Pilot Review: Blue Bloods

Blue Bloods (CBS)
Premiered September 24 at 10pm

This show definitely had one of the strongest series openings I've seen in a while, establishing a distinct mood before the first line of dialogue with the smart use of “New York, New York.” This is a cop show about through-and-through New Yorkers, and in this case the entire family is just as connected to the police department as they are to their home city. At first, this seemed like an ordinary procedural that accomplished what it set out to fairly well. By episode's end, however, I was feeling inundated with all of the exposition establishing the family roles. Over the course of the episode, there were additional twists I didn't really buy. The incorporation of the police brutality, toilet style is hardly something original, and Danny's ambivalence to the whole thing, coupled with Erin's fury about it, diminishes the strength of the show, in my opinion. The police secret society plotline also doesn't much intrigue me, and I would posit that it is possible to create a new generic cop show without these kinds of modifications and still have it be good. I would have said that any cop show starring Donnie Wahlberg doesn't need much else to intrigue me since I can still remember how awesome the short-lived “Boomtown” was, but this show doesn't impress me anywhere near as much. Casting Len Cariou as the eldest member of the Reagan family also seems very appealing, and it would be nice if he had more to do. I don't feel particularly strongly about Tom Selleck either way, and thus far I'm not very taken with either Will Estes or Bridget Moynahan. This show isn't that bad, but it needs to improve a bit before it's really going to be able to work. I will say that I did like the intense music as the show went to commercial.

How will it work as a series? There are certainly enough characters to write stories about related to their police work and their family dynamic. Having Selleck's character hold such a high office while one of his sons will likely be working undercover to unmask corruption in the police force, so that should create an interesting plurality of plotlines to epxlore each episode.
How long will it last? Even though it may not be wholly original, shows like this often do attract big audiences. This pilot certainly did, rankings as the most-watched show of the night and trouncing its main competition, NBC's “Outlaw.” It's a good follow-up to “Medium” and “CSI: New York,” and therefore this one will likely go far.

C+