I knew I was going to love Boston Blue’s memorial episode for Ben Silver, but I had no idea it would affect me this much.
This episode had it all: the family bonds and compelling cases that made me fall hard for Blue Bloods in the first place, along with the religious and cultural background that make the Silvers unique.
This is incredibly important in this age where anti-Semitism is on the rise, and to me personally. And Boston Blue Season 1 Episode 4 did it without sacrificing story or character development one bit.
The Yartzheit Service Was Only The Beginning Of This Beautiful Episode
Boston Blue Season 1 Episode 4 took the unusual step of beginning with the family saying the Mourner’s Kaddish in Hebrew, followed by a memorial dinner.
That alone was something special and different. I can’t remember another time in recent history when a show began with a Jewish ceremony.
I know from the types of comments people are making about Boston Blue that some people will be unhappy with Judaism being “in our faces,” but sorry not sorry, I don’t agree.
On Blue Bloods, the Reagans said Grace over dinner almost every week, and I never minded it even though it wasn’t my own religious tradition — in fact, I enjoyed those scenes.
The Reagan family also went to Joe’s grave more than once and memorialized him their way, and I enjoyed those scenes too.
But when the Silvers said the Mourner’s Kaddish, it felt different to me because it was from my own religious and cultural background.
That Type of Representation Is What I Didn’t Know I Needed… And It Didn’t Stop There
I’m used to Judaism not being appropriately represented on TV or anywhere else.
I was the only Jewish child in my class growing up, and Christmastime in elementary school meant a holiday concert where my class sang several Christmas songs, some of them religious, and one Chanukah song that was a Christmas carol with different words for the sake of “inclusivity.”
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I certainly didn’t feel included at those concerts, or when Passover didn’t fall at the same time as Easter and I had to bring food to school that nobody else ate, or when people made “jokes” about Jewish people and didn’t understand why I wasn’t laughing.
If nothing else, these early experiences taught me to expect that Christianity would be centered everywhere and that being Jewish meant being an outsider most of the time, so it didn’t surprise me that most TV shows ignored explicit Jewish representation.
That’s why I’m thrilled that Boston Blue began with a Jewish prayer and included the subplot about Lena not having had a bat mitzvah because she didn’t convert to Judaism.
That experience didn’t exactly match mine. Like most 13-year-olds who do this ceremony, I was mostly looking forward to the party afterward.
But Lena’s stories about her dad, and the chai necklace she still had, were relatable for me, and now that she’s decided to convert as an adult, I hope she does have a bat mitzvah (the ceremony, not necessarily the party.)
While this traditionally happens at 13, converts and people who never had one often do it as part of their commitment to Judaism, and an adult bat mitzvah is a unique story that I don’t think has ever been shown on TV before.
Showing so much Jewish stuff is a brave choice right now, too.
It shouldn’t have to be one, but with so much hate in the world and violence against Jews rising, shows like Boston Blue that show that Jewish people are not so different from everyone else are standing up for. a minority that it’s popular to hate.
Of Course, Boston Blue Season 1 Episode 4 Wasn’t Just About Judaism
I loved how the episode wove Ben’s death into the cops’ everyday lives as they patrolled the city, solving crimes and keeping people safe.
Jonah’s difficulty letting go of his memories of his dad was realistic and deepened his character, and I loved how he and Sean compared experiences and Sean admitted it was weird having Danny around after Danny threw himself. much into work during Sean’s adolescence.
Sean and Jonah are generally my least favorite part of the show. It’s always the two rookies together, doing something no supervisor would approve of, and Sean being annoyed when Danny tells him to cut it out.
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This week’s story started out that way, too. Jonah and Sean seemed as annoyed with that professor who got hit by a car as I was!
Fortunately, we never saw that annoying guy again —not even after Sean suggested playing Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide who had to tell him they hadn’t found the culprit yet.
I’m Not Sure How I Feel About Three Cases Being Connected
One of the things I always loved about Blue Bloods was that almost every family member had their own case.
Boston Blue Season 1 has been slowly introducing a similar structure, but this time, three of the cases turned out to be connected.
It was a clever twist, but it annoyed me at the same time.
What are the odds that three separate sets of cops in Boston would encounter people involved with the same crime ring?
Danny and Lena’s case was the most convoluted.
The revelation that Jimmy owed money to bad guys who killed Mr. Chen disappointed me. I liked Jimmy and wanted desperately for Danny and Lena to be wrong.
His attempt to run away while barely able to walk was hilarious, though.
Mae’s case was the best, and not only because it wasn’t connected to the rest of the stories.
She had to find a way to honor her father while going against one of his rulings, and on top of that, this case of a wrongfully imprisoned man whose mother couldn’t get any satisfaction from the DA’s office was exactly the type of plotline Erin and Anthony often had on Blue Bloods.
Too bad it didn’t coincide with Erin’s visit to Boston. I would have loved for Erin and Mae to talk shop.
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If you enjoyed this article, check out our coverage of Chicago PD, the other big cop show on broadcast TV right now. You might also enjoy our thoughts on classic cop shows like Homicide: Life on the Street.
Boston Blue airs on CBS on Fridays at 10/9c and streams on Paramount+ on Saturdays.
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