When it comes to Boston Blue, I have a long history. How? Well, it starts with Blue Bloods. See, I am a “blockhead,” and I never missed an opportunity to watch the show on Friday nights. If I wasn’t home, it was on the DVR, and the group chats followed.
When Blue Bloods ended, and Boston Blue was announced, I (like so many blockheads) got excited that the story wasn’t ending. The cast is fantastic, the stories are new, and the setting – well, any blockhead knows – Boston is sacred.
Sitting down to interview Maggie Lawson about her role in Boston Blue has been a treat. I admit that I didn’t know much about Lawson before this role, and honestly – I thought she was in her mid-20’s – so I was really confused when there was a storyline about her having a teenage daughter. But I was intrigued.
Lawson thought I was joking when I told her how young I thought she was. We spoke about me being a blockhead for some time, since I was thirteen. We talk about how I went on the cruises and how many times I have seen the concerts.
“You are legit. You are legit, Erin, I will tell you,” she said, “First concert I ever went to in 1989, New Kids On The Block.”
“Really,” I asked.
I smiled and said, “I may not be a blockhead in the same way, but I’m an OG. I am an OG.”
I said, “I believe you. I believe.”
Knowing the New Kids on the Block fandom, I asked about joining the cast of Boston Blue and if there was any hesitancy to join the cast. I just know that sometimes fandoms are hard.
The answer to what seems like the easiest question can be quite complicated.
Lawson said, “Not afraid, not hesitant, but I definitely think there was a little curiosity in reading the script the first time. I think that it’s funny, the word honor always comes to mind when I think about it. Obviously, there’s gonna be comparison, there’s gonna be pressure, obviously, there’s gonna be that stuff, but it was like, if we could honor what that was, the heart of what that was. As you said, it’s a procedural, but it is so different. I think that what people like about Blue Bloods was the tradition – the dinner table. To have a dinner table, to have it look different, but kind of feel the same. It’s still love, it’s still heart, it’s still family, it’s still a family in law enforcement, it’s a different city, yes.”
She’s not wrong. Part of the impact of Blue Bloods was the tradition and the importance of family. Family has been something that it has showcased on a beautiful and strong level. Boston Blue continues that tradition.
And part of that is because of Donnie Wahlberg.
Lawson had this to say about Wahlberg, “I mean, you know, being a blockhead, Donnie is an anchor. Donnie is like an angel, and he is like an angel person. He is so kind, he is so smart. I think… all these ingredients, and then reading the script the first time, it was like, whoa, okay, I think this can do that. And then it became more about, like, I want to be a part of that, rather than, like, I’m scared of that.”
She continued, “We want to honor what they created. So it was sort of like honoring all the legacy themes of that show, while also creating a new identity. That can not be the easiest, but I think even just from script one it got it. I was so happy when, like, it first started to come out, and I was hearing from people, some of the reviews even, and it was like, yay! They feel what we feel. Because sometimes you can be on set, and you’re like, man, this feels good, and you just hope that that translates.”
“And then you hope that everybody wants to come have dinner with the new show every week, and at our table every week. It’s funny, because I think on, like, Psych, we had that kind of rule in the very beginning of, like, let’s just… let’s just create such a space that we want people to come out and hang out with us every week, and it’s funny, because I don’t know that I have totally felt that again until now.”
It’s interesting to me the weight that a series carries on a person, especially knowing that the series has impacted viewers. Being a part of something that has such a long history and has characters that fans are deeply invested in.
We talked about the need for viewers to be able to relate to and find themselves in. Lawson’s character of Sarah faces this big dilemma, like, balancing her job, balancing her finances, her family, and then…her fiancé was just rude at the press conference, and then…”
“Sarah’s man was so rude at the press conference this week,” I said.
She replied, “Straight rude. Straight rude.”
We both laughed, and then I asked, “How important is it for Sarah to find that balance and accept that she can’t do it all the time?”
“That’s a really good point, and that’s also one of the trickiest things. One of the things I love about the show is how we just go at it. The layers of the work, the emotion, the family, the boss, and I think, for Sarah, she can’t express her emotions. She’s gotta solve the case. So a lot of times that, I think, can come out also in other ways,” she said, “So it’s a bit of, like, managing a whole. There are a whole lot of layers of different things that I think we do, and I do think this episode (aired April 17th), in particular, at least for my character, I was… I was like, this is one where it’s all there.”
“From Phoebe to Seth to the case to the family to the thing. There are so many pieces of it that – this is what it is like for families and law enforcement. It’s also in particular for Sarah. I think that Sarah has been able to handle a lot of things on her own for herself and her emotions when it comes to her work.”
“I think now there is a Phoebe, there’s a Seth, there are new eyes on her, and that creates dynamics. I’m now curious. I’m like, if Seth is a journalist, and I don’t know this, this is not spoilery or anything, but like, even for a superintendent and a journalist could get very interesting, as well, at some point, so I’m excited to kind of see if we ever get into that, too. But I think having these eyes on her in a different way now is actually bringing out a new side to her as well. So, I think this episode goes at that in a very interesting way, because it is really complicated, and it’s also really dark, and then there’s also a lot of very joyous things that happen too, and it’s sort of switching in between all of those different versions of ourselves, and then somehow managing to keep it contained at the same time, which is not easy to do, much less, you know, imagining that in any way. Love how our writers do not shy away from any of it. Yeah, these… these writers.”
Time ends really quickly when you are speaking to someone that you can really appreciate and take grace in speaking with. Maggie Lawson is one of those people. She appreciates where she is at, what she does, and the impact that she makes.
And I can appreciate that about her.
Maggie Lawson is a gem, and I am thankful that people like her exist.
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