Blue Bloods only has three episodes left before it leaves the airwaves forever.
This is heartbreaking for a lot of reasons, but the reason that hurts the most is that we’ll lose the family aspect.
The Blue Bloods phenomenon is partially due to its focus on a family of cops rather than just the case of the week. Should more police procedurals follow the trend it set?
Blue Bloods Was Unique, But Other Procedurals Can Learn From It
Every police procedural has to be a little different from the others or there’s no point to watching all of them.
Blue Bloods’ uniqueness came from HOW it handled family relationships. A lot of shows have side stories involving the cops’ personal lives, but for Blue Bloods, it was more than that.
Family and work were intertwined in unique ways for this show. For one thing, police work is the Reagan family legacy.
We had four generations of Reagans around the family dinner table, and with the exception of the youngest, who were still children when the series began, everyone was mostly made up of cops.
That premise is what made the family scenes that followed so natural. Family and police work were inseparable from each other for the Reagans.
Additionally, they were an Irish Catholic family whose religious faith demanded they do public service, making it even more clear that work and family were two sides of the same coin for them.
This premise opened the door to the types of stories you can’t find on any other cop show.
For example, an early episode had Henry riding along with Jamie, and Jamie feeling like he didn’t measure up to his grandfather’s standards.
Later episodes included Danny having to postpone a romantic weekend with Linda when an important case came up, Eddie and Erin butting heads when Eddie wouldn’t let go of a perp’s claim that a cop raped her, and Frank making Jamie and Joe ride together when they got in a fistfight.
Some of these are typical police procedural stories, but they wouldn’t have landed the same without the close family relationships at the heart of Blue Bloods.
Still, that doesn’t mean other cop shows can’t learn from the Blue Bloods phenomenon.
People are hungry for family dramas.
They want to see people who are like them, and those who don’t have strong family ties want to become part of a fictional family that will love and accept them for who they are.
Blue Bloods isn’t the only show that has ever capitalized on this desire, even if no other show does it to such a remarkable degree.
Early SVU Also Got The Family Stuff Right
The original format for SVU was similar to Blue Bloods in that there were two storylines: the case of the week and Stabler’s problems with his teenage daughters.
The most memorable SVU episodes aren’t necessarily the ones with strong cases. The family stuff stands out the most.
I’ll never forget Stabler’s difficulty dealing with Maureen’s potential eating disorder or Kathleen’s complete breakdown when she was struggling with undiagnosed bipolar disorder.
These were powerful stories about family issues that Stabler had to deal with alongside putting people in jail who committed some of the most unimaginable atrocities ever.
This aspect of SVU was so successful that the writers tried it again with Law & Order: Organized Crime during Season 2, and it worked.
The stories about Mama Stabler’s dementia and teenage Eli’s acting out were more popular than the long cases, though people loved those too.
So what did Organized Crime do? It got rid of all the family stories in Season 3.
Talk about going in the wrong direction!
Law & Order: Organized Crime has since taken steps to rectify that mistake. Adding Stabler’s brothers was a great idea, and now Eli is back and is having a baby of his own.
This dynamic works well, making Law & Order: Organized Crime the closest thing to the Blue Bloods phenomenon.
I find it strange that some Blue Bloods fans think this show should be canceled when it has a similar family dynamic.
Hopefully, this time, the changes will stick, and the writers will not decide to eliminate Stabler’s family again, which is the opposite of what they need to do.
FBI Season 7 Episode 5 Was On The Right Track
The FBI shows are also examples of police procedurals that could imitate the Blue Bloods phenomenon by putting their own spin on balancing family and work storylines.
FBI Season 7 Episode 5 did this almost perfectly, with Jubal getting into trouble after he used his status as an FBI agent to get his son released from police custody after a protest.
The FBI franchise has this habit of writing characters out who have strong family storylines, so hopefully, Jubal’s suspension will only be temporary.
FBI: Most Wanted‘s Jess LaCroix was popular partially because he had a rebellious daughter whom he had to deal with, but she was written out shortly before Jess was killed off.
Similarly, agent Kristin Gaines, who had a daughter around the same age as Jess’ daughter, was written out without explanation.
Of course, this is not entirely the show’s fault; if actors want to leave, they have to be written out. However, the FBI shows could make more of an effort to replace departing characters with those who also have compelling family storylines.
Do Police Procedurals HAVE To Have Family Storylines?
The Blue Bloods phenomenon suggests that blending family and police drama is extremely popular, which is undoubtedly part of what makes the series so beloved that millions of people are angry about its cancelation.
However, that doesn’t mean every police procedural has to have family stories to succeed.
The genre used to require impersonal, nearly interchangeable detectives. Look at Dragnet, one of the most classic police shows in TV history.
Sure, Bill Gannon talked about his wife sometimes, usually jokingly, and there were an endless number of suspects, witnesses, and other police officers who thought it was a damn shame that Joe Friday didn’t have a girlfriend.
But those side conversations were as far as it went. The cops had a job to do and they did it, and it was only on rare occasions that they were even seen outside of working a case.
The original Law & Order followed a similar formula for over 20 years. (Fun fact: Dick Wolf tried to reboot Dragnet shortly before hitting television gold with Law & Order.)
The series focused mostly on the cops and prosecutors doing their jobs, and it was only toward the end of its original run that it began incorporating more personal storylines.
There is an audience for that type of impersonal police drama, but the Blue Bloods phenomenon makes it clear that modern audiences prefer their drama with a side of family stories.
The more modern episodes of Law & Order seem to recognize that; one of the most popular was Law & Order Season 24 Episode 3, which featured a story about Detective Riley’s no-good brother.
Over to you, police procedural fanatics.
Do you think more shows should take their cues from the Blue Bloods phenomenon, or would you rather the stories focus on cases more than family drama?
Hit the comments and let us know.
Watch Blue Bloods Online
Blue Bloods’ last three episodes will air on CBS on Fridays at 10/9c and on Paramount+ on Saturdays. The series finale airs on December 13, 2024.