NOW ENTERTAINMENT Oct. 12 Month 00- -18, 00,2025 2023
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Donnie Wahlberg (“The Sixth Sense,” 1999) continues his Danny Reagan role from “Blue Bloods” in “Boston Blue,” premiering Friday, Oct. 17, on CBS and Paramount+. Sonequa Martin-Green and Donnie Wahlberg star in “Boston Blue”
Cover Story Back in ‘Blue’: Donnie Wahlberg transfers from ‘Blue Bloods’ to ‘Boston Blue’ By Jay Bobbin Donnie Wahlberg’s Danny Reagan may be relocating from New York to Boston, but he’s still “Blue.” After a 14-season run on “Blue Bloods,” the actor moves his police detective character into the CBS and Paramount+ spinoff “Boston Blue,” premiering Friday, Oct. 17. Reagan is drawn to the Massachusetts capital (Wahlberg’s hometown) when the younger of his two sons, Sean — also a police officer, now played by Mika Amonsen (“The Republic of Sarah”) — is injured in a fire set to cover up a murder. The ever-headstrong Danny leaves New York and injects himself into the case, giving him a new partner in Det. Lena Silver (“Star Trek: Discovery” alum Sonequa Martin-Green), a member of a law-and-order family not unlike the Reagans. Lena’s sister, Sarah (Maggie Lawson, “Psych”), is a Boston police superintendent,
their brother, Jonah (Marcus Scribner, “Black-ish”), is a rookie cop and their mother, Mae (Gloria Reuben, “ER”), is the city’s district attorney. Rev. Edwin Peters (Ernie Hudson, “Ghostbusters,” 1984) is the family patriarch, and a dinner scene in the first episode upholds a tradition associated with the Reagans. In fact, guest star Bridget Moynahan (“John Wick,” 2014) reprises her “Blue Bloods” role as Erin Reagan, with a literal seat at that table. She’ll also be a director on the new show. “It is another show about a law-enforcement family,” the friendly Wahlberg acknowledges, “and I can tell you from 14 years on ‘Blue Bloods’ that I’ve met thousands of law-enforcement families, or people from law-enforcement families, who’ve said how much that show meant to them and how much it means to see families like theirs represented on TV. Having the chance to contin-
ue telling the story of a new law-enforcement family, it’s a tremendous honor, and hopefully it lands with all of those [actual] families the same way ‘Blue Bloods’ did.” Wahlberg, quite literally, hits the ground running with “Boston Blue” in its opening moments. “I hurt my hamstring pretty good,” he allows, “but it’s important to capture and intrigue the audience right away, and also to remind them of the [‘Blue Bloods’] past. I’m doing as Danny what I’m doing as Donnie — learning about this new world and fitting into it, and picking my spots to say, ‘Hey, we might try this instead of that.’ Being open to that has been really fun, and it’s allowing Danny to grow as a character as Donnie grows as a person.” While “Boston Blue” involves location filming in the title city, it is also utilizing Toronto, for economic reasons. An executive producer of the show as well — along
with others including veteran filmmaker Jerry Bruckheimer of 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick” — Wahlberg says programming executives “were like, ‘There’s no show if it’s [filmed] in Boston. We can’t afford it.’ And I said, ‘Well, you have to do some things in Boston. You can’t fake Fenway Park or Boston Common.’ And they said, ‘You’re right. Let us work on this.’” Thus, the plan is for several weeks of filming in Canada, then a week in Boston. “We actually got parts of four episodes in a week in Boston,” Wahlberg reports. “It was crazy and confusing, but we captured so much. We’ve really made the most of it, and I’m very grateful to the network for being so supportive of our going there. It’s not a small endeavor.” Get back in blue with the Reagans and the Silvers when the new series “Boston Blue” premieres on CBS and Paramount+ Friday, Oct. 17.