![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Blue Bloods
I meant to post this sooner, but I've stopped watching Blue Bloods after this season's first episode. Spoilerly reasons below the cut...
After last season's finale, when Danny's house was burned down (his family escaped unharmed), the new season opened some time later, with an angry Danny seeing a shrink, and seriously considering quitting the police force. He says he can't continue without wife Linda, and I thought maybe they were having marital problems and that she didn't want him to go back to the job that nearly got them all killed--though that didn't sound quite right, since it was clear in the finale that she didn't blame him for what happened.
Eventually near the end the of episode, we discover that Linda has been killed offscreen--died in a helicopter crash while transporting a patient, even though we have never seen that as one of her job duties in the past seasons. I was shocked that they'd killed her off so unceremoniously, and I thought, "I'm done with this show."
And then I had to stop to think about why this death bothered me so much. Actors and characters come and go, and while I liked Linda, she wasn't my favorite character. And I think it's partly because what I loved about the show was the sense of family and how, no matter how much they fought with each other, there was no question that they loved each other and would always be there to support each other. There was something comforting about seeing them come together at the dinner table every Sunday.
And I was reading an interview with Amy Carlson, who played Linda, saying how moved she was when fans told her how much they loved and missed Linda, and that was maybe a little surprising for a supporting character who wasn't the main focus of the show. She said perhaps it was because Linda was the "everyperson" that the viewers could identify with, the regular person who tried to keep her family grounded with love, and I think that pretty much nails it for me. Taking away that grounded center, the feeling of familial love and security ruins the sense of comfort that I got from watching the show.
It's also because we didn't get closure--her death was mentioned in passing, and we didn't get to see her family mourn her and say goodbye. I can think of other shows that handled a character's death well: NCIS for example, though in that case it was out of necessity when the actor playing Gibbs's father died. We saw Gibbs get the news, saw his shock and grief, watched him go to home to handle the funeral and recall childhood memories of his dad. Another example I can think of is Walker, Texas Ranger (I've been watching reruns on GRIT TV lately), where the retired Ranger C.D. died (in this case, the actor left the show), and we saw Walker and his friends grieve, recall fond memories of C.D., and give him a proper farewell.
I could maybe have accepted Linda's death if it had been handled that way, seen the family grieve and come together to support each other, though I still would have been saddened by her loss. But although Carlson hasn't said that she left on bad terms, that quick write-off of her character sure makes it seem like it might have been, as does the fact that Carlson says in the interview that she wasn't told how Linda would die (and she herself was surprised and disappointed by how it was handled) and that she wasn't asked to appear in the first episode to send Linda off and give closure.
The show already has a less-than-stellar reputation in handling a departing actress: Jennifer Esposito, who played Danny's original partner, had asked to have a lighter schedule because of her Celiac disease, and instead of trying to work with her, the studio wrote her out of the show. Some fans quit the show then; maybe I should have too, but I still liked the remaining characters enough that I didn't want to give it up.
But now I'm done. To me, the show just won't be the same without Linda there at the dinner table, so I'll stick to watching a few of my favorite past episodes on reruns or Netflix.
After last season's finale, when Danny's house was burned down (his family escaped unharmed), the new season opened some time later, with an angry Danny seeing a shrink, and seriously considering quitting the police force. He says he can't continue without wife Linda, and I thought maybe they were having marital problems and that she didn't want him to go back to the job that nearly got them all killed--though that didn't sound quite right, since it was clear in the finale that she didn't blame him for what happened.
Eventually near the end the of episode, we discover that Linda has been killed offscreen--died in a helicopter crash while transporting a patient, even though we have never seen that as one of her job duties in the past seasons. I was shocked that they'd killed her off so unceremoniously, and I thought, "I'm done with this show."
And then I had to stop to think about why this death bothered me so much. Actors and characters come and go, and while I liked Linda, she wasn't my favorite character. And I think it's partly because what I loved about the show was the sense of family and how, no matter how much they fought with each other, there was no question that they loved each other and would always be there to support each other. There was something comforting about seeing them come together at the dinner table every Sunday.
And I was reading an interview with Amy Carlson, who played Linda, saying how moved she was when fans told her how much they loved and missed Linda, and that was maybe a little surprising for a supporting character who wasn't the main focus of the show. She said perhaps it was because Linda was the "everyperson" that the viewers could identify with, the regular person who tried to keep her family grounded with love, and I think that pretty much nails it for me. Taking away that grounded center, the feeling of familial love and security ruins the sense of comfort that I got from watching the show.
It's also because we didn't get closure--her death was mentioned in passing, and we didn't get to see her family mourn her and say goodbye. I can think of other shows that handled a character's death well: NCIS for example, though in that case it was out of necessity when the actor playing Gibbs's father died. We saw Gibbs get the news, saw his shock and grief, watched him go to home to handle the funeral and recall childhood memories of his dad. Another example I can think of is Walker, Texas Ranger (I've been watching reruns on GRIT TV lately), where the retired Ranger C.D. died (in this case, the actor left the show), and we saw Walker and his friends grieve, recall fond memories of C.D., and give him a proper farewell.
I could maybe have accepted Linda's death if it had been handled that way, seen the family grieve and come together to support each other, though I still would have been saddened by her loss. But although Carlson hasn't said that she left on bad terms, that quick write-off of her character sure makes it seem like it might have been, as does the fact that Carlson says in the interview that she wasn't told how Linda would die (and she herself was surprised and disappointed by how it was handled) and that she wasn't asked to appear in the first episode to send Linda off and give closure.
The show already has a less-than-stellar reputation in handling a departing actress: Jennifer Esposito, who played Danny's original partner, had asked to have a lighter schedule because of her Celiac disease, and instead of trying to work with her, the studio wrote her out of the show. Some fans quit the show then; maybe I should have too, but I still liked the remaining characters enough that I didn't want to give it up.
But now I'm done. To me, the show just won't be the same without Linda there at the dinner table, so I'll stick to watching a few of my favorite past episodes on reruns or Netflix.