Return of Blue Bloods
10
Yay! I can't wait.
Desperately searching for something to occupy my mind while unemployed, I've been binge watching anything I can find which translates to anything even remotely palatable on Netflix, most recently including the cop melodrama, Blue Bloods. I've found its fictional NYC world of cops peculiarly familiar, addictive and calming. Up until the past week, I'd been limiting my bingeing to several episodes per day, making the supply last. Last night, the clock ran out, so I'm turning to writing about it.
During one of the last episodes of Season 7, the Reagan family goes around the table voicing what each might like to do in retirement. Now in my own premature retirement, I'd often thought of returning to "the road not taken" my undergraduate major, film criticism. Having wasted a couple of hundred hours watching Blue Bloods, I was curious to see what other viewers were saying. What I found, upon a superficial casting among just a few websites, was both a confirmation of my own reactions to a few characters, and reassurance, (if you could call it that) that my own "willing suspension of disbelief" about the relationship of Blue Blood's plots to any quantifiable level of reality is less than the acceptance by some viewers of Blue Blood's world and the characters in it as reality. Even in our dystopian, dumbed down Internet world, this comes as a somewhat frightening shock. An ex-cop commenting on the show finds too much shooting and too much liberal thinking going on. Everyone hates Nicky. Danny's offspring are non-starters. From there, the road diverges, but there seems to be little recognition of the show and its characters as fictional reviewers are too busy judging and commenting upon the character, politics and career choices of the seemingly too-real Reagans. But I digress I didn't come here to review the reviewers so let me get on with my own review. Let's start with what I like, and why I like it.
Tom Selleck OK, he's not perfect, but as he often quotes "not perfect doesn't disqualify good as an acceptable cop metric" or something like that. I love Frank Reagan's costumes really old, old school 3-piece suits, cardigans (with those funky old closures you haven't seen in twenty years but recognize) and even Frank's casual wear is wooly urban lumberjack. Everything he wears is impeccably nurdy. He clearly hasn't been shopping in decades; gotta love that. The Commissioner is still easy on the eyes at 72 but what happened to his hair-do? Its distressingly punk. Well, OK, it is New York. I found myself wondering what kind of face the mustache was hiding. And wondering if Frank would ever experiment with a different trim job. As an actor, let's say he could use greater diversity in his facial expressions/body language. Scrunching up his mouth and turning those stunning baby blues away from the camera in a downward glance telegraphs a man trying to contain his feelings in a very shorthand way, but it's overused. Maybe some of this narrow range could be attributed to a script that relentlessly frustrating to the Commissioner, but still might some of this boiling and barely-contained frustration be attributed to too many layers of worsted or a too-tight vest? I can't help but like Frank despite his crusty, stolid countenance. He's loving, brave and apparently straight. He is always fair and struggles hard to come up with comforting answers to life's toughest problems. He likes his whiskey and is loyal to his Catholic faith. He has good pals within and without the ranks of the police force he bosses. Frank Reagan is the kind of fantasy father many Irish American sons and daughters would have liked to have. And what's wrong with that? In Selleck's private life, it appears that he has ascribed to many of the same traditional core values as Frank Reagan. Over a long career, a 30-year marriage and showing involvement in philanthropy, Selleck seems like a consistently straight arrow and a very non-Hollywood dude. One Frank Reagan would like. Refreshing in today's sheep-like hipster celebrity culture.
My favorite, of course, is Jamie. So sweet, so true blue, so young, so honest. What, really, is there not to like about Jamie? He's educated, (Harvard law, no less) soft spoken, a good shot and so remorseful when he has to kill a perp. But most comments bemoan his seeming lack of ambition. Jamie is content, so he says, to remain at the bottom of the police totem pole, a beat walking cop. He does have some perks, however among them, a curvaceous, irreverent, outspoken blonde partner, who overtly announces her feelings for him. He admits the same, and they agree to remain in the closet about their mutual admiration. They're the comic relief team of the show and do it well. I find myself hoping that Jamie could evolve not to the rank of his father or grandfather, but to create his own role within the ranks as a trainer/educator of cops. I thought it was going that way with his appointment to a commission regarding police interaction with the mentally ill, but this thread wasn't developed. Not dramatic enough, probably.
Then there's Danny. It's a lot harder for me to love a workaholic with a permanent 5 o'clock shadow. Danny shoots, shouts and always ends up on the short end of the shtick, so it seems. He's an underdog posing as the martyr, giving us flashes of selflessness as well as arrogance. Danny's character, and that of his partner, Baez, are to me the least believable roles in the show. Baez well, let's just say she puts on her lipstick with a shovel and her lines with a repeat button. And those ringlets, eyes rolling, characteristic head tilt expressing what? Confusion, it would seem. Whoa! Her predecessor was SO much more interesting, everyone agrees. If the writers haven't changed, the contrast between Danny's two partners is a study in the magic good acting works on a tepid script.
Erin permanently frowning, conflicted, self-righteous, unhappy. Yuck! And what is up with her wardrobe? As the highest paid of the siblings, she shops at TJ Max? Really? Soooo unimaginative. I won't even mention the hair. Erin seems incapable of relaxing or enjoying life. She needs a new job, clearly.
Linda icky baby doll, but her character seems to be deepening a bit, now that she's been shot.
Her kids overfed and under scripted.
Henry those are not his real teeth, are they? And he needs some new lines, too. Henry's best moment was when he was dating a gold digger before Erin swooped down and arrested her.
Joe, missing though he has been forever, may be the most interesting Reagan of them all! And being dead, he has the advantage of exhibiting no flaws at all!
So I want to answer the Slate mag's critic who states unequivocally that the show is merely pablum for aging white racists. I am aging and white, but I am no more of a racist than than Slate's critic. That said, I also was surprised at Blue Bloods' depiction of the criminal element as more often black than white. In the post Black Lives Matter era, how dare Hollywood tell this truth? However, it's the same reason robbers target banks that's where the money is. As Commissioner Reagan points out, the high arrest/incarceration/shooting ratio of minority perps is not because of racism. It's because the highest incidence of crime is by minorities. Instead of just calling racist, why not point out the reason why that is the case? Generational poverty and institutional discrimination, mainly. And its effects: poor education, poor housing, poor social/cultural values, single parent homes, drugs are to blame for that not racist cops. Sure, there are racist cops and racist perps. But cops put their lives on the line every day by going into dangerous situations as part of their job. For which they are not well paid, supported nor respected. Perps are simply doing what they choose to do on their own behalf, not to protect anyone else. And they're most often doing it to one another.
Every perception is in the eye of the beholder. I enjoy Blue Bloods, as flawed as it is, because it portrays a fantasy that allows me to see a situation I wish existed, knowing it probably never has. It's a gritty, modern fairy tale of an imaginary and noble family dynasty coping with a very difficult world. We know the dangerous, destructive world of crime exists and I, for one, wish the Reagans did, too. I'm so happy to learn that Season 8 is coming up. Though I won't be able to watch it until it shows up on Netflix, it gives me some hope that a real minority perspective can still find enough viewers to survive on prime time. Speaking as an aging, white lover of justice, moral superiority and fiction, that is. And the daughter of a smoke eater, as well.