Season 7 Discussion

[EtheltoTillie]

I liked the Jamie story, did not like the other two. Famed defense lawyer Ron Kuby played the Russian guy's defense attorney!

[torqy]

On 10/11/2016 at 1:11 AM, Brian Cronin said:

The show's been on the air for so long now that it is really absurd that they don't just let Jamie become a sergeant. They can still come up with a contrived reason for why he would still be walking a beat. We saw them do that early on with his sergeant (the one played by Nick Turturro). So just do that so that this super-cop finally moves beyond being a beat cop (which he obviously, obviously would have been by this point in time). 

I'm not a cop, but my suggestion would be to make him a Field Training Officer. He gets the promotion but still wears the uni and shows up on the street.

[Jlina]

Sheesh, this was like watching the nightly news.  Depressing, violent and weird.  Really hope they one day go somewhere with a future for Jamie - he always seems so disconnected from his Dad, really.  That view off the pier/waterside looked downright lonely and they just never seem like a normal father/son duo to me. 

Glad Gormley was okay, that looked brutal too.  Just ugh.

[CooperTV]

Quote

 

The U.S. Marshals plan a raid of a local gang, and Frank must decide whether the NYPD will assist. Elsewhere, a leading community activist faces deportation because she isn't a U.S. citizen, so Erin and Anthony try to help her stay in the country.

 

[Brian Cronin]

3 hours ago, torqy said:

I'm not a cop, but my suggestion would be to make him a Field Training Officer. He gets the promotion but still wears the uni and shows up on the street.

I like that idea a lot, I would wonder about how that would work, procedurally, but come on, if the show wanted it to happen, they could make it happen. 

[wknt3]

5 hours ago, torqy said:

I'm not a cop, but my suggestion would be to make him a Field Training Officer. He gets the promotion but still wears the uni and shows up on the street.

Or they can just make him a patrol supervisor. You get the promotion, he can still be a mentor without being tied to a particular trainee if it's inconvenient to the story they want to tell, and he would still be in the field. And remember he's a Reagan he will still encounter lots of crimes taking place across from where he eats lunch, stops at a traffic light, uses the restroom, etc. that he will then have to investigate. The only thing they lose is Eddie every week, which I think most of us could live with.

[wknt3]

Another clunker. Issues based episodes of this show are almost always dicey, but there were some structural problems too. I like Anthony a lot , but he really does work best in the episodes that are Danny light, and the last thing this show needs is another major character getting air time every week along with the Frank and Danny plots. Also my DVR recording had some issues at the end dropping audio for a few seconds here and there, but did I hear Frank telling someone else that they were too worried about being perfect and needed to bend to reality??? Without any nod to it running in the family? And Jamie didn't say anything about this being the kind of abuse of authority that leads to communities who don't trust the police at all even when they should? Seriously I may have missed a line and I'm glad to hear others saying that the scene played weird even with a good feed, but I almost can't believe that they would miss the obvious. And I feel like in the early seasons that scene would have had ended with Frank telling Jamie not to worry that everything had worked out with the implication that he had made a couple calls and taken care of it. Instead of just saying that you had to accept that because terrorism is scary and you don't have ironclad proof.

[MissLucas]

I actually liked it despite the dark turn of some plots - probably because of the scene at the Sunday dinner table. Everybody getting very quiet and for once not offering an opinion when Frank and Jaimie were getting in a serious argument was well done. And it showed a level of respect Jaimie rarely gets. Not sure what the final scene was about (except a call-back to the pilot). Was Frank seriously advising Jaimie to return to law? I actually wouldn't be against that since the poor guy never gets a promotion anyway. Turning him into a defense lawyer would make heads at the dinner table regularly explode and we would get rid of Eddie. I call that a win-win. But of course it won't happen.

[CooperTV]

This episode didn't left any impression on me whatsoever, even with that point blank head shot of the gang leader. They should have made Jamie's story into A plot because Syd's stuff was just incredibly boring. Also, Syd's wife Sheila who cheated on him last season, IIRC, now says she doesn't want Syd to be home all the time and also was berating him at the beginning of the episode for no good reason? Such love, much wow.

[Willowsmom]

Who played Fausto, the tpguy in the wheelchair?

Edited October 15, 2016 by Willowsmom

[CooperTV]

22 minutes ago, Willowsmom said:

Who played Fausto, the tpguy in the wheelchair?

Michael Delorenzo

[Willowsmom]

1 hour ago, CooperTV said:

Michael Delorenzo

Thanks,  it was driving me nuts.

[mtlchick]

If you were to ask me what happened I would say "Sid got beat up and Madonna's baby daddy #1 was shot in the head. And there were some bad Russian accents." Because that was a snooze fest bore.

[tribeca]

Have also felt Jamie should be a lawyer.   When He was talking to his father it seemed like his father thought the same .  

[torqy]

On 10/14/2016 at 1:27 PM, morriss said:

What has happened to Sid Gormley?  When he was Danny's boss, he was half  assed intelligent  when he spoke. Now all he seems to be able to say  is "Duh.....gee boss.....duh......." to Frank.

This. And has Robert Clohessy really been typecast as cops for 30 years?? (Since Hill Street Blues)

[MissLucas]

On 14.10.2016 at 10:27 PM, morriss said:

What has happened to Sid Gormley?  When he was Danny's boss, he was half  assed intelligent  when he spoke. Now all he seems to be able to say  is "Duh.....gee boss.....duh......." to Frank.

Ever since his promotion to 1PP the writers turned him into Samwise to Frank's Frodo (Baker and Garrett are Merry and Pippin).

[mojito]

As soon as I saw Fausto (I think that was his name), I knew he was one of the background actors in Fame. Can't miss those eyes, even 30-plus years later.

[highway61]

Any episode with no Baker is always a big disappointment for me (did I miss her? Wouldn't she be the first one at the hospital for Gormley?), but this episode did seem to be drifting. Sure seems to be setting up Jamie's leaving to be a lawyer (though not until the series finale, where it will bookend the premier.)

[CooperTV]

Quote

A NYPD whistle-blower claims there's been abuse of power within the organization, so Frank must investigate whether this is true. Meanwhile, Danny and Baez are suspicious of a car accident involving a pedestrian and think it may have been intentional.

Promo:

[buckboard]

Any time Danny doesn't appear in the storyline, that improves the episode.

ETA, as the central story, that is.

Edited October 23, 2016 by buckboard

[CooperTV]

And I wanted to say that the most engaging part of the episode was when Danny was on-screen :D. I liked Erin's conversation with him, and the dinner scene was the best in every way. I can't stand Eddie and her everything, and that storyline was cliche and stupid as hell. I couldn't even get into Frank's plot.

[MissLucas]

Odd episode. I'm not a big fan of Eddie but I don't buy that she'd ever go to a psychic. She's a cynic and street-smart enough to know better. Frank also behaved out of character with the whole 'collars count - not good feeelings' cake and icing speech. No idea why he felt it necessary to walk all over Vaughn's good work because ass*** Marshall said so. Normally I'd say the show is trying to go for nuances but Blue Bloods doesn't do nuances. Erin's plot was meh but I agree the scene with Danny was actually good.

[wknt3]

I'm wondering if this is another episode that was aired out of order for whatever reason? Unless I missed it there was no reference to what happened to Gormley last week. I don't want or expect a lot of continuity from this show, but just a line about being back at work or some line of dialogue since we are talking about gangs and community relations. Or even makeup and performance choices could have done it. Some sort of nod would seem to be pretty standard. Everything else there is to say has already been said and there isn't much. The Jamie and Frank plots both felt off and about all I got out of them was that it was nice to see Esai Morales getting work. It was nice to see a lot of Erin this episode and yes the Erin and Danny scene was a highlight and would have been even if all of her screen time wasn't the best part of this episode.

[webruce]

Well the 3 story lines kind of intersected. Then you add in Jack not helping the girl in school and you have 4 cases of basically the same thing. BUt it shows they should learn young to stand up for what's right.  Was glad the Detective finally took Jamie's and Eddies side for the cabby. Wondered if Frank had talked to the Det. Or not? He seem to know quickly that he didn't sign the papers. Was surprised Frank was so against Jamie's idea about the case at first. But I thought Jamie's talk at the table may have made Frank think it over.

The Sid Gormley being beat up by the thugs part was a bit bold. But luckily Anthony figured correctly that Vlad was the snitch of the gang. Do miss Alex McBride, think he was the one who was in Anthony's investigative place before him. I thought he and Erin would be a couple. Glad Sid is better.

Do feel bad and surprised that Fausto shot Soto and didn't help Danny take him down. Thought maybe Danny would take him out in a shootout when he was trying to arrest him.

[Jlina]

I kind of feel like this is a re-write of the show or retconning. ....Frank saying all that matters is collars??  I haven't always watched but when I have he seemed to be all about the individual people's issues, while being strictly black or white, it was still all about r-e-s-p-e-c-t.  It just seems to be jumping all over the morally moving compass this season.

The Edie thing seemed to be shoehorned in just to add to the everyone's got a con theme to me; I agree it was totally out of character.  However, I'd of loved to see her go out with hippie boy.

I'm sure there's better tv to be had on Friday nights, I just refuse to pay for it.

[Reiki]

Totally OT here but although Linda has only been seen at the dinner table, are they trying to glam her up? She's been in full makeup mode in every episode.

[EmpressElle]

I agree. Lind has been looking better this season.

[CooperTV]

That was probably the most enjoyable and well-done episode since the premier. There was some snappy dialogue from the very beginning (the cold open with Frank and co and Danny and Baez were gold!).  I liked how everyone had their thing going on in this. Danny did police work, Frank did his PD politics work and Erin went to court! I don't even remember the last time Erin did a court room scene, not to mention a court room scene with non-generic judge or that was not about her quasi-detective work at the ADA office.

The child porn case was controversial on so many levels, and I liked how everyone was essentially right and how the show presented the politics involved in a prosecution such as this. The ending was exactly what I'd expected from something like this. Good job on showcasing the system and public's opinions in such a way, show!

The drug dealing/murder case was solid, and mostly because of the presence of Zach Appelman, "Joe Corbin" from Sleepy Hollow. He did a really good job, and his scenes with Donnie Wahlberg  were also nice to watch.

Frank trying to make sense of the whistleblower's accusations was... interesting. The underlining of "old ways" and "new ways" of police work is a running theme for this show, and it was interesting how the young cop had strong convictions and wanted to do the right thing, even it means he ended up in psych ward because his Captain is a complete paranoid ass.

[CooperTV]

Quote

When a key witness in Danny’s case is killed just before testifying, Erin angers Danny by enlisting Anthony to help him find the killer. Also, Robert Lewis (Michael Imperioli) tries to force Frank to publicly support the Attorney General’s investigation of the use of excessive force by police, and Eddie and Jamie get the call for an attempted suicide.

Promo pics

[mojito]

What I most like about this episode was Frank's handling of the whistle-blowing cop. Old school vs new school copping. He acknowledged Pops right to revere the old days, but told the  whistle-blower's commanding officer that it was 2016, and there would be more cops like this one, who want to go by the book.

Despite my not liking "Three's Company" and having only seen it a handful of times, I recognized the judge (Richard Kline....had to look that up) as "Larry", Jack's best friend.  As soon as I saw him, I thought, "Larry" and had to piece together whose sitcom best friend he had once been. I like it when you can unwrinkle people, re-color and re-style their hair, add or subtract some weight, and then use a very long memory (30+ years) to determine who they are.

Nevertheless, I hated old Lare's sentence. Heartbreaking. 

I could not believe it. Baez called out a perp's name and when he turned around to run, Danny was right there to grab him. No sensational chase, no tackle onto concrete, no perfectly intact slacks after the scuffle. You guys are finally getting it!

[wknt3]

Easily the best episode of the season. The Erin plot was great - it was a surprise that we got to see her in court and in surprisingly well written and nuanced story no less! The Frank and Danny plots weren't as good, but they were basically what I signed up for with this show - the television equivalent of well prepared comfort food. I didn't hate Frank for a change and the Danny plot was fun even if I was rolling my eyes a lot at all the usual Danny tropes like him stumbling on to yet another crime. But it was well executed and only went totally over the top once (I'm not a lawyer or a cop but I'm pretty sure a sting involving the informant pointing a gun, even a fake gun, at the suspect breaks about 50,000 rules) so I was fine with it. About the only real downer was the preview for next week. I like Michael Imperioli and it's nice to see him getting so much work with recurring roles on two shows, but the last thing we need is a return to the "police under attack" theme again.

Edited October 29, 2016 by wknt3
fix formatting

[Rambler]

So a cop goes to the attorney general with allegations that his superiors are pressuring officers to plant evidence. The cop’s commander ignores the police commissioner’s direct order and tries to break into the officer’s apartment for some unknown and probably ridiculous reason. When the commander is confronted, he throws the officer into a psyche ward. Strangely enough none of this is brought up in the final meeting, and thanks to Franks incredible powers of persuasion, the cop will forget his superior had him thrown into a looney bin and we end the meeting with everybody holding hands and singing Kumbaya.

Also I had a hard time following the logic of the commander’s ramblings about the old school ways of doing things, but from what I could gather, I guess the commissioner’s office will overlook the allegations of planting evidence because that’s the only way to get things done ever since those commie liberals took away the highly effective tactics of stop and frisk. Or something like that.

[Sake614]

As soon as they threw the cop into the psych ward, it immediately harkened back to a real NYPD whistleblower who was thrown into a psych ward to discredit him. He was there for I think a week or so before finally being released and is suing the NYPD. I'm glad the show didn't go full throttle down that road and kind of liked the resolution. Like it or not, the old ways are no longer acceptable and the 'old timers' need to get used to it. At the same time, the new crop of police officers still need to follow orders. Planting evidence is a crime that should certainly be reported, but they can't expect everything to always go their way either.

I liked Erin in court and really enjoyed the banter around the Sunday dinner table. The last two episodes have seen much lighter, fun conversations like you'd expect from a real multigenerational family. I hope it's a new trend.

[bounnatalie]

On 10/31/2016 at 9:32 AM, Sake614 said:

 

I liked Erin in court and really enjoyed the banter around the Sunday dinner table. The last two episodes have seen much lighter, fun conversations like you'd expect from a real multigenerational family. I hope it's a new trend.

Agree, and shout out to Jamie for his comment about pit bulls.

[Sake614]

2 hours ago, bounnatalie said:

shout out to Jamie for his comment about pit bulls.

Oooh, I forgot about that, but YES! So nice to hear a positive mention of a terribly misunderstood and maligned breed. Most Pits just think they're lap dogs and want nothing more than to get kisses, be cuddled and get belly rubs! :)

[buckboard]

Lots of plot lines to discuss in this episode, so let's get right to the important stuff:  WTF is going on with Linda's makeup?  It seems to get more excessive every passing week.

This week the rouge and dark lipstick and eyeliner seem really over the top for the weekly Sunday dinner with the family, IMHO.

[CooperTV]

Quote

 

A woman who shares her concerns about her abusive ex-boyfriend becomes a prime suspect when he's murdered. Frank must come to a decision about an off duty sergeant who fails to intercede during an armed robbery. Eddie gets jealous when a woman crashes at Jamie's apartment.

 

 

Promos

[wknt3]

The only lipstick problem I had this week was how you can't put lipstick on a pig. Nothing to do with Linda who is quite lovely thank you very much, but strictly metaphorical. Giving us Michael Imperioli again doesn't change that you are trying once again to sell us on the idea that any questioning of police procedures and abuses is strictly politically motivated persecution of selfless apolitical public servants exploiting the naivete of liberals and minorities, pushing misleading statistics, and promoting the idea that anything short of fatally shooting someone can't possibly be excessive force. You can write an interesting scenes for Will Estes, but that doesn't hide that you are trying to make Jamie and Eddie a thing and not giving us any character development for Jamie the past few years. And Bridget Moynihan, Steve Schirripa, and Donnie Wahlberg are all charming and have sold a lot of leaden stories, but they couldn't make this one interesting and making them rivals working together doesn't hide that Anthony is basically a less annoying Danny designed to fill the blue collar detective role when DW took a reduced role and episodes feel kind of disjointed and overstuffed when they both have plotlines.

[CooperTV]

The only good scene this episode was the Danny/Jamie one. No surprise here: Donnie Wahlberg can elevate cliche scenes with lesser actors, like Will Estes, just being there emoting quietly. Bad thing they made the rest of Danny's storyline so idiotic this episode. Speaking of which, the Erin, Danny and Michael stuff was just unfunny and obnoxious. Yeah, I know Danny's an asshole. But I like him more than Michael anyway, sorry, show.

The dinner table shop-talk was just okay this time; relevant discussion, though.

Those anvils about Jamie/Eddie upcoming romance were annoying. Can Jamie have some nice girl that actually doesn't treat him or his experiences like shit all the time? No? Thanks for nothing, I guess...

[mtlchick]

Tom Selleck made the press rounds for this episode in particular: http://www.tvinsider.com/article/102230/blue-bloods-frank-reagan-sees-red-when-the-nypd-is-attacked-video/

While watching it, I felt he was stomping for the wrong one (though I do agree with him that Blue Bloods has been a consistent performer for CBS and they get ignored.)  Outside of the Danny/Jamie scene that @CooperTV mentioned above, it was a snooze.  I like Danny (loyalty after all.)  I like Anthony and I think being Erin's partner is a great addition.  But I really didn't like them together.  It felt that it was a bad cliche of two cops who butt heads because of their different ways of approaching things and while they solved it, they still don't like each other but they are thawing.  Pass. 

Meanwhile with all the brutality talk, I would hope that Mayor Poole would be involved but I guess not (hopefully because David Ramsey wasn't available.) 

Jamko?  Needs to stop being forced as being a thing.  But I did say "Lansky from Person of Interest! Are you going to die here too?"

Edited November 7, 2016 by mtlchick
Wrong name

[catrice2]

My gosh, I am glad I am not the only one who has no interest in Jaime and Eddie. I actually have to fast forward. No really good reason why Jaime is not a detective except it would eat into Donnie Wahlberg's air time.  I think the dinner table scenes are painful. 

[Kitla]

Why are people referring to Erin's investigator as Michael? His name is Anthony. And, yes, please stop trying to make Jamie and Eddie happen. I can barely stand Eddie, who acts like an immature junior high student with a crush half the time. Ugh. And Danny continues to be a horse's ass.

[spunky]

Blue bloods needs to cut it out with the false statistics, and vilifying anyone who questions excessive use of force in African American neighborhoods. We are not all criminals. I understand that Tom Selleck is the poster child for all things right wing, but please stop writing solely for his ego. I challenge this show to make Danny tolerable, for more than a millisecond. Speaking of intolerable, STOP forcing a romance between Jamie and Eddie. Watching Eddie shamelessly attempt to flirt with Jamie is cringe worthy. Please give Jamie a grown woman for a girlfriend instead of the two year old he works with.

[Rambler]

Did Danny lose his super-detective powers all of a sudden? I believe it is basic T.V. detective practice 101 when first arriving at a murder scene that the detective is required to say “Have the unis start a canvas of the neighborhood and pull any security footage from the surrounding buildings”. So how did he miss the security camera from the deli across the street? And the camera was so conveniently focused on the building on the other side of the street instead of its own store front to boot. At least Danny was able to get his super-detective powers back and he used the camera footage to identify the suspect in about ten seconds despite the guy having a baseball cap obscuring his entire face. Of course it turns out that the super criminal who has committed numerous crimes and never been convicted suddenly got stupid and let his accomplice leave his fingerprints all over the crime scene and hide the murder weapon in his apartment where it could be easily found by the police.

[CooperTV]

4 hours ago, Rambler said:

Did Danny lose his super-detective powers all of a sudden?

Well, we need to prop Anthony (or Michael, or whatever the dude's name actually is) more, even though I don't remember any animosity towards this character from anyone. They should use Danny to prop Eddie next time. Now that's one character that sure needs some "look how Danny's mean to this special snowflake" storyline.

[wknt3]

On 11/5/2016 at 8:49 PM, mtlchick said:

Tom Selleck made the press rounds for this episode in particular: http://www.tvinsider.com/article/102230/blue-bloods-frank-reagan-sees-red-when-the-nypd-is-attacked-video/

While watching it, I felt he was stomping for the wrong one (though I do agree with him that Blue Bloods has been a consistent performer for CBS and they get ignored.)  Outside of the Danny/Jamie scene that @CooperTV mentioned above, it was a snooze.  I like Danny (loyalty after all.)  I like Anthony and I think being Erin's partner is a great addition.  But I really didn't like them together.  It felt that it was a bad cliche of two cops who butt heads because of their different ways of approaching things and while they solved it, they still don't like each other but they are thawing.  Pass.

Jamko?  Needs to stop being forced as being a thing.  But I did say "Lansky from Person of Interest! Are you going to die here too?"

No show feels they get enough promotion. Yeah they probably don't get as much attention as the ratings would indicate. Because the press is interested in the new and different and in good wrting. I guess they will have to be content with the money and being seen in the industry as bankable. And yes they need to give up on Jamko. I'm willing to give them a pass on so much, but this is just a bridge too far.

On 11/6/2016 at 11:17 PM, catrice2 said:

My gosh, I am glad I am not the only one who has no interest in Jaime and Eddie. I actually have to fast forward. No really good reason why Jaime is not a detective except it would eat into Donnie Wahlberg's air time.  I think the dinner table scenes are painful. 

There actually is a good story reason. The show is intended to show the whole range of law enforcement through the experiences of different family members and adding another detective undermines that. But as we've said here about a million times he could become a sergeant and it would open up new stories and still keep the uniformed street cop element. And the dinner table scenes have actually improved a lot IMHO, I actually don't automatically FF anymore.

Edited November 15, 2016 by wknt3

[Sake614]

Plus, Jamie has said many times that he LIKEs being a beat cop and doesn't want to be a detective. But yeah, he could at least take the Sergeant's exam.

[spunky]

Henry and Gomerly need to shut up. Yes he took an oath to serve and protect, but he is also a father. He chose to protect his child. For once Danny made sense, the sergeant made the right decision by protecting his child, instead of risking both their lives. I loved the little girl telling Frank off, not many people can shut him up. Writers please stop forcing a Jamie/Eddie romance. That kiss was the equivalent of watching paint dry. They have no chemistry, so just let it go.

[TVFAN]

Quote

9 minutes ago, spunky said:

Writers please stop forcing a Jamie/Eddie romance. That kiss was the equivalent of watching paint dry. They have no chemistry, so just let it go.

 

I could not agree more.  I actually thought Jamie had chemistry with this week's guest star.  He could not tear his eyes away as she was walking away with her boss.  She was much more his type.  

And he didn't exactly protest when Eddie stopped kissing him.  He's just not that into Eddie.

[spunky]

2 minutes ago, TVFAN said:

I could not agree more.  I actually thought Jamie had chemistry with this week's guest star.  He could not tear his eyes away as she was walking away with her boss.  She was much more his type.  

And he didn't exactly protest when Eddie stopped kissing him.  He's just not that into Eddie.

I agree. He may have liked her in the beginning, but not as not as much now. Like you said he had more chemistry with the guest star. The fact that he chose his career over her, should be a sign that he is not interested anymore.