Feel good family drama

Tom Selleck, he of the doughty moustache, and the rest of the principal characters reprise their roles as a New York cop family trying to cope with the vagaries of family life in a tough city.

For another 22 episodes pater familias and New York Police Commissioner Frank Reagan navigates his way through the minefield and practicalities of trying to keep more than 1 000 policemen in line while skipping nimbly around the political and cultural pitfalls of perhaps one of the most culturally diverse cities on earth.

All the while trying to display the Wisdom of Solomon for his detective son Danny, his beat cop son Jamie, his ex-commissioner father Henry and his Assistant District Attorney daughter Erin and their children.

On the job they face challenges ranging from an armed robbery which ends in the death of a cop, through the death of a teenage girl who appears to have been pushed in front of train and the investigation of a childhood friend with seeming Mob ties, to the probe into a suicide case which the District Attorney’s office wants left alone.

At the dinner table they, like all big families, seldom all agree on anything; sagacity or acumen or both flavour the discussions and consensus is sometimes reached.

If you have watched previous seasons of Blue Bloods you will enjoy this one. If you think you have watched Season Four previously, you probably have – it has been on local TV – but it’s worth watching again.

Of course, if you have never watched a single episode of Blue Bloods you need to get hold of Season One and start from the beginning.

It’s an earthy, realistic look at cops at their best and worst. It is an insight into what, besides police work, influences a police departments decisions. But, most of all, it is a feel-good family offering which should tax all your emotions.