Boston's Finest

I loved Boston's Finest from the very first episode. I am a substance abuse counselor and i love television programming that deal with REAL life and not fantasy/horror/sci-fi, etc. but real life because this is the world in which we live. Thank you TNT and Donnie Walberg for sharing the lives and stories of men and women who risk their lives daily for the safety of others. Boston's Finest gives us a peak into the personal lives and work of law enforcement. Each episode is fresh, new and different and i applaud them to the highest extent. Anyone who watches this show should feel blessed and proud to live in a country when we think about our police officers. Again, thank you Mr. Walberg and TNT. I hope that your program will be around for years to come. And even if it isn't, thanks so much for sharing it with us for the time that we had. Keep it Up!!

The format of the show is unique, but that alone doesn't mean it's a good program. It's not a documentary per se and not a true reality either. The scene with twin sisters is horrible, the show tells us one of the twin sister is a respected PD member, while the other mess up with horrible life choices. When you get to see their meeting, it's obvious the sister is mentally challenged, which doesn't match the full extent of the picture the story the show claims. It's very boring compared to Southland or Blue Bloods. It also doesn't bring the convincing reality sense as C.O.P.S. I'm very disappointed and I am decided not to watch the show anymore.

So when I initially saw the reviews of this show I was not very hopeful, but as always I give things a shot only because there have been times when I misjudged a show prematurely. In this particular case I was not wrong.

Now first off let me state, I have massive respect for what these guys do and the danger they and other officers like them face to protect us. All that being said it the pacing is so slow, and it isn't helped at all by Mark Whalberg's somber narration. It sounds like Mark is getting ready to either take a nap or he's mired in a post Ambien haze.

I really do wish for Boston PD's sake this was as fun and interesting as the city of Boston is, but that did not happen here.

OK - disclaimer here. I despise reality TV. I'm a fan of great writing and the reality TV surge of late has seen quality writing pushed onto the fringes of mainstream media.

Boston's Finest is not a huge stand out. It blends the awful Cops with great camera angles and sound effects. The production values are so high one has difficulty believing it's the fly on the wall series it pretends to be. Many shots are clearly set up or dramatised later.

Other than that, it is no different than any other reality show. We follow the lives of the boys and girls in blue as they clean up the streets. We get to see glimpses of their families and they give us narratives of their fears and motivations.

I'm not really sure if this is reality or carefully scripted to hoodwink the viewer. Either way the pilot episode didn't hold me enough to care so this won't become part of my viewing schedule.

I must admit, after the first episode I thought it had potential, but was intrigued by the real or fake issue so went with real! I think I maybe wrong, and the whole keep you guessing thing is quite silly really, if it is real, then oh dear lord such an embarrassment, if it's not well err see the previous sentence. For me, I liked the first episode showing the twin sisters, it was kind of good versus bad, but the second episode seemed to cap it all off for me...It has no distance. If you watch both episodes back to back it will make sense, notice any difference?! I also thought some of the supposed realistic issues were so far beyond realism that I did actually cringe.

I have to be honest, a week ago I would have rated this an eight, now its lucky for a four. Not only that, I have been far too willing to trust the Whalberg name with some of the successes that have been had, but this is down in the pits with blue bloods (which I will always stick to my opinion with, it only succeeds because of Tom sellecks name on the show) and some of the other stuff the Wahlbergs have tried.

Please, you had your fun singing, give us a rest!