Welcome to the Family, Eddie! - A Weird Engagement

Image from Gifer

A lot happened on the season finale of Blue Bloods. The only thing I remember and really care about is the storyline that ended up with Jamie and Eddie showing up to family dinner, as an engaged couple!!! I've been waiting for these two crazy kids to get together for almost 7 years. I CANNOT BELIEVE IT!! I'M SO HAPPY!

 After a shootout, Jamie (still a guy) and Eddie (still a girl) confessed their feelings, pledged to continue to be partners, and decided to get married to each other. I'm not the only one that is excited about the surprising news. Last year, I wrote a  lengthy post about the adorable pair. Many people are wishing good thoughts to for the couple. 

Cop Fridays 2: When Partners Fall in Like

     Welcome to February. It's time for COP FRIDAYS, a little holiday this month I will celebrate every Friday night, saluting my favorite cop shows. This week's entry is about CBS's family police drama, Blue Bloods. The next paragraph highlights a powerful episode from January.

     "I don't want to get you jammed up," said Jamie Reagan (Will Estes) to his partner Edit Marie 'Eddie' Janko (Vanessa Ray). The two had a conversation after witnessing another male/female set of partners fighting in the street. One half of the other couple requested a transfer after the female partner was held at knife point by a suspect. Their parting words to Jamie and Eddie were that the whole precinct believes they are sleeping together. Eddie fluffed her blonde hair and suggested to Jamie that they should just got for it, pulling a Bonnie Raitt and giving them something to talk about. Jamie, whose father is the city police commissioner, shook his head and said it should never happen. But I have to ask why? Even CBS thinks this couple should be together.

Jamie: "We're paying for something we didn't get any benefits of..."

Eddie: "If you tap this (points to her bum), there's going back."

Image from Pinrest.

     This is why I watch Blue Bloods. Well, not for the dialogue, I definitely don't the in for the dialogue. That particular November episode was rife with terrible dialogue that sounded like it was from a 20's gangster and gun moll movie. Jamie makes a comment about the relationship between the two, likening it to trying to out toothpaste back in a tube if it didn't work out. Really, I would like to meet with their writing staff. I could see this type of talk coming from Jamie's widowed father and grandfather, which I refer to as the senior members of "the bachelor club," a nickname I used when Jamie and the two older generations lived under one roof together. But this is not the way a hot, single 30-something year old Harvard-educated lawyer (that became a police officer to serve a higher purpose). But I digress...

     There is a real reason I watch Blue Bloods. There are tons of procedural shows and cop dramas out there, but Blue Bloods is different.  It's a family drama and the family just happens to be filled with cops and lawyers with a strong (read too strong) sense of ethics. At first, season 1 brought us a murder mystery. We had to explore the conspiracy in the police department that led to Jamie's brother Joe's death.  The action on the murder cases can move fast, but this couple has been slow burning for years and that's what makes me come back (aside from Donny Wahlberg's Danny kicking ass and taking names). Jamie and Eddie have been buddies since season four, trading bad date stories and grabbing beers after patrol. They were partnered at the beginning of that season after Jamie's partner Vinny was killed in the line of duty.

     The couple kissed late in season four, but it's taken three years for them to pick up some steam as most of their talks have ended with a hug, like when Jamie comforted Eddie after her inconsequential boyfriend took a swing at her. A few months ago, they kissed after a double date and said they "had feelings," but chalked up the kiss to too much alcohol. (Read more from EW.com about the kiss.) Eddie came with Jamie to a wedding and Jamie punched a guy who was hitting on Eddie or making lewd comments. Then they slow danced. In last week's episode, Eddie reveals a deep secret to Jamie. She shares that she is a Philadelphia Flyers fan. Jamie, who comes from generations of Rangers fans (as well as cops),  is disgusted but forgives Eddie. This is surely not normal behavior for people that are "just friends."

      I also have to reflect on a pivotal episode from 3 weeks ago. Eddie complains to Jamie about her new boyfriend ghosting after she shot a would be robber on a date. It's a typical complaint, right? Eddie laments that she isn't comfortable being a damsel and she's frustrated she hasn't found a guy who appreciates her four her tough exterior. But there may be someone who sees her tender side, and is not threatened by her pulling out a gun and doing her job, even off-duty. It's JAMIE!! It's HIM!! He basically says as much while comforting Jamie. Eddie says they can't be each other's consolation prize. WHY??? It can't be because they're partners. Danny and his many female partners have always had an appropriate work/personal life balance in the detective squad. Whether it was party girl Jackie (Jennifer Esposito: 2+years), Kate (Megan Ketch: a few episodes), Mac (Megan Boone: a few episodes) and his current partner Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez: since 2013). It's time to man up Jamie Reagan, take a chance with Eddie!
I would ship that!

See the first COP Fridays here. 

Hawaii 5-0: A Carte Blance Police Force

     TV cops have a long standing reputation of closing cases in 45 minutes (except for the O.J. case). How they go about it can sometimes be a stretch, and you know they have to cut some corners to do it. If today's media attention toward police screw-ups in any indication  If the judge is on the golf course, someone better contact his caddy to get that warrant, right? After a while I believe there's a fine line between defending justice and infringing on the rights of others. Maybe there's something powerful that draws the audience to situations like that. We love the thrill of the cat-and-mouse game, and nothing is more satisfying than capturing someone who really did something bad. But what if that person is supposed to be preserving the law?

     Some of my favorite moments in cop dramas have been about breaking the law. There's a memorable part of the Blue Bloods pilot where Det. Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) flushes a perp's face in a toilet to get information, which definitely falls under police brutality. Blue Bloods has long addressed issues of police conduct (and misconduct) and Police Commissioner Reagan (Tom Selleck) always supports his officers and policies until given reason to believe they are harmful to the public. There was at least one episode of Bones where Dr. Brennan (Emily Deschanel) an anthropologist partnered to an FBI agent, shot a perp. This happened in the pilot episode for chrissake! Her husband Booth (David Boranez) has shot multiple people over the years, and he shot a clown on top of an ice cream truck, which landed him in therapy. The first episode of Jennifer Lopez's Shades of Blue has J-Lo's Harley covering up her partner's shooting of an unarmed man that was playing single-shooter video games. Clearly, TV cops need some more regulation.

Image from Pintrest

    There is a much more corrupt group of cops on TV! What happens when you have a free-for-all police task force that is presided over by the Governor of the state? Then you have the Hawaii 5-0 and all hell breaks loose. These people are cops, but they have the worst luck when it comes to dating and getting people kidnapped. This police squad of misfits operates on their own with no oversight, and they have broken numerous laws to close cases. I also wonder how legal their desktop comoputer is. It's a computer screen the size of a desk that can search databases and find licenses in a matter of seconds.

     In this current season, Chi McBride's Lt.Grover, desperate to prove his old partner's guilt in murdering his wife, kidnaps his friend and holds him at gunpoint and threatens the guy's new girlfriend until he confesses. Don't sweat the small stuff, right? Grace Park's Kono married a reformed Japanese mob (Yakuza) kingpin at the end of last season, and by their honeymoon he is kidnapped, murdered innocent people in his escape, and is now in prison.  Last month, her cousin Chin Ho (Daniel Dae Kim) has a shootout with his deceased wife's brother. Chin gets a little wild and shoots the guy through a window of an abandoned building and he falls a few stories and lands on a car. Important to note, he is missing when the come to check on the body, so it's only an attempted murder. Was this a concerning turn of events for anyone else? Not so much. They were much more worried about Danno and Commander Steve McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin) going to some partner training. When they arrived at the training session, they found out it was a couples' retreat and their witty banter really shown through as Danno suffered through a broken ankle in a three-legged race exercise. I'm not going to blame her, but even McGarrett's girlfriend Catherine saw 5-0 was a toxic environment. Catherine returned for Kono's wedding and just as McGarrett was about to propose, she packed her bags and left for a humanitarian mission (or maybe not, as we discovered last week that she is on a  classified mission in Nepal).
   
     Elsewhere, the FBI took aside Danno (Scott Caan) to investigate what happened to a half-million dollars his brother had in his possession before he was murdered. Somehow his mother got access to the money and the FBI thinks Danny knowingly helped his brother hide the stolen money as an accessory. If this is the FBI's in-road, they need to think again about their priorities. People near to the 5-0 are getting murdered left and right. Plus the group makes their own rules of what constitutes torture for their perps in the windowless interrogation room.  If anyone remembers, the first Governor of Hawaii who created the 5-0 (Jean Smart) got murdered and 5-0 leader McGarrett was framed for it, because who wouldn't believe the leader of a no-rules task force would eliminate the one person standing in his way. Now McGarrett is a pretty decent guy, but let's not forget his mother, renowned criminal Doris (and long thought to be dead) got away with tons of bad stuff because Steve failed to bring her to jail,  and she is still out there and is a hired assassin.

     Now with the FBI on their heels, the 5-0 is going to need to accept responsibility for their errors in judgment and reckless behavior. Inspector Abby Dunn,  (Julie Benz) a recent visitor to 5-0 from San Francisco has come to observe how the group works so she can start her own task force. So naturally with more eyes watching, the group should be making a good impression. But since she has been here, several bad things have happened (See Chin-Ho and the brother-in-law shooting). So imagine my surprise when Abby lied about a trip to San Francisco a few weeks ago, and then she turned up on the other side of Danno's police interrogation. Now, we found out she is an FBI plant to help disband 5-0. No why would anyone want to disband the 5-0 (aside from the above mentioned misconduct)? Of course, the lead investigator's brother was murdered and he has investigated 5-0 last season, so that's all we need in terms of a motive for this show. The reason I find this plot so amusing is that on the beloved 90's alien drama Roswell, Benz also played an FBI agent. Pretending to be the school guidance counselor, agent Topolsky got a little to close to the aliens and she died in a mysterious fire. Hopefully the same fate does not await her in Hawaii.

Who's That Girl? Vanessa Ray Rules TV

     Some actors have ok careers, steadily acting in different shows like Lee Norris. Some actors like Jason Marsden have great years. Some actors like Vanessa Ray are killing it (literally) on two coasts and starring in two dramas at the same time. You go, Glenn Coco! See definition 2 of Glen Coco in the Urban Dictionary if you're not following us here.

Eddie Janko

     Just who is Vanessa Ray? She has regularly been appearing alongside the handsome Jamie Reagan (Will Estes) as his tough talking rookie partner as Edit "Eddie" Janko in the NY family cop drama Blue Bloods on and off for three seasons. She has shot people, arrested perps, been roughed up by a boyfriend, and faced her inmate father, among other things. She and Jamie remain close friends, but we've always gotten a glimpse of "will they or won't they." As of now, she is hoping to make detective soon, so maybe the partners will become more than partners if they're not chilling with beers after a long tour.  

Charlotte

     Ray may also look familiar to you from another popular role. Perhaps you recognize her as the long-masked sun-drenched villain of Pretty Little Liars, known as "A", Others may know her by her many aliases, such as  Cece Drake, Charles, and finally, as Charlotte DeLaurentis, Alison's "sister", who left Charles behind a long time ago. If you still don't know who "A" is, you have been living under a rock.

     In a nutshell, Alison had two older brothers Jason and Charles. Young toddler Charles loved baby Alison like a baby doll and tried to give her a bath, almost drowning Alison and getting himself a one-way trip to a children's institution. Charles realized he should have been born a girl, and mom helped out by having an operation to change him into Charlotte, letting dad believe he had died at age 16. Alison and Jason didn't even remember having a brother. Charlotte began a lot of mayhem to punish people, including the family that sent him/her away.

      In last week's season 6 premiere, Charlotte is released from the mental hospital and mysteriously "falls" off the church bell tower her first night home. A suicide, thought some. A murder, insisted the police. Now the liars must figure out who murdered Charlotte, and it possibly is one of the liars themselves. Maybe they could use the Reagans from Blue Bloods to help solve this case as the Rosewood police force are completely ineffective. 

A Note About Blue Bloods: All Class, All Sass

Blue Bloods may be just another cop show, but here's what makes it different. The deep family values and the sassy one-liners really change things for the better. Here's a sample of tonight's winners:

"Where do I put this?"
- Danny's partner Jackie (holds her gun in the air while going undercover as a hooker)
"Baker, how have you come to ruin my day now?"
- Frank to his assistant
"The roast looks good."
- Frank when asked to weigh in about his granddaughter joining the police force
"Maybe I should become goth."
- Bridget's daughter at the museum
"Grandad if you have a job, will you still make us dinner?"
- Danny's kids to their greant grandpa at family dinner night
"Hey. Eyes up!"
- Linda to her husband as he goes off to an undercover sting with his sluttily dressed partner
"You'll do."
- A potential John to undercover cop Jackie
"Don't kid a kidder."
- Frank's head PR guy
"Another night of sleaze and desperation."
- Danny on a stakeout
"Its nice to share a meal with someone who's not talking about the murder rate in Bensonhurst or weighing the merits of a 98 glock vs. a 32 special."
- Bridget to her date

Jamie: "You know Jackie, this undercover stuff scares me too."
Jackie: "But you don't have a bad past like me kid."

A Note About Blue Bloods: I Made A Bingo Card!

After the continued success of Hawaii 5-0 Bingo, I have decided to launch my own series of tv show bingo boards to better outline the formulas that consistently make them work and keep me coming back to watch again. This week, I've got BLUE BLOODS BINGO. Enjoy!

A Note About Seeing the Footage on TV

This past Friday night, I saw the episode of Blue Bloods I watched being filmed! -Refer to my September 16th entry about seeing Blue Bloods filmed.

The episode was about an off-duty officer who is shot in a diamond heist. During her family's grief, the NYPD and the Reagan family's quick time frame to catch the criminals and bring them to justice. Commissioner Dad, officer Jamie, Detective Danny, prosecutor Erin, and even retired commissioner grandpa worked on the case.

Here is my horrible cell phone photo from the set.

A Note About Smelling the Subway

In recent weeks, I've noticed a spike in subway stations being show in TV. My fundamental position is that if you cannot smell the dinginess of the subway - the pee, the homeless people,- then you are not doing your due diligence to your pre-show research.


Blue Bloods- the second episode, which featured a gruesome string of subway murders, looked like a real subway. Ok, so they do actually film in New York, so they have that advantage. But the subway looked like a Subway. A dirty, urine-covered subway. Huzzah!

How I Met Your Mother- In the quintessential "New York" episode, I commend this show, which is not shot in New York (its outdoor streets are fake Hollywood sets) for its real-looking subway. When Lily deciphered the muffled subway conductor's voice, it was a true New York mement. And the subway did not look like it smelled like urine, but it had implications of being a real subway.

Nikita- The NY cat-and-mouse thriller had a subway scene in its second episode, a traditional shootout in the 34th street station. This station was real looking, but way too squeaky clean for Penn station, and it looked nothing like the real station. Props for the real wooden seats!

Covert Affairs- This was in D.C., but the pilot episode ended with another shootout in the subway. It had no implications of urine smell, a way-too-clean subway.

A Note About Film in New York

I am excited to report that I saw Blue Bloods, new new CBS cop drama, filming in New York today. It was a scene involving police and a diamond center (fake). I am so excited to see this episode when it airs!

I looked up the cast in entertainment weekly. Tom Selleck (magnum or Richard from FRIENDS), Donnie Walhberg (New Kid OTB and brother of Mark), and Will Estes (JJ from American Dreams, and not related to Rob Estes) are in the cast! I may have a reason to watch tv on Fridays.