‘Blue Bloods’ season 6, episode 18 review: When podcasts become problematic

Did you miss “Blue Bloods” over the past few weeks? It’s been a while since we previously saw the show air new episodes on CBS, and it came back on Friday night with “Town Without Pity,” a story that brought to the table some pop-culture relevance and then also the classic police debates that the show is really known for.

While Danny and Baez worked together in this episode to determine whether or not a rehabilitated criminal (with ties to Frank) had gotten himself involved in yet another crime, to us the main event this time around came from the Erin story. She had to determine if there was a way to stop a one-time prosecutor from delaying her case, just so that she could continue to advance a podcast to her benefit. This was clearly the show taking on a show like “Serial,” and in this case taking it down a notch.

Is it weird as a member of the media to discuss further a show that does take at times a strong stance on the media? Certainly so. We do think that this particular podcaster was in the wrong for-certain since they were deliberately keeping their interview subject away, so we don’t feel slighted. Instead, all of this made for what we found to be one of the more compelling and interesting stories that Erin has received in a while. Typically, Frank almost inevitably gets the majority of the buzzworthy stuff.

While the Frank story did reach its own satisfying conclusion, and it’s nice to see Jamie take command here or there, we’re going to remember this most as the episode where Erin Reagan put true-crime podcasts in what she believed to be their place … or at least this one. It was a concept that sounded a little bit out there on paper, but in execution, it ended up being oddly compelling and the story we wanted so much more of in the midst of what was otherwise an okay, if not somewhat forgettable, episode. Grade: B-.

(Photo: CBS.)