The show’s name has a double connotation of sorts. On the one hand, it draws attention to the fact that every member of the main cast is a law enforcement official. It also alluded to the fact that the relationship between each of the primary characters. Thus, “blood” alludes to the heroes’ dual identities of work and family.
The members of the Reagan family at the series’ core all work a different profession under the law enforcement umbrella. Tom Selleck’s Frank Reagan, for example, is the commissioner of the New York City Police Department. His daughter Erin Reagan (portrayed by Bridget Moynahan), meanwhile, is an assistant district attorney. Storylines that see different family members at their respective jobs ultimately coalesce at their Sunday dinners, a weekly Reagan family tradition.
Those Sunday dinner scenes are the lifeblood, so to speak, of Blue Bloods. By providing a domestic environment in which developments both personal and professional can come to a head, Blue Bloods’ family dinners unify various character and plot threads alike. While the meal therefore isn’t generally the focus, each dinner scene nevertheless allots a full serving of food to each attendant character. Among the central cast members, Moynahan is notable for her skill at feigning eating what’s on her plate rather than actually consuming the food in front of her.
A master class in fake eating
In a piece by The Virginian-Pilot, Jim Lillis, who works as the property master on Blue Bloods, revealed that the degree to which the cast members present at each family dinner eat the food in front of them varies. Lillis is responsible for, among other job duties, setting the table used in the series’ dinner scenes, so he spoke from that experience. Moynahan, the article explains, is among those who simply move the food around on their plate in order to mimic eating rather than taking actual bites of the food in front of them.
A previous interview with Moynahan provides some insight into the potential causes of this habit’s emergence. It turns out that Moynahan is on record as saying that the food provided during Blue Bloods family dinners is typically of poor quality. So, during family dinners, Moynahan did occasionally eat what was placed in front of her. It seems that Moynahan only acquired the ability to skip the parts of those situations she found the most challenging as the series went on, a skill set that she has kept up to this day.
