Back in ‘Blue’
Donnie Wahlberg transfers from ‘Blue Bloods’ to ‘Boston Blue’
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 continue telling the story of a new law-enforcement family, it’s a tremendous honour, 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.”
Danny was so devoted to protecting New York City that Wahlberg realized a big challenge facing the “Boston Blue” creative team was “how we could make it believable that Danny would go to Boston. The Reagan family always had each other’s back in New York, and there was always another Reagan there to have their six and to be there for them.
“While the Silver family has sort of embraced Sean as their own, I think when Danny goes there to see Sean, he realizes [he needs to stay],” Wahlberg adds. “It’s the father-and-son bond, and Sean being able to look behind him and know that he has a Reagan there as well. And the Silver family actually helps bring that out. We discovered throughout the first three episodes that Sean’s discovering what it means to be a Reagan — finally joining law enforcement, finally putting service ahead of self, and doing these different things that the family does.”
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 endeavour.”
The husband of actress-model Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg, Wahlberg insists his new commitment to “Boston Blue” doesn’t mean he’ll neglect his musical activity with New Kids on the Block, whose Las Vegas residency is scheduled to resume Nov. 1.
“I can’t wait to go meet all those fans and hear their thoughts about the series,” he says, “and then get on stage and be a thousand miles away from Danny Reagan as I’m New Kid Donnie Wahlberg. That fuels my acting, and the acting fuels my passion for New Kids. Every time I need a little rest from one, the other one magically reappears with a tremendous opportunity. They feed each other.”
Get back in blue with the Reagans and the Silvers when the new series “Boston Blue” premieres on CBS and Paramount+ Friday, Oct. 17.