If you want to ride-a-long with one new cop drama this fall, let it be 'Blue Bloods'

September 17th, 2010 7:14 am PT

Tom Selleck & Donnie Wahlberg of 'Blue Bloods' in Los Angeles

Photo: (c) Danielle Turchiano, 2010

There are a couple of new cop dramas coming to television this fall season, and while they all feature characters who get too personally invested in their cases, only one of them manages to mix personal and professional lives in a non-formulaic, non-forced way. That stand-out is CBS' Blue Bloods, starring Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg as a father-son police team.
In the earliest moments of the Blue Bloods pilot, director Michael Cuesta alternates between shots of the various Reagan family members getting dressed in their finest for a big event and images of seemingly nameless, faceless inhabitants of the city they have sworn to love and protect: New York. On top of it all is a mix of Frank Sinatra and Selleck himself, as he gives a speech to the 2010 graduating class of the NYPD, which holds none other than another one of his on-screen kids (played by Will Estes), to drive the importance of their oath home. And as Selleck reminds them all of that oath and how the threats that surround them grow daily, the audience watches as a little girl walks home alone from school only to cross paths with an unmarked white van...and not continue on her merry way.
Sure, after starting so unequivocally strong, the pilot falters slightly and relies on a stretch of heavily expositional dialogue to explain that literally every member of this clan is also a member of law enforcement-- even the one that was killed too soon. The leads in the case Wahlberg's character picks up are a bit too easy in order to wrap up the procedural elements quicker and get to the heart of the show. They also blow their musical wad a bit early by utilizing just about every iconic track with "New York" in the title and/or chorus, including the always welcome "New York State of Mind" by Jay-Z. However, these are minor infractions that can easily be overlooked by the rich storytelling that unfolds within the forty-five minutes of the episode.
Blue Bloods is not just a boys' club, by the way. Bridget Moynahan is another Reagan who works in law enforcement as an A.D.A. and Amy Carlson is Wahlberg's wife, which is something of a thankless role right now. But the show promises to feature weekly family dinners where the large clan get together and (raucously) discuss family and police business alike so characters will continue to be expanded as time goes on.
Those dinners will also prove to be catalysts for tension, as things get said that maybe certain people shouldn't hear, advice gets given that perhaps shouldn't be said aloud, and of course debates get going of both political and emotional nature. After all, Moynahan's character already finds herself on the prosecuting end of her brother (Wahlberg)'s police brutality accusations in the pilot, and chances are that won't be the only time the lines cross!
Though much of the show's emotional meat seems to lie on Estes' shoulders-- as the "baby" of the family, he is overprotected while still being held to extremely high standards-- Wahlberg stoically carries much of the procedural plot of this particular episode the same way his character carries the weight of following in his father's footsteps on his shoulders.
Estes fits the role of relative "newb" here; a former law student, he joined the police academy after his brother was killed and is just about to embark on the life of a uniform, claiming it is what he has really wanted this whole time. But whether or not that is true remains to be seen. The stakes are high, and the story lines vast, promising lots to come in the episodes after the premiere! ...And that's even before he gets pulled in a little deeper with an internal investigation on a secret "Skull and Bones" type society within the NYPD.
Wahlberg, then, is the seasoned pro, a detective who has seen it all and called upon to instruct the rookies. Their father is the chief of police and has been since both of them were but boys playing cops and robbers in their backyard; he is trotted out now for press conferences and speeches. It is immediately clear, then, that the true drama within Blue Bloods lies in the fact that the younger Reagans are climbing the ranks to replace the elders-- and that is a bold statement to make about a professional industry, let alone also the mortality of a familial patriarch.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/tv-insider-in-los-angeles/if-you-want-to-ride-a-long-with-one-new-cop-drama-this-fall-let-it-be-blue-bloods