CBS’ Blue Bloods takes a unique approach to law enforcement TV programming. The show doesn’t follow the “buddy cop” trope, nor is it centered around an entire department. Instead, Blue Bloods follows several generations of a police family: the Reagans. For some reason, nearly every single Reagan is or was a cop. Having parents and siblings with different problems and personalities in the same line of work makes for an interesting family dynamic that’s kept Blue Bloods running for ten seasons.
The family consists of New York City Police Commissioner and head of the Reagan police family Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck) and his children and grandchildren. Each character has their own personality, and since this is a cop drama, one of those personalities includes the requisite hot head, Danny Reagan. Danny, who’s played by actor Donnie Wahlberg, is the eldest son of the Reagan family, and boy does he have a slew of issues. CBS could literally make a spinoff series about the family of psychiatrists who all make a living off of Danny’s treatment. The network’s official “About” page for the series describes Danny as a “source of pride and concern” for his police commissioner father, which pretty much sums up the character — though there’s one detail about him that bothers Blue Bloods fans to this day, and they’ve been airing it out online.
Danny Reagan takes killing people in stride
Being a cop comes with some risk, but so do a lot of other jobs. Police officers may have to pull their guns or fire a shot if the situation absolutely warrants it, but it’s a much bigger deal when they do than shoot-’em-up TV shows and movies make it seem. It’s one of the major problems with Danny Reagan on Blue Bloods, according to fans. He’s always pulling out his gun — and using it! Sure, the guy is mourning the loss of his wife, who was pronounced dead in the premiere of season 8, but the body count started long before she was killed off. Also, and more importantly, an officer’s personal struggles shouldn’t dictate if someone dies by their hand.
Reagan’s use of force has put Reddit in an uproar — not just because he kills more people in ten seasons than the bubonic plague, but because he seems to be back on the job right after doing so. We’re not going to run through the series with a punch counter to get an exact number of victims, but the number is certainly high enough to have this man taken off the streets, as the Redditors point out. Each and every lethal use of force, according to USA Today, gets an officer put on administrative leave while the incident is investigated. Of course, this is television and there needs to be some suspension of disbelief, but it’s never good to test the audience’s credulity so often that they take to the message boards in outrage.