Donnie Wahlberg trades New York for Boston in this interfaith spinoff, where a promising Jewish storyline can’t save the show’s uneven execution.
There’s a new show set in Boston, and it has nothing to do with the Afflecks or Whitey Bulger: It’s “Boston Blue,” and it does star Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Danny Reagan, in a spinoff of the popular, New York City-based “Blue Bloods” series. And there’s a Jewish subplot.
This time, Wahlberg is in Boston (for reasons I’ll explain later) and ends up working with officer Lena Silver, part of a prominent—and Jewish—local law enforcement family. Intrigued by the Jewish angle, I gave the premiere a watch. Ironically, this police drama felt more like punishment than entertainment.
Here’s the quick backstory: Reagan comes to Boston when his son, Sean, a rookie officer, is injured in a fire working alongside his partner, Jonah Silver, Lena’s half-brother. Sean falls into a coma; his dad is paired with Lena (he’s well-known in New York; she conveniently needs help) to track down the perp.
He’s drawn further into the blended Black-Jewish family when he meets Sarah Silver, Lena’s step-sister, who just so happens to be the Boston police superintendent and also approximately 22 years old. The matriarch is Mae Silver, the district attorney, widow of Ben Silver, a judge who was recently murdered outside his courthouse. If this all seems highly improbable, well: That’s because it is. The patriarch is Mae’s dad, the Rev. Edwin Peters, pastor of Roxbury Baptist Church.
Credibility-stretching nepotism aside, the show has plenty of other flaws. It lacks the procedural drama grit that makes shows like “Law & Order” great. The production value is gauzy; the sets are sepia; the score is muzak-adjacent; and the dialogue is saccharine. There’s none of the depth, none of the bleak desperation that made shows like “Homicide” great. Basically, imagine a crime show as presented by the Hallmark Channel. Cringiest are the chase scenes through downtown Boston, where extras who seem planted by AI barely look up as officers charge by. Bostonians aren’t that jaded.
Worst of all, though, is the setting. We get plenty of gratuitous shots of local landmarks, but: Where are the accents? Not a single officer has even a hint of one. These people could be from absolutely anywhere. And it’s a strange artistic choice to place Wahlberg, whose Boston roots are basically his dramatic calling card, in a scenario where he has to pretend to be from Brooklyn.
I knew we were in for trouble from the outset, when partners Jonah and Sean are hanging outside Bostonia next to Faneuil Hall (does anyone really from Boston go to Faneuil Hall?), asking bystanders if anyone under 40 knows who Bruce Springsteen is (really?). When a building nearby explodes into flames, Jonah and Sean rush into the fray, completely unprotected, but not before pausing to detain coughing people in a smoky stairwell to ask what happened. With officers like these, the Winter Hill Gang might still be around.
The blended family aspect could be juicy, but when the Silvers predictably invite Catholic Reagan to Shabbat dinner at their improbably large abode (he crosses himself, and the Rev. Peters helpfully tells him: “It’s OK; we all do what’s meaningful to us!”), the meal ends about 30 seconds in. They decide they need to dash off to resolve the case at hand instead of actually talking.
I don’t need to tell you that Sean awakens from his coma and that Reagan sticks around to partner with Lena on future cases. They have the cliché chummy-rival rapport that, I’m guessing, will lead to romance a few episodes in.
I’m hopeful that future episodes go deeper on the inter-religious dynamics—and show us the real Boston—but I’m not hopeful. I got a few minutes into Episode 2, but when a visit to a Lexington mansion looked more like a Beverly Hills sound stage, I had to press pause.
Someone give me a reason to go back?
