Sunday night dinners were the heart of the hit New York detective drama “Blue Bloods” (2010–2024). Every week, the Irish-Catholic Reagan family gathered around the table, guided by their patriarch, NYPD Commissioner Frank Reagan.
In the new “Blue Bloods” inspired spinoff, “Boston Blue,” it’s a very different kind of weekly tradition that takes center stage. Instead of Sunday supper, a Shabbat dinner becomes the emotional anchor of the series an idea drawn directly from Jewish co-creator Brandon Sonnier. The show premiered last month on CBS and Paramount+.
The story brings Detective Danny Reagan to Boston after an incident involving his son, Sean , now a rookie Boston PD officer. In his new city, Danny is partnered with Lena Silver , a Boston detective from a prominent family of police, civic leaders, and public servants. Lena’s youngest brother, Jonah, is Sean’s patrol partner; her mother, Mae, is Boston’s District Attorney; and her sister, Sarah, serves as Superintendent of Detectives.
The Silvers are Jewish 
but their grandfather, Reverend Edwin Peters, is the longtime pastor of one of Boston’s oldest Black churches.
Danny learns the family history during his first Shabbat dinner with them. Mae married Lena and Sarah’s father, Ben, when Lena was 13, and the family converted together. Lena and Sarah became inseparable, “sisters by choice” as well as by marriage. Ben later became a district judge, but was tragically shot and killed outside his courthouse a year before Danny arrived in town. With the family still grieving, it is Reverend Peters who now leads the table, wearing a kippah in honor of Shabbat and translating the Hebrew blessings as Mae, Lena, and the siblings light the candles.
Later, Danny accompanies Lena to her grandfather’s church, where the choir warms the room with hymns and the family sings and dances happily alongside the congregation. Confused, he asks how this fits with Lena being Jewish. She explains simply:
“We come to see Grandpa’s sermons, so we can stay connected as a family. And I love this song.”
It’s a tender portrait of an interfaith family that honors multiple traditions with love, respect, and joy. The storyline is drawn from Sonnier’s own life. Raised Catholic, he experienced a traumatic incident in 2019 that ultimately led him to embrace Judaism. And just as Danny’s traumatic past guides him to the Silver family’s Shabbat table, Sonnier’s personal journey shaped this heartfelt, groundbreaking representation on screen.