Blue Bloods boss was inspired by classic finales as he promises ‘one thing we avoided’
The final episodes of the hit cop drama Blue Bloods will kick off this October, and the showrunner has promised the finale won’t be packed with any familiar clichés.
Blue Bloods’ showrunner Kevin Wade reveals he took inspiration from some of the best TV finales in history when crafting the final episode of the hit CBS drama.
The Reagan family, led by Commissioner Frank (played by Tom Selleck), have been on screens since 2010, solving crimes and handling their own family drama in New York City.
In November last year, CBS confirmed the ongoing 14th season would be the show’s last, a decision which led to much fan outcry.
Nevertheless, the final outing’s first 10 episodes were released earlier this year and will be followed by another eight episodes starting this October.
Head writer Kevin has teased what the show’s millions of fans should expect from the Reagans’ final family dinner and one last case they’ll have to solve before bidding their farewells.
The series also stars Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Danny Reagan, Bridget Moynahan as ADA Erin Reagan and Will Estes as Sergeant Jamie Reagan.
Viewers will have to say goodbye to the family and many more beloved characters when the finale airs on CBS in December.
“I mean, if you’re on for 14 years, in at least four or five of those years you started out a season going, ‘This could be the last one,’ just as a numbers game,” the showrunner told TVLine.
“So, I’ve thought about it a lot, along with my colleagues. [Executive producer] Siobhan Byrne O’Connor and I would talk about it a lot over the seasons.”
While Kevin may have had ideas for a finale in his head for some time, the last episode may not be a sentimental affair as he shared some key rules he followed when penning the script.
“I rewatched the series finales of great shows, going back to M*A*S*H and Cheers and Mary Tyler Moore, and certainly The Sopranos…,” he explained.
“I watched a lot of them for what they might have in common, and what they basically had in common, if I boiled it down, is they did a great show, and then in the last few minutes they did a little pivot towards, ‘This is also the last show’.”
For fans who might be tuning into the episode unawares, it might not be obvious they’re watching the last ever episode of Blue Bloods until they reach the final moments.
The finale will also avoid patting themselves on the back too much, despite well over a decade as one of CBS’s top shows.
“[We] avoided the ‘We are now going to do a retrospective of how great we’ve been,’ because I think people tune in just to see a really good episode of the show that they loved,” Kevin added.
“To me, the Blue Bloods season finales that worked best were where we found a crime or criminals or a situation for all the Reagans to work together on — separately but together.
“And we did that. We have four different stories but all are aimed at solving or preventing the same crimes.”
