Communication Skills: Language, Nonverbal, Listening

           My family has been telling me to watch Blue Bloods for a while now, but with the limited time I have, I barely watch television as it is. So I decided this is the perfect opportunity for me to watch an episode and see what all the hype is about. Tom Selleck has always had a demeanor where he knows it all, as I begin watching it seems that he always has an answer for everything but also shows compassion. He is a family oriented man, and you can see this at any moment they are at the dinner table as a large clan. New Yorkers always talk with their hands, and I do not see many hand gestures when the family is together. As I continue to see other family members in a courtroom, or in a cop car, it seems that they truly love what they do and they do it because of their father (police commissioner). Honestly watching this show with the sound off was hard for me to understand certain scenarios that happened in the show, it seems they accused a lot of individuals before finding the attacker, killer, robber or thug that did break the law. The family is a tight bunch of individuals, and that was easy for me to read, even with no sound, you could see that they would talk as a family and help one another in any situation.

            I believed the police officers would interrogate many individuals to find the correct person behind the crime. It seemed they were hard on these possible heathens, but many were just looking for a lead to continue on with their investigation. Tom Sellek does have “a know it all” personality for this particular role, but he is compassionate and loves what he does. He is always willing to help a family member or even someone in his office and gives them the advice they need to hear, even if it's not what they want to hear. My assumptions of the family dinners were that they were a close-knit family, and I still do believe that, as I listened to the television show. Honestly, I got drawn in, and it is not a half bad show to become addicted to.

            If I was a individual who watched this show on a weekly basis I would probably be able to read more family members a little bit better besides Tom Sellek, Donnie Wahlberg looks like a difficult person to work with and even a tougher father to deal with. He loves his family, and wants the best for them; he even does the same for his partner Jackie. While there are many cast members and different stories going on within the show, I was able to get a basic understanding of just throwing on an episode. But I believe if I was like my grandmother, who never misses her Blue Bloods, I am sure I would have had some biases by just watching interactions without the sound. Seeing what I picked up on during the first run through, I was able to focus on their facial expressions, how they interacted through gestures and greetings but still have difficulty connecting individuals to who they truly were in the show. It was a different experience watching a television show without the sound but I enjoyed being able to pay attention to the smaller details first and then re-watching with the sound.