Brandon Sonnier knew as he was developing a spinoff of CBS’ popular “Blue Bloods” that it was essential to keep the faith.
A devoted viewer of the drama centered on a multigenerational Catholic family of New York policemen, Sonnier was among the legions of fans moved by the show’s signature event — the Reagans’ weekly Sunday dinners. The series starring Tom Selleck was a pillar of the network’s lineup during a 14-year run which ended last year.
“That family dinner is representative of what the show is at its core — a family drama dressed up as a police procedural,” says Sonnier. “It’s a family with strong morals and a sense of duty who all come together each week.”
He and his producing partner Brandon Margolis are continuing that tradition with CBS’ “Boston Blue,” premiering Friday, featuring Donnie Wahlberg reprising his role as Det. Danny Reagan. The family dinner signature has undergone a dramatic religious and cultural remix, reflecting Sonnier’s spiritual journey following a life-changing accident in 2019.
Sonnier and Margolis at that time were executive producers of “L.A’s Finest,” a spinoff of the “Bad Boys” film franchise starring Jessica Alba and Gabrielle Union as police detectives. While filming a climatic scene at San Pedro’s Port of Los Angeles, a stunt car struck a shipping container near the video village area, severely injuring Sonnier, who was pinned underneath it.
His injuries were so extensive that doctors had to remove part of his right leg.
On his first evening home after being released from the hospital following the amputation, Sonnier, who was raised Catholic, was attending his family’s regular Friday night Shabbat dinner when he decided during an emotional moment to follow through on his long-delayed intention to convert to Judaism.
“My wife is white and Jewish, and my children are biracial,” Sonnier says while sitting in an office of the show’s writing headquarters in Sherman Oaks. “We gather around the table once a week, but it’s Shabbat dinner. I was living a Jewish lifestyle but had not taken the steps to conversion. That all changed at that dinner.”
He unzipped the bottom of his blue jeans to display the prosthetic limb on his leg.
“It was an incredibly traumatic event — it’s still traumatic,” Sonnier says. “I deal with it every moment of every day of my life. It’s hard to describe the feeling of missing a body part, especially one required for balance and standing. Everything you thought you knew about yourself has changed.”
But his determined attitude and gratefulness for his revelation on that memorable return home is being injected by Sonnier and Margolis — who bill themselves as “the two Brandons” — into “Boston Blue.”
In the new show, Reagan relocates to Boston and eventually teams up with Det. Lena Silver (Sonequa Martin-Green), the eldest daughter of a prominent law enforcement family. The Silvers are a mixed-race Jewish family, headed by patriarch Rev. Edwin Peters (Ernie Hudson), who is Baptist.
Like the Reagans, the Silvers, including Boston Dist. Atty. Mae Silver (Gloria Reuben), police superintendent Sarah Silver (Maggie Lawson), and rookie cop Jonah Silver (Marcus Scribner), gather for a weekly meal. But it’s a Shabbat dinner, complete with Hebrew prayers over challah. Lena invites Ramirez and his sister, Asst. Dist. Atty Erin Reagan (Bridget Moynahan) for dinner, which Lena describes as her “one big happy kind of confusing family.”
After the blessing, Peters tells Reagan, “We all do what is meaningful to us.”
“We thought it would be interesting to see a family that looks more like Brandon’s family — a family that is not necessarily the same color or faith as the Reagans but still have a lot in common,” said Margolis in a phone interview.
“When I watched ‘Blue Bloods,’ I always thought, ‘This is like my family, but I would like it to look like my family,” says Sonnier. “We are representative of all these pieces, all these different cultures. Danny is invited into something that is real and emotional and grounded.”
Asked how that culturally and religiously mixed combination might resonate in the current fiery climate surrounding politics and race, he says people like him are “yearning and desperate” for a show like “Boston Blue.” “It’s not about politics or beliefs,” he adds. “It’s a show about coming together, leaning in the middle, all the things we are desperate for in this time of such division.”
Wahlberg and Martin-Green have each embraced the faith-flavored direction of “Boston Blue.”
“People loved the dinner scenes in ‘Blue Bloods,’ and this is really carrying forward the legacy,” Wahlberg said in a phone interview. “I’m really impressed by Brandon’s real-life story. The show is the blueprint of his life, rooted in real experience, which makes it special and unique.”
Martin-Green added that viewers haven’t really seen something like this on television before. “It’s courageous and beautiful,” she said. “We see both Christianity and Judaism. I love Hebrew. It’s a gorgeous language and there are divine secrets in those words.”
Working on the show has heightened Margolis’ admiration for his partner’s recovery after the accident.
“It really was an incredible traumatic experience — something that we went through together,” he said. “As he was and is recovering, he continues to lean on his faith as a bolster to his family. I’m completely in awe on how he has not let this impact him or limit what he does in his life. He’s a Little League coach. He is more active than I am. He has not let the accident define him.”
As he described his journey, Sonnier gave repeated praise to his wife of 20 years — his high school sweetheart — and their four children.
After being inspired at a bar mitzvah he attended about 15 years ago, Sonnier decided he wanted to convert from Catholicism to Judaism. Taking the steps and time to do so was more challenging.
“Life happens,” he says. “I had a very big career. We have a lot of children. So the steps of conversion — the classes, learning the religion and the prayers — kept getting pushed off.
“Then came this horrible and tragic accident.”
Sonnier’s voice takes on a controlled tone as he recalls the incident.
“We were shooting a stunt sequence where there was an unmanned car on a guide wire which was to be T-boned by another car that was driven,” he said. “The video village where Brandon and I were was off to the side behind a shipping container that was supposedly safety-rated to be heavy enough so that if anything went wrong, it would sustain the impact.”
Sonnier continues: “The driven car hit the unmanned car going much too fast at the wrong angle, and the guide wire broke. The unmanned car went out of control and went barreling toward the shipping container. As Brandon and I proceeded to run, the car hit the shipping container, which knocked me and Margolis down. It went on my leg. We were both pinned, back to back, for about 20 minutes.”
Jeff Bova, who worked with the production’s transportation department, placed a tourniquet on Sonnier’s leg. As a forklift moved to lift the container, Bova, a former military officer, ran over. “If you lift that, he will bleed out and die,” Sonnier recalled him saying. “He took off his belt and re-tourniquets me in a better spot. He saved my life that day.”
Though Sonnier was in great pain, he maintained his producer mindset as he gave orders to the paramedics helping him: “I said, look guys, you have to save this thing. I coach Little League. I must dance with my daughter at her wedding.”
The awful truth became clear after a few days in the hospital, “Doctors tried to save the leg, but my wife said, ‘It’s not going well. I can’t lose you. They will have to cut your foot off.’ My wife is the smartest person in the universe. She said, ‘It’s like Marie Kondo. Let’s say goodbye to the foot — thank it for its service, but it’s not serving us anymore.’ ”
He arrived home a few days later just in time for Shabbat dinner. “I’m in this big, clunky wheelchair. When we do Shabbat, we light the candles on our kitchen island while everyone gathers around for the blessing,” he said. “My mom, in-laws, family friends were all there. People were wary of what I could handle, but I stay at the back of this group while they’re doing the blessing. “
He pauses a second: “When we bless the challah, one person touches it and everyone else makes an unbroken chain, putting a hand on the next person so we are all part of the blessing. My oldest son turns and reaches out and grabs my hand so I can be part of the chain. And I just burst into tears. I decided then and there that I will convert. There is no more ‘life got in the way.’ It is time.”
Sonnier returned to “L.A.’s Finest” about two weeks after the accident, and directed an episode during the show’s second and final season. He and Margolis moved on to other projects, including co-executive producing CBS’ “S.W.A.T.”
“Boston Blue” now represents the most personal and significant highlight of his career: “To see a mixture of different people around that table all sharing in my faith but not having to leave theirs behind is a truly beautiful thing.”
The post After losing part of his leg, he was inspired to put his faith into a ‘Blue Bloods’ spinoff appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
