese thing is starting to be somewhat akin to the early “Moonlighting” interactions.
OH Joe Magnum PI is on COZI TV on Thursdays
Also on weekday Monday thru Friday
I like the reality show Wahlburgers his brother Paul is chef they drive each other crazy
That show got renew coming back this summer
It could just be that I'm almost completely weaned from TV.
I love Blue Bloods and look forward to watching it every week. I’m annoyed whenever it’s pre-empted.
The only problem I have with it, as a Catholic, is that they seem to be CINOs.
CBS hated “Touched by an Angel.” They kept it on the air only because it was a major hit. When the program showed the first signs of fading, they cancelled it. In reality, the show probably had another two or three years in it, and if it had been a “secular” program, CBS would have postponed cancellation until after its 10th or 11th season.
In the executive suite at CBS, “Touched by an Angel” was referred to as “Touched in the Head” I kid you not. Additionally, the network made no attempt to sign the series executive producer (Martha Williamson) for a new show after “Angel” left the air. Her latest series is airing on the Hallmark Channel.
I know it was renewed. It gets HORRID numbers in the 18-49 important area. The show’s average age is about 62 years old.
The actress paying the daughter Erin (Bridget Moynahan) was also one of the barmaids in Coyote Ugly...
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvj2wu_bridget-moynahan-cool-dance-coyote-ugly-saloon_shortfilms
Other than ME-TV and a liitle BBC America, I watch almost no broadcast stuff. I used to be an addict.
I prefer producing my own stuff granted its stock footage and some photos.
Probably more libertarian than conservative, some of his movies are very unconservative
Of course that age group doesn't watch it. Most of them don't get the family values thing, or a family sitting down to dinner together. The younger group is too busy getting laid, or getting drunk or high, to be concerned about watching that type of program, especially one on a Friday night.
I'm 66, and have been watching it since it began. They've cancelled a lot of good programs because of their reliance on the 18-49 ratings. I guess they don't think that old farts like me watch TV at night. I stay up until 3 or 4 a.m. in the morning. I'm not one of those retirees who has to be in bed by 8 p.m., and up at the crack of dawn every morning. I don't watch any live TV either. I record everything to DVR, because I hate commercials.
Surprised the network permits the praying.
***
But they always say the wrong words in the Catholic “Grace Before Meals”.
We just do not watch TV so-called dramas or comedies, but we have probably DVRd and watched about 2/3 of the episodes. This show is pretty good, IMO. They do sneak in leftist ideology here and there. I think the finest acting is from Walberg (sp?) and the woman who plays his sister Erin. The guy who plays the younger brother Jamie is just awful in the acting department.
Oh, and apparently Reagan’s wife passed away without teaching that bunch table manners. What’s with the elbows on the table?
Oh, I am sure. I often roll my eyes at how personally involved they get in the cases. One would just not have the time, for one thing. And for another, it would just be too draining emotionally.
Also, the brother cop and sister prosecutor would not be allowed to talk together about any of their work, much less work together the way they have so often.
Oh, well, it’s TV.
I love Person of Interest too. I’m watching this past week’s episode as I write. I see it’s been renewed for a 4th season too. Miss Shaw is one tough cookie, and I like Detective Fusco’s character too, and of course, Jim Caviezel is awesome. I was really bummed out when Carter got killed off.
Yeah, those two episodes ticked me off. As did the one in which Erin, the prosecutor, comes home early to find that her daughter has been “studying” in her bedroom with her boyfriend. The mother-daughter talk that followed really got my blood pressure up.
I will not be surprised when said daughter comes out as a lesbian. When that happens, I will not watch that show again.
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