In my quest to explore what people are watching, I reached out to former entertainment editor from the Philadelphia Daily News, Howard Gensler, to find out what’s he’s been binging lately and here’s what he had to share.
1. What are you watching and where are you accessing it (network, streaming service)?
After re-watching every episode in the “Law & Order” franchise(s) and bingeing “Chicago PD,” and “Hawaii Five-O,” I’m now addicted to “Blue Bloods,” a show I never thought I’d like. I’m watching it on Ion, both on TV and on the computer.
2. What’s the genre and is it a series, limited series, movie or other format?
It’s a family-based police procedural, with over 200 episodes.
3. How are you watching it (flat screen tv, ipad, computer, phone) and how did you hear about it (ad, word of mouth, a review, etc.)?
I’m watching it on both a flat-screen TV and my laptop. I heard about it because during its other shows, Ion advertises it every 10 minutes. It always looked too corny, and it is, but it’s also very compelling.
4. When did you get hooked on it (the pilot? episode 3?) and what keeps you coming back to it?
Somewhere midway in its run. Maybe Season 5 or 6 and I’m now at the start of Season 10 and will then go back and watch the first few years although it will be weird. Coming from a very small Jewish family, having lost my mom during the pandemic and feeling very isolated (as so many are), there’s something comforting about this larger Irish Catholic family with 5 generations, that always comes together for Sunday dinner and always has each other’s backs even though they fight like pit bulls. The crime show plotting is, at best, average for television, but the character relationships are all rich, and there are a lot of them, and the supporting non-Regan players (Vaneesa Ray, Marisa Ramirez, Abigail Hawk, Steve Schirripa, Gregry Jbara, Robert Clohessy, Bebe Neuwirth, etc) are all terrific. The show also juggles a lot of balls, so even if one subplot isn’t working, there’s always another one in two minutes. Basically, the plots (which of course are similar after 10 seasons) revolve around 1. Frank Regan and his bickering top staff at police HQ dealing with some force-wide problem, 2. Detective Danny Regan and his partner trying to solve a crime which frequently conflicts with 3. Erin Regan in the DA’s office, who’s frequently fighting with her investigator. 4. There are also beat cop issues with now-Sgt. Jamie Regan and his former partner/now wife and their relationship in-fighting, and 5. Some family issue always needs to be resolved. The show also does a great job dealing with parent-children relationships and workplace relationships – in which you can love/hate the person you work with and still always be completely protective of them. I can’t really think of a TV comparison to “Blue Bloods” It’s a far cry from the procedural plotting of “Law & Order,” or the crime-solving of “Columbo,” but if you could move the Depression-era Walton family to modern-day New York and give them all jobs in law enforcement, it might give you a sense of what the show is like.
5. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being amazing) what would you rate it?
The family stuff is a 10, the crime-plotting is a 5, but it does bring up issues topical issues about policing and race, marijuana legalization, community policing and more. That’s A LOT for a weekly TV series. So overall I give it an 8.5 to 9.
Read more about Howard, here.