Not Your Typical Cop Drama... THANKFULLY

As premiere week finally drew to a close and Friday was upon me, I couldn’t help but smile at the knowledge that I was presumably done blogging about new shows for a while and was giddy to get back to the business of writing about shows I already love (the Castle and Vampire Diaries premieres were off-the-hook fabulous). Sure I skipped a few pilots (I think the only ones I didn’t screen at all were Chase, Mike & Molly, and Outsourced), but by and large, I watched them all, for good or bad (sadly, mostly bad). I DVRed CBS’ Friday night offering, and definitely had plans to watch it, but didn’t have any intention of blogging about it. Well, in a bizarre twist of fate, new show Blue Bloods is actually an interesting family drama/character piece masquerading as a random cop show. Given the relative lack of decent pilots this season, I’m compelled to write about this one just to give a little balance to the good and the bad.


It wasn’t a perfect show or anything, but I found myself interested and intrigued from start to finish. I expected it would by your typical genre show, but it’s actually a serious drama about multiple generations of a New York family, many of whom happen to be cops. The show centers around patriarch Tom Selleck as chief of police Frank Reagan, his father, the former chief, and his children, a homicide detective (Donnie Wahlberg…ugh), an assistant DA (Bridget Moynahan), and a Harvard law student turned rookie cop (Will Estes). It’s not a cop show in the same way that Nurse Jackie isn’t a medical show. The fact that those are their professions is largely incidental. Sure it sets the scene and creates a universe for these people to exist, but it’s more about how the characters interact with this world and with each other rather than the world itself. As I’ve mentioned in previously, when you’ve seen enough genre shows and have sat through more than a few legal dramas, medical shows, and crime procedurals, it simply has to come down to characters. The cases of the week quickly become secondary to interpersonal dynamics and character development because if you’ve seen one murder mystery, car accident, or missing kid, you’ve seen them all.

Indeed, when a young girl was kidnapped, I feared Blue Bloods had started veering down the path of standard cop show. In some ways, this pseudo-victim-of-the-week was the weakest part of the pilot. Just when it wasn’t horrible enough that a girl had been kidnapped, she also happens to be a diabetic so the cops are forced to find her within 24 hours or she’s dead for sure. I assumed this was yet another lame device used by shows to add suspense. The “ticking clock” can be useful and all, but it usually comes across as little more than a ploy. In terms of the A-plot, that’s an apt description, but the ways in which this storyline affects the characters marks a clear divergence from the norm and is the reason this pilot was so successful. Because of the ticking clock, Wahlberg’s character brutalizes a suspect in order to find the girl in time. As such, the evidence gathered might be inadmissible and the pedophile might walk because of his actions. This situation raised a lot of questions about justice, law enforcement, and the use of force. The family comes down on both sides of the debate, some saluting Wahlberg’s actions, others condemning. While hearing Selleck’s character justify the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” was fairly stomach-churning, there are absolutely people out there who believe torture is valid and the A-plot for this pilot helped bring the debate to the table (quite literally in this case as family dinner turns into a bit of blood bath). Both sides of the debate were represented, although I do wish the liberal side of the table had pointed out the obvious: it doesn’t matter where you fall on this issue, Wahlberg’s actions almost let a pedophile walk. Anyway, their heated discussion was uncomfortable to watch (what with my wanting to jump in every two seconds but not being able to), but it brought a very serious and relevant issue into the television dialogue and that was a refreshing change of pace. Most shows would have shied away from the ramifications of police brutality, usually heralding the abuser as a hero, but Blue Bloods put it front and center. If that weren’t enough, the girl who was kidnapped was Hispanic, bringing issues of race and police response to the forefront as well. This show seemed to go out of its way to take a standard cop show cliché and build actual characters around it.

This is a show about people, a family, and the effects that enforcement can have on that family. While I didn’t like some of the characters and often disagreed with their political views, they were all compelling and well-founded. It didn’t seem that half the family landed on one side of the issue and the other have on the other side in a convenient bid for drama. The set-ups for each of these characters made their responses to the issues before them logical, or at the very least, believable. Tom Selleck does a very nice job playing the patriarch, the enforcer, the boss, and the politician. He anchors the family and the show with a decisive, but open hand. The rest of the cast is equally strong, with the possible exception of Donnie Wahlberg… Bridget Moynahan is excellent as strong, smart assistant DA Erin and Will Estes excels at convincing me that he’s smart enough to have been a Harvard lawyer, but that he has always wanted to be a cop. In all honesty, Wahlberg did a respectable job in his role, I just can’t stand him as an actor. I can’t even really put a finger on it, but there’s just something about him that’s completely off-putting. The fact that his character is equally unlikable to me actually makes this perfect casting, I suppose. I assume he’ll grown on me, and his character wasn’t completely without merit, but my initial response is mostly negative. His acting was fine and all (although he had about 80% more accent than any of his family—maybe he was recently adopted...), so maybe it’s just that I don’t find him physically appealing at all. I hate to admit my shallowness here, but I just don’t find him attractive in any respect, either physically or personalitally (ohh, it’s a word). Although I guess the shallowness comes as little surprise given that I’ve officially watched five seasons of Criminal Minds because Matthew Gray Gubler is beautiful (okay, that’s not the only reason, but it's first on the list).

Anyway, the base concept is solid and the pilot went a long way to set up a world for these characters to inhabit. This show is far more than your standard cop show and that’s a lovely surprise. To boot, it’s a serial, which always wins points in my book. I watch a number of shows that are one-off procedurals (the kinds of shows where you can skip a dozen episodes then come back to the show and feel like you haven’t missed a thing), but they’re never my favorites. Even shows that technically have case-of-the-week type elements need something more for me. So, when I get a show that’s truly a serial, I sit up and take notice. Along with the social and political issues and the multi-generational family dynamic, the pilot also sets up an intriguing story arc regarding the death of the fourth Reagan child in the line of duty. Not all is what it seems and police rookie Will Estes gets drawn into a conspiracy that might very well indict his fellow police officers and even his family.

I was surprised by this show. It had some elements that I would change and the occasional genre cliché, but more than anything it’s a solid family drama that isn’t afraid to examine hot-button issues. There’s only so much that can fit into 42 minutes, so certain aspects of the show were a little more convenient than I’d prefer, but the show makes it work. Given that it airs on Fridays, I didn’t think it would perform very well, but it actually won the night, getting a 2.2 rating in the key demo and 12.8 million total. That’s not bad for any night, but on a Friday at 9 pm? Quite impressive. Hell, it fared better than Undercovers by a long shot and killed its atrocious timeslot competitor Outlaw. In all my ratings predictions, I never saw that coming. Fortunately, it’s deserving of the attention and certainly deserving of my eyes than J.J. Abrams’ boring, uninspired dramedy. It’s not often that quality actually wins out in the ratings department, but it happens.

If cop shows aren’t you cup of tea (or even if they are), Blue Bloods has a lot to offer and a solid foundation on which to build. It could go in a lot of different directions and I’m happy to see where it ends up. Plus, the fact that it airs on Fridays is an added bonus in my book, what with total lack of scheduling conflicts.

I’m as shocked as you are, and maybe it’s the pilot fatigue talking, but based on the pilot, Blue Bloods one is worth a shot.

Pilot Grade: B