Decent Cop Story

Existentialism is a bad thing. Especially,when its questioned by morality,harks back to the past and is hindered by family ties. The New York Police Department NYPD in Blue Bloods faces this critical issue in the Big CBS series.

The series spans across a multi-generational family of cops dedicated to New York citys law enforcement. Frank Reagan Tom Selleck,best known as Monicas older lover in FRIENDS is the New York Police Commissioner and heads both the police force and the Reagan family,all of which are professional law enforcers. Frank runs his department with a certain nonchalance,he deals with crisis in his department just as he deals with his family members,by holding back a little yet giving his all in as straight forward manner as possible. Frank must live up to his father Henrys clean reputation when he was commissioner. In between,he also dates a television journalist who occasionally gives him heartburn as he has to choose between his personal privacy and professional duty.

The series centres around Franks children. The eldest son Danny who gets the most screen space in the initial episodes,being a seasoned detective on duty and a disturbed Iran War veteran in private. He usually brings the bad guys to book in unusual ways he waterboards a girl kidnapper in his toilet flush in the first episode. This brings his sister Erin into the picture who is an assistant D.A. and a newly divorced single parent. The picture is completed by the youngest Reagan,Jamie who gives up a lucrative Harward Law degree to join the police force. The makers lead him into living a double life by getting him to join Blue Templars,a secretive group with Batman-esque intentions who go after big corporations and money laundering operations. Jamie joins this renegade group to avenge his brothers death who was part of the group when he was killed.

The hour-long show has all the makings of a super series but comes only halfway to the mark. The show also plays on morality a lot. The first episode asks whether torturing a criminal to get the victim on time is right or not.

The second episode,titled Subway Samaritan,shows a regular black man taking law into his own hands when a group of killers tries to rape his co-passenger. Was he right into taking the law into his own hands? The law and its shortfalls eventually come into the picture,an existential crisis that you try to make sense of.

There are no easy answers and the Reagan family is always discussing the pros and cons of others actions. Its like watching Brothers And Sisters with cops instead of family members.

The emotions in the series are raw and rarely strong. The action is gripping in bit and pieces. And Tom Selleck,as usual,is on top of his game.

Verdict:

If youre one for cop stories,you should give Blue Bloods a shot.