Blue Bloods’ cancellation leaves a massive hole in the TV landscape.
While we still have both halves of Blue Bloods Season 14 to look forward to, it hurts knowing these are some of our last visits with the Reagan family.
While Blue Bloods was a cop drama, many fans looked forward to the Sunday dinner scene in each episode and loved the show’s family values. When this show goes off the air, that’ll be one less family drama on the schedule — and there aren’t many around anymore.
At its heart, Blue Bloods was about a family that loved each other through thick and thin and had each other’s backs (most of the time, anyway!)
Viewers are hungry for that sort of stuff. Every week, Facebook groups for Blue Bloods fans were full of posts discussing the Sunday dinner. Sometimes, the scene would be short, and people would complain or think there wasn’t one and get upset.
That’s what made it one of TV’s highest-rated series throughout its entire fourteen-season run, and with the announcement that Blue Bloods has been canceled, we’ve lost the last family drama standing.
There was a time when TV was full of these types of shows. Parenthood, Brothers and Sisters, This Is Us, and A Million Little Things were all popular because they depicted one or more families dealing with issues, working out conflicts between members, and spending time together.
Each show was different, but they fulfilled viewers’ needs to engage with families they could relate to.
It might seem odd to categorize Blue Bloods with these shows — after all, it’s a police procedural. But the family aspect was baked into the premise: it was about a family of cops as much as it was about the week’s cases.
Frank acknowledged that when he said that the tradition of families getting together for meals seemed to have been lost and that he was grateful to be able to spend every Sunday with his.
Blue Bloods’ audience tends to be more on the politically conservative end of the spectrum because of its pro-cop stance (the other thing we’ll miss is how great a job it did with depicting the political pressures police and their leaders face!).
But the emphasis on family was something that cut across political lines. Regardless of viewers’ politics, they could identify with Frank’s love of family and desire to support his.
I don’t know how many families eat on the go or spend little time together, but the family drama tradition has undoubtedly been lost!
TV schedules are full of crime dramas and medical shows. I love those genres, too, and there’s room for creativity and originality within them.
But there aren’t many shows devoted to family issues. Once Blue Bloods goes off the air, the only family-focused shows will be any further Waltons movies that may be made.
Some of the best dramas include family elements — The Irrational has Alec’s relationship with his sister, and The Good Doctor sometimes goes into so many personal issues that it seems to have forgotten it’s a medical drama. And Law & Order: Organized Crime often features Stabler’s family.
But Blue Bloods was a lot more intentional about it. The family dinners were part of every episode, and many stories revolved around balancing work and family concerns.
Frank often upset Danny or Jamie by refusing to put his family relationships above the rules. He didn’t want to give them special treatment because they were the PC’s kids, but he sometimes went too far the other way.
Erin also struggled with this. Danny and Jamie demanded that she prosecute the people they arrested even if it wasn’t possible or thought their cases deserved to be a higher priority on her list.
And who could forget the way that Danny and Anthony butted heads with each other? Anthony was never an official part of the Reagan family, but he was Erin’s “work husband,” and he and Danny went at each other like brothers who had never grown up.
Because Blue Bloods has been on for so long, long-time viewers had the opportunity to experience the Reagan family growing and changing. Jack and Sean grew up, Jamie got married, Linda died, and Henry got older and began having health issues.
Later, the family learned about Joe Sr.’s son, who struggled to fit in.
There were other changes, such as Sid becoming part of the Dream Team, Danny changing partners, and Jamie moving up into new positions.
Experiencing these changes alongside the Reagans made viewers feel like they were part of the family. That’s what any strong family drama does — it becomes our virtual extended family that we visit week after week.
Many viewers had hoped when Blue Bloods eventually ended, Jamie would follow in the family tradition and become the next PC
Maybe that will happen. Even so, it hurts to realize our time with the Reagan family is limited, especially when there don’t seem to be any other family dramas to help heal the hole in our hearts from the loss of this show.
Do you watch Blue Bloods for the family aspects? What other shows might you try out after this series ends?
The first half of Blue Bloods’ final season will air on CBS on Fridays at 10/9c starting on February 16, 2024.