Blue Bloods’ approach to a beloved aspect of the series could hurt its legacy if the series ends after season 14 as expected. The Tom Selleck-led cop drama stands out for its focus on a family of cops rather than the cases of the week. The main characters always have each other’s backs, no matter how they disagree on how to handle cases. They also turn to Henry, the oldest member, for advice or to work things out over Sunday family dinners.
This focus on family has contributed to Blue Bloods’ popularity over the past 14 years. However, the series has become expensive to produce, and so CBS announced after the end of the writers’ and actors’ strike that season 14 would be Blue Bloods’ last year. The cancellation leaves the veteran series with little time to wrap things up. There’s a beloved aspect of the series that’s been cut recently, and changing it is one of many things that must happen before Blue Bloods ends.
Blue Bloods’ dinner scene symbolizes the Reagan family’s commitment to family values Family dinner scenes have been an essential aspect of Blue Bloods since the series began. Sometimes they’re crucial to the plot, like when Erin and Eddie disagree on how each should handle their part of a case and confront each other during a visit to Frank’s house. Even when they don’t directly impact the events of the plot, family dinners are a time for the Reagan family to give their opinions on the decisions each family member is grappling with throughout the episode.
Family dinner scenes are essential even when they don’t advance the plot. Blue Bloods’ dinner scenes symbolize the Reagan family’s commitment to family values, something Frank made clear in season 13 when he expressed his gratitude for being able to spend most Sundays with his family. He later lamented that American society has become so fast-paced that most people no longer have these kinds of family experiences. However, these scenes became a smaller part of Blue Bloods in season 14, which may have hurt the show’s legacy as a family-oriented cop drama.
The early seasons of Blue Bloods featured lengthy family dinner scenes, in which family members questioned Frank or Henry about their past, Danny’s kids inserted comments that reflected their youth and lack of life experience, and the family celebrated special occasions like Henry’s birthday together. However, the family dinner scenes have gotten shorter over time, now often taking up the last two minutes of the episode. The way this dinner scene is handled often feels like an afterthought, as if the dinner scene were an afterthought rather than a vital part of the Blue Bloods story.
This issue is partly due to the cast changes. Linda Reagan (Amy Carlson) was often behind the surprises for the other family members, but Linda was killed off-screen after Carlson declined to renew her contract after Blue Bloods season 7. Danny’s oldest son Jack (Tony Terraciano) was also written out after his actor went off to college, as was Erin’s daughter Nicky (Sami Gayle). As a result, there aren’t as many people involved in the family dinners as there used to be, so there are fewer potential interactions.
Family dinners should still be an important part of the show despite this issue. Blue Bloods wasted Henry’s potential by having him appear at the dinner table for most of season 14, and the problem was made worse by cutting these scenes so short. Likewise, Jamie or Eddie sometimes have no storylines and only appear in brief dinner scenes. These brief appearances only serve to highlight the absence of the characters from the main show.
Blue Bloods is one of the few family-oriented series left on network television. After family dramas like This Is Us went off the air, they were replaced by police and medical dramas. While Blue Bloods is also a police procedural, the family elements help make up for the lack of family shows on the air, and the emphasis on family appeals to an audience that is hungry for that. Cutting back on the family dinner scenes hurts Blue Bloods’ legacy by putting the emphasis back on the crime drama aspects of the show.
