Keeping the Blue Blood Pumping
Pleased to make the cover of the Washington Examiner Magazine…
Some years back, as my Dad lay dying, I’d go visit him at the nursing home every chance I could. Heading down the corridors to his room, carrying the chocolates and ice cream he always asked for, all the patients’ battered old TVs would be blasting at maximum volume, almost always the same program resounding through the hallways. My Dad was usually blaring MSNBC, but just about everyone else was tuned into reruns of Blue Bloods.
In case you’re not familiar with the venerable procedural and multigenerational family saga headlined by Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg and haven’t seen every episode repeatedly, it’s a longtime mainstay of CBS Friday nights and generally the best thing on basic cable at any given moment. Over 13 seasons and counting, it’s become a cozy institution: the heroic yet imperfect Reagan family (no relation to Ronald) often clashing on their tireless quests for justice but always managing to gather for the iconic Sunday dinners that have anchored nearly 300 episodes since 2010.
Showcasing as it does a couple of generations of deeply Catholic New York City police commissioners and their array of offspring, Blue Bloods is at the very least an implicitly conservative program and at times goes to bat on hot-button political issues like bail reform. When it premiered during Barack Obama’s first term, there were some relatable righties on mainstream television contributing to the conversation, such as Alec Baldwin on 30 Rock, Nick Offerman on Parks and Recreation, et al. But that sort of pop cultural archetype soon vanished, especially once Donald Trump took office, and Blue Bloods has become essentially the last standard bearer on network television of anything the slightest bit center-right.
In recent years, the television business has been fragmenting; a few decades ago, a prime-time network broadcast could draw tens of millions of viewers. Today, with the market increasingly splintered, even hit shows get a tiny sliver of the viewership once taken for granted. Taking soaring production costs into account, even the scripted series with relatively high ratings aren’t guaranteed renewal when the time slot might be more profitable with a news magazine or game show.
And so it was disappointing but not altogether surprising when the announcement went out a few months back that Blue Bloods was to be canceled at the end of an abbreviated 14th season, even after the cast reportedly agreed to take substantial pay cuts to try to keep things rolling. It’s an understandable if foolish corporate decision; shooting in New York City with a large cast in this day and age doesn’t make much economic sense anymore.
When I first tuned in to Blue Bloods, I admit, I’d rolled my eyes at the sometimes heavy-handed dialogue and frequently paint-by-number subplots of the week. It was a far cry from the rarefied premium content I’d typically discuss at farm-to-table restaurants among my fellow Manhattan professionals. And yet, over the years, Blue Bloods has proved far more enduring and meaningful than any of the prestige miniseries that have turned out fleeting and ephemeral despite initial media buzz.
Simply put, the series is pure comfort food, and it genuinely sticks to the ribs. The traditional magic of episodic television has typically been that everything more or less returns to square one by the beginning of the next installment, which Blue Bloods has always maintained aside from major romances and deaths. But season by season, with the protagonists getting more lined and weathered handling awfully similar material again and again, and with their now adult children aging into rare cameo appearances, there’s more and more accumulated gravity and resonance: the family mostly intact (but for a murdered wife plus a cancer-stricken matriarch and a sibling killed before the show began) and still on the job after all this time.
Somehow, that lets Blue Bloods get away with some plot points that really shouldn’t work: most notably, the sudden introduction of a previously unknown new grandson in season 10. By all rights, it should have felt preposterous, a jump-the-shark moment if ever there was one. But the relationships on the show are so strong and ingrained, almost as though the Reagans are real people, that what should have felt silly and contrived was strangely powerful and became a meaningful addition to the family.
In season 14 thus far, things have felt awkwardly rushed, with plot lines jumbled together and unfolding too quickly. The truth is, there are way too many threads and characters from the last 13 years to resolve in just 15 more episodes. Is Frank really ready to retire all of a sudden? How about Danny’s long-simmering relationship with his beautiful partner, Detective Baez? What about Jamie and Eddie finally getting pregnant? What will become of Erin and her dashing ex-husband? Does Henry have one last case in him? Will Anthony’s surrogate son ever come back? What about Joe, Nicky, and the rest of the next generation? Millions of viewers, some old and others yet unborn, need to know.
Is Blue Bloods still as great as it was back in season 2? No, and so far this year, it’s not even as good as it was in season 13. But it remains a damn fine show, and an institution, and the Reagan family means enough to enough viewers that they deserve a more honorable send-off than abrupt cancellation.
Considering potential reruns and syndication for decades to come, the cancellation couldn’t be any more shortsighted. In this atomized age, with more and more viewers lonely and isolated, the Reagans and company feel more like a lot of people’s real family than their actual relations. The show is as warm and comfortable and familiar as one’s favorite old pair of slippers and is the last of its kind. As a sign of respect, and a lucrative opportunity to syndicate some more episodes, let’s hope CBS sees reason and greenlights season 15 for a proper farewell.
Read at the Washington Examiner Magazine…
Next: Clash of the Titans!
A straight, white Irish, Catholic family, with biological male and female husband and wife roles? One that follows a moral code and the law and does the right thing if the law needs to be bent to correct a wrong. Such a TV program cannot be allowed to stand in 2024. People might get the right (is that allowed?) idea on how to live life.