‘Blue Bloods’ season 6, episode 5 review: Can Danny correct an old mistake

There are some times on “Blue Bloods” this season where we’ve seen the show try perhaps a little too hard to paint Danny in complete action-hero mode, really when they don’t even need to. We know that Donnie Wahlberg’s character excels in these physical scenes, but it’s nice to see a little bit of variety for the character.

We’re glad for that reason that we had it tonight as he tried to exorcise some personal demons from his past, namely in the form of a female prisoner who had escaped. This was a woman he admitted he had “failed,” but by the end of the hour she found herself in a position so desperate, she was willing to point a gun at him. This entire story brought out an emotionally side of him that you don’t always see thanks to the tough-as-nails armor he wears, especially when he still determined that he wanted to help her even though she did threaten his life.

The other stories were a little less successful, mostly because we’ve become a little tired of the Frank stories dealing with inter-police politics and conflicts about whether or not certain officers’ personal troubles are leading to departmental warfare. We like his stories more when he deals with more external factors, like the Mayor or the media. It challenges him more, and Frank is the sort of character so hardened in his job that he needs that.

The smaller stories were in a way somewhat overshadowed by everything else going on this week, but we found the college plotline particularly compelling since it chose to look at itself through an honest lens rather than playing up the typical tropes we see with cop shows and bullying accusations. All of these elements combined made for a solid hour of TV. Grade: B.

(Photo: CBS.)