‘Blue Bloods’ season 5, episode 8 review: The meaning of ‘Power of the Press’

No matter when you watch an episode of “Blue Bloods” on CBS, there are almost often heroic undertones behind every single story. We had that often in “Power of the Press,” which was in many ways a stressful episode across the board for some of the characters.

Quality-wise, the hardest thing for us to swallow here was mostly watching a story about a college potentially dragging its feet on a rape investigation, and for a pair of different reasons. First of all, the subject is just a difficult one to begin with, and while you have to expect these sort of things on a police show, it doesn’t make watching them easily. Also, a very similar story aired on “Law & Order: SVU,” and while this show doesn’t have spies in another’s writers room (they were probably written around the same time), the timing her is just unfortunate.

We always enjoy this show a little bit better when it deals with police politics, so it should not come as a shock at all that this is where the story really started to shine a little, as Frank had to deal with public pressure over a camera malfunction that seemed to suggest police brutality.

In both storylines, though, public pressure and the police’s ability to use this was a key component in getting the job done. Even if the university, for example, kept them from getting the information they needed, they could still do something else to them to ensure that their reputation is shattered.

Was this episode the greatest in the five-season history? Far from it. The sum of its parts was not anywhere near as good as some little moments, but it’s still “Blue Bloods,” and therefore a solid hour of TV. Grade: B-.

Photo: CBS