NEW YORK – Donnie Wahlberg is finally getting his dream of shooting a TV series in his beloved hometown of Boston. There's just one catch: He's playing a New Yorker.
The die-hard Red Sox fan is transplanting his Danny Reagan character from the Big Apple-based procedural “Blue Bloods” to a new CBS spinoff, “Boston Blue,” stepping purposefully into the New York-Boston rivalry.
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“I loved New York for 14 years working there. I loved it so much. But I would never root for any of the New York teams,” he says. “I’ve never stopped being a Boston fan. Still die hard, still loyal to the end.”
Wahlberg has to hide his love of the Sox as Danny, a hard-charging NYPD detective who finds himself rushing north to Boston when family tragedy strikes, in essence portraying a fish-out-of-water in his real-life old stomping grounds. The series launches Friday.
“To be able to carry on the character of Danny Reagan is a tremendously exciting opportunity with a ton of responsibility and pressure,” says the actor and New Kids on the Block member.
New blood
That pressure comes from continuing the legacy of the Tom Selleck-led “Blue Bloods,” which ran for 14 seasons until 2024. And there's pressure in depicting Boston right, too.
“If we don’t get the city right, if we don’t do certain things right, if we don’t get the Reagan family right, if we don’t carry on certain traditions of the Reagans and part of that legacy, then it’s easy to goof it up, right?” he says.
“I’m from Boston. I saw ‘The Departed,’ and if I heard one more bad accent in that movie, I was going to walk out of the movie theater. So I know that responsibility.”
In “Boston Blue,” Wahlberg's Danny befriends an extended law enforcement family similar to the Reagans. He teams up with a local detective played by Sonequa Martin-Green, whose mother is the district attorney, her sister is the police superintendent and her brother is a beat cop.
“He can see in some ways himself through this family and in some ways a way to approach things a little differently,” says Wahlberg. “He’s going to be who he is, but I do think it's also an opportunity for him to grow and change.”
Brandon Sonnier, who created the show with his writing partner Brandon Margolis, was a fan of “Blue Bloods” since its first episode and jumped at the chance to continue its legacy.
“I love a good procedural. I love good family drama. When you get a family drama that is dressed up like a procedural, I’m in,” Sonnier says.
Beantown versus Brooklyn
The cast also includes Ernie Hudson as a Baptist minister and patriarch of the local cop family, Gloria Reuben as his daughter the DA, Marcus Scribner as her son and Maggie Lawson as the police superintendent. The pilot also co-stars “Blue Bloods'” Bridget Moynahan, visiting as Danny's on-screen sister.
In one scene, Wahlberg is invited over to the Boston multi-generational, multifaith, multiracial family for dinner, where, of course, they discuss the latest case. “We’re talking shop at the table. It really is starting to feel like home,” Danny says.
“That was such a universal, unifying element of the original series. It wasn’t a far leap to imagine another family around a table and welcoming in visitors,” says Margolis.
That table will be where the family and Danny thrash out issues of the week, like the use of racial profiling software or how to be a good boss, with different members weighing in.
“Sometimes the alliance is over gender lines, sometimes the alliance is over racial lines, sometimes it’s over generational lines,” says Sonnier, who used his own diverse family as a model. “There’s so any different points of view and points of connection for all of the people that we have brought to the table that the conversations are incredible.”
At the heart of the show is the pairing of Wahlberg with Martin-Green, two strong-willed detectives with family members outranking them. She calls him “Brooklyn;” he calls her “Beantown.” She teases him: “Pretty far from New York, aren’t you?” He later tells her after a clue appears, “Trust me. I’ve done this once or twice before.”
A closeted Red Sox fan
In addition to carrying on the “Blue Bloods” legacy and depicting Boson on prime time, Wahlberg says another reason to do the show was “a way to continue other elements of ‘Blue Bloods’ that are really important — family, faith, tradition and law enforcement families.”
“Those families are in every city, in every state, and come from every walk of life, every background. Telling those stories is important,” he says. “With ‘Blue Bloods’ going away, I didn’t think that should be the end of those stories being told.”
The pilot shows Danny racing through Boston in three separate foot chases and in the second episode he goes to Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox. But he's there as a Mets fan, which delights Margolis, who is also a Mets fan.
“Donnie may be the unofficial mayor of Boston but Danny is a New Yorker and he has been for a long time and he’s so committed to that character that it’s so much fun watching him live that conflict that is New York-Boston,” he says.
Wahlberg doesn't think his New Yorker character will ever fully switch allegiances, but at least soften his stance on Boston. “I think he can come to see the beauty of Boston that really you can only see by being there.”