My blood runs blue

I confess!!  No more torturing me to see if I’ve told the truth.  I love “Blue Bloods” and I love Tom Selleck!  OK.  Are you satisfied now???  (Note to husband: no worries.  You’re still #1 in my life. And you look pretty darn good yourself!)

I’ve followed Tom Selleck from the Big Island to Big Apple.  It’s Friday night and that means another episode of “Blue Bloods”, a police procedural set in New York City.  Since it’s begun, I’ve seen previews for a new NYC police show starting soon.  There’ve always  been police shows set in New York and there always will be.  But “Blue Bloods” is different.

First of all, as I may have mentioned, it has Tom Selleck.  That might be enough by itself and it’s certainly what got my attention initially, the way Hugh Laurie pulled me into watching “House.”  Even our younger daughter, across the generation gap, agrees that Tom Selleck is hot.  She didn’t even add the tag “for his age.” But then she likes manly men, too, so that’s a no-brainer.   I enjoyed “Magnum, P.I.” back when Tom was young and in Hawaii and I’m enjoying “Blue Bloods” just as much, although he’s definitely grown up.  Quite nicely, too.

The second and really the big thing that makes this show different is its treatment of the family and of religion.  Don’t get me wrong; it’s not a “Christian” show or a religious program.  It neither bashes religion, any religion, nor mocks Christians.  Nor does it promote Christianity, or any other religion. It seamlessly shows that religion is a part of the lives of many people.   It acknowledge that there are Christians out there, real people in the real world.  The Reagan family has family dinners and Sunday dinner together, they pray, they operate like lots of real families, with disagreements, stress, difficult decisions, problems and all the rest; but through it all, they have love.  They’re not perfect; they’re real.  I like them, not all the time (anymore than I like anyone, including myself, all the time), but the way you like a friend, warts and all.  In this show, it’s OK to be conservative, to be religious, to be imperfect but trying to do the right thing and while knowing  you want to do the right thing, not always knowing how to accomplish it or even what it is.  From what I’ve read, this emphasis and difference is directly attributable to Tom Selleck.

The plots are realistic, not completely, of course, but how many TV shows are?  They’re not too graphic and not always clear cut, but life’s like that. The issues dealt with on the program are anything but simple. The non-Selleck part of the cast is excellent as well.  You can even watch episodes on your computer if you can’t get it on TV, http://www.cbs.com/shows/blue_bloods/.

I guess overall, what I like about this show is that it seems a lot like real life—a bit messy, not black and white, filled with people (good and bad) trying to make a difference and caring for those around them.  All that and Tom Selleck, too.  It doesn’t get much better than that.  Thankfully, I just read that “Blue Bloods” has been renewed for third season.  All good.  Try it; you’ll like it.