CBS’ new crime drama Blue Bloods, starring Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg, premieres Friday, Sept. 24 at 10 p.m. The following are reviews from TV critics around the Web, compiled by B&C:
“One could argue, and persuasively, that a show about a family of Irish cops in New York — Frank’s father, Henry (played by the indomitable Len Cariou). was commissioner before him — is off by a few decades. But watching the Reagans bicker and gossip over Sunday dinner, one is inclined to just to settle in and enjoy. Blue Bloods is meat and potatoes TV — predictable perhaps but tantalizing and flavorful nonetheless.” - Mary McNamara, The Los Angeles Times
“[This is] the best new cop drama of a TV season that has more police than a presidential motorcade. Blue Bloods doesn’t have the best time slot on TV, but it’s got some of the strongest characters and performances.” - David Hinckley, New York Daily News
“The pilot is full of rich, resonant dialogue and scenes in which both actors and producers understand the importance of the long looks and quiet spaces that occur between people in intimate or difficult moments. Blue Bloods‘ pilot looks and sounds great: striking montages of street life while Frank Sinatra sings “New York, New York.” - Tom Maurstad, The Dallas Morning News
“Wahlberg, a favorite here, needs to avoid David Caruso Syndrome. There’s a bit too much posturing with the furrowed brow and hand-on-the-hip that has made a caricature of that CSI: Miami star.” - Mark A. Perigard, Boston Herald
“A potent brew of family melodrama, crime-thriller tension and conspiratorial intrigue, Blue Bloods may actually bring some viewers back onto the sinking ship of Friday-night television.” - Glenn Garvin, Miami Herald
“Blue Bloods could go one of two ways: It could become a cop show whose main characters all happen to be related, or it could become a show about a family whose members all happen to work in law enforcement.” - Rick Porter, Zap2it
