As a bridge between the continuation of "Blue Bloods" and the introduction of a fresh, entirely new show, the premiere of "Boston Blue" embodies the classic "same but different" essence that one might anticipate from a spin-off of a beloved procedural. The first episode, "Faith and Family," takes these concepts to heart, reintroducing several members of the Reagan clan, particularly Danny, alongside the entire Silvers family, Boston's most prominent law enforcement dynasty.
From the very beginning, the ties between these families are evident. Sean Reagan, now working for the Boston PD, is out on a night with a fellow rookie named Jonah Silver when they both respond to a fire in a nearby office building. As they both spot a woman who has been shot dead and left to burn in the fire, an explosion sends Sean to the hospital, prompting Danny to travel all the way from New York to be by his side.
Jonah is the youngest member of the Silver family. When Danny arrives in Boston, meets Jonah, and starts meddling in the case, he is immediately partnered with Detective Lena Silver, Jonah's older sister. The family matriarch, Mae, holds the position of District Attorney, while Detective Superintendent Sarah Silver is the daughter of Mae's late husband, Ben, a circuit judge who was murdered outside the courthouse. This means that Sarah and Jonah share the same father, while Lena and Jonah share the same mother. Mae's father, Reverend Edwin Peters, is a cool Baptist preacher, though Lena, Mae, Sarah, and Jonah are all Jewish – a detail not left unnoticed in this intricate web of familial and professional connections.
Nevertheless, the murder of Andrea Decker, the CEO of a company that produces the facial recognition software used by the Boston PD, was intended to be obscured by the fire. This software has been under scrutiny for its alleged misidentification of people of color. Clues swiftly lead Danny and Lena to a private investigator named Carlos Delgado, who alerts them to disgruntled employees recently let go by Decker's company. One of them, Marquis Rollins, confesses to the murder as soon as he's interrupted packing his bags, but even for seasoned law enforcement officers like Danny and Lena, it feels too easy to believe.
At the midpoint of Boston Blue's Episode 1, Danny's sister Erin arrives on the scene, partly to check on Sean but also, it seems, to help Danny navigate Boston's social circles. She accompanies him to a family dinner with the Silvers, where most of the exposition about the family occurs. It's almost a reassuring moment for the audience that this show will, at its core, be just like Blue Bloods but in a different city. It's like the characters are realizing it in real time.
Decker's killer is revealed to be Caleb Bruce, the son of Marquis's ex-girlfriend. You know the type - a good kid with plenty of potential, but an incarcerated biological father filling his head with nonsense. While I don't love how "Faith and Family" contrives a too-happy conclusion from all of this, with leniency here and software consultancy there, I do appreciate that it was Jonah who got the collar. Score one for the rookie.
Of course, the premiere ends with Sean beginning to wake up, right after Danny had reiterated that he would be staying in Boston for the foreseeable future. The show is predictably so and a bit too pleased with itself and its own superiority for my tastes, but it might lose some of that as we go deeper. Regardless, it's a comfortably familiar return to the world of Blue Bloods, reintroducing a handful of familiar faces, even if some only qualify as cameos, and introducing a whole new clan to get accustomed to. Their immediate similarities and fuzzy fondness for each other may not ring entirely true yet, but there's no reason to be concerned about the spin-off's underlying quality or direction. At least not yet.
