Boston Blue took on the difficult subject of teenage boys shooting up public places, and it didn’t go where I expected.
That was partially my own bias. I thought for sure an interracial family of cops would take on a police-involved shooting and didn’t expect a story about trying to make sense of yet another 16-year-old turning a public place into a war zone.
The police-involved shooting will likely come up at some point, but Boston Blue Season 1 Episode 5 went in a different direction.
The Public Shooting Story Was A Litmus Test That Boston Blue Mostly Passed, But It Was Still Problematic
I try to avoid comparing Boston Blue to Blue Bloods too much because it needs to be its own show, not merely an extension, spinoff, or similar cop/family drama.
However, one thing I loved about Blue Bloods was that it would present various sides of an issue through each character’s eyes and let the audience make up their own minds.
That’s something that is all too rare in our ultra-politicized world. Many shows use characters as mouthpieces for the writers’ perspective and don’t leave space for the audience to decide what they think.
Boston Blue did its best to present the issue fairly of who is responsible for a teenage shooting spree, and for the most part, it succeeded.
The Silvers disagreed on this issue, with Sarah convinced that the parents were responsible for their son’s decision to take a gun to the yogurt shop.
This is a tough issue, and I have my own opinions on it that I will discuss in a bit.
Boston Blue did a decent job of showing multiple perspectives. However, it loses major points for Sarah being so wedded to the idea that parents couldn’t possibly be oblivious to a child’s desire to commit murder.
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I feel like Danny should have had a stronger voice in this debate.
During the final few seasons of Blue Bloods, Frank often expressed gratitude for the Sunday dinners, while regretting that the tradition of families eating together seemed rare these days.
Given that background, Danny should have seen the issue of oblivious parents as another consequence of the loss of family time in modern society.
It was great that he referenced Linda’s desire not to let the boys handle guns, a callback to Blue Bloods Season 4 Episode 2.
However, he was raised with the idea that family time should be sacrosanct and that this value was dying out, so he should have had a lot to say about why it’s plausible that parents wouldn’t know their son was homicidal.
That would have added something to the debate and solidified the family values aspect of Boston Blue.
That said, why was the focus only on what the parents knew or didn’t know?
Sarah talked to Kyle’s teachers, but didn’t hold them at all responsible for what Kyle did.
Realistically, teachers, especially in large cities, are overworked and don’t have the time to attend to every student’s psychological needs — which is part of the problem.
Besides, by Sarah’s own theory, if the parents were irresponsible, so were the teachers, especially the ones who noted Kyle was having mental health issues and didn’t do anything besides inform his parents of the problem.
I love shows like Boston Blue that shed a light on complex issues without sermonizing.
How about you? Sound off in the comments, and don’t forget to share this article with your friends so they can join in the conversation.
The truth is, public shootings represent a complex social problem with no one answer.
Easy access to guns is one part of the puzzle, but not the only piece, and the issue also won’t be solved by arresting parents for their kids’ choices.
I wasn’t clear on exactly what Sarah thought the parents should have done that they didn’t.
Were they supposed to notify the principal that their son was on an anti-psychotic? That seems discriminatory to me.
I have more than one bone to pick with that plot point. The majority of people with severe mental illness — including hallucinations and delusions — are non-violent, and I’m sick of TV shows equating mental illness with violence.
In fact, one thing that Lena said was false: a person being prescribed risperidone does NOT mean they are violent or a danger to others.
The medication helps control delusions and hallucinations that are upsetting to the sufferer. Period.
There is no such thing as a drug that stops people from being violent, and the idea is no less offensive here than when Days of Our Lives used it to rehabilitate serial killer Ben Weston.
In fact, it’s worse on a police procedural, which is taken more seriously than a soap opera.
In any case, the parents had no obligation to tell anyone that their son was on this medication unless he needed it administered in school.
Nor was their gun ownership neglectful. They locked their gun up and taught their son gun safety.
There is no law that says you can’t have a gun if your teenager is on an antipsychotic medication, and laws about parental responsibility for shootings usually specify that the parents gave the child access to a gun, not that they simply possessed one while living with a child.
I Applaud Boston Blue For Exploring The Reasons Behind These Types of Crimes, But They Badly Missed The Mark
It would have been more realistic and effective to explore how many systems failed Kyle, leading to this result (and also, leave out the idea that violent drawings mean someone is about to kill, which is also patently false.)
They also somewhat missed the mark on the man with apparent dementia.
It was great that Sean and Jonah had compassion and tried to help, but I didn’t think it was realistic that the man magically became fully lucid when his real son came to visit.
I’d have loved it if there had been a reference to how Jamie always worried that Sean’s great-grandfather was suffering from cognitive decline, and it only offended Henry. That would have been a GREAT callback.
Even With These Flaws, This Was a Solid Episode
The stories held my interest and were well-intentioned, although the art theft/murder story was silly. And I loved that Danny and Sean struggled to find the right balance in their relationship, although Sean and Jonah moving in together seems like a bad sitcom plot.
But what did you think?
Sound off about Boston Blue Season 1 Episode 5 in the comments, and don’t forget to share this article with your friends so that they can join in the conversation.
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If you enjoyed our coverage of Boston Blue, you might like our reviews of other police shows like Chicago PD and FBI.
Boston Blue airs on CBS on Fridays at 10/9c and streams on Paramount+ on Saturdays.
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