BLUE BLOODS on the cbs television network

does anyone else watch this?

i mean by a lot of standards it's not any good. the main characters are strict types, the episodic plots are strictly cliché, the dialogue is far too plainly expository, etc.

the politics of the thing are pretty plainly reactionary from one important perspective. the cops are virtually unerring. they have your back. they have your best interest in mind, even if you don't know it. tom selleck's police commissioner is a constant fount of hard-earned wisdom. he faces difficult ethical questions, but always revolves them with grace by the third act. the show is resolutely "post-racial" in an objectionable way.

and yet, i find it pretty satisfying as a procedural. the familiar routines are familiar in a pleasing way. tom selleck sells his part well, his moustache twitching with something like gravitas. the actors strike their familiar poses in a way that brings mild comfort.

and although they tend to be patly resolved by the end, some of the ethical/practical issues raised do linger a bit, as they should. latest episode has selleck seeking to have new york's philanthropic class buy back all the heroin on the street after a shipment turns out to be tainted in a way that makes a single dose fatal. it's a silly scenario, but playing it out in your mind is modestly intellectually engaging.

and the style isn't that overcharged shakycam dayglo bullshit that's instantly dated. not that it's alone among primetime dramas in this.

but yeah the unremitting cop-love is kind of indefensible. but what else is new on tv?

tl; dr: amateurist tries to rationalize his mild enjoyment of reactionary cop show

Yeah, I really like this. 'Reactionary' is the wrong word I'd say - I mean it's probably more realistic than pieces where everyone's venal, and there are bad cops outside the immediate characters, even if they're just for hanging plots on. 'Objectionably post-racial' I don't get; when did that stop being something to aspire to? What does seem more reactionary to me is the occasional veneration of the military, but that's an american standard these days?

Anyway it's kinda nice to watch something bereft of cynicism, even if that obviously makes for less complicated plotting and a certain lack of engagement. Then again having the family pretty well-drawn makes up for a lot of that, and they're a likeable bunch. It would be better with stretching out the sub-plotting rather than wrapping absolutely everything up every forty minutes - that seems so old-fashioned now.

The look is important, I feel. It eschews set-piece locations and just concentrates on making the city look good, but not in a way that you'd notice - urban scenes shot well, they're nice things to look at.

all cbs dramas are post-racial in that way