Ironically, it was almost the same court-scene scenario for both episodes. I did Damages (last episode of season 5) on Friday of a week ago, and Blue Bloods (season 2) on just this past Friday. One court was in Queens and the latter in the Bronx, but they both depicted the opening statements of a serious court trial.Bridget Moynahan is a stunning tall lady with great legs... but her countenance is a combination of sad and aloof. Her lines were direct and well delivered in contrast with Damages' Glenn Close and Rose Byrne -who blew their lines countless times. A very important lesson for us extras to see the pros make repeated mistakes and yet continue with their performances as best they can.
During the shoot of Damages, it was obvious that neither Glenn nor Rose had their hearts in their performance. Perhaps they were tired, or perhaps it was time to wind the show down. They lost a lot of viewers when they switched channels from FX to Direct TV -myslef included (since my cable provider doesn't have it)!
So, by contrast, Blue Bloods did a very good job of keeping the court gallery engaged and alert to the shenanigans of the defendants. I particularly liked the director, James Whimore Jr.
He's the son of the late James Whitmore, whom I remember with wonderful memories of the acting work he'd done on TV in "Judd For The Defense"... of course he became a prolific actor on stage and screen as well -he was also a US Marine in World War II. And now his son is here -directing us in his own style: loud, brash, crabby, overbearing -but always in a friendly manner....In the back of the courtroom some of us had trouble believing that he was the son, but an iPhone with access to the internet was immediately enlisted to verify his imdb status as well as his genetics. Other topics in the back of the courtroom were about porn-bloopers... which all but made us crackup in a plethora of comical discussions. Luckily our direction was to make noise at certain times of the "court proceedings" -and needless to say, we timed our boysterous behaviour accordingly. (pssst... "the real show always takes place backstage")
The holding area was a great hall in the Bronx County Court's rotunda area. We had to be metal-detected and searched to be able to enter it. But once inside, we were treated to good food and some inspirational quotes and paintings of the court's founding fathers that surrounded us during our repast. One quote in particular impressed me the most:
THE GLORY OF AMERICA IS THAT SHE IS A GREAT SPIRITUAL CONCEPTION AND IN THE SPIRIT OF HER INSTITUTIONS DWELLS NOT ONLY HER DISTINCTION BUT HER POWER - THE ONE THING THAT THE WORLD CANNOT PERMANENTLY RESIST IS THE MORAL FORCE OF GREAT TRIUMPHANT CONVICTIONS
After we were released, at 1:30 AM in the Bronx, a small band of leery travelers gathered -planning the "possibly dangerous" walk to the subway a few blocks down from the Grand Concourse. So about 7 of us tribaled our resources and walked the dark streets. Only one incident with a demostrative amorous couple (humping under the streetlight while laughing at us) were encoutered, but we circumnavigated their playfull attitude and quickly descended to the subway platform. The rest of the trip went without incident and we all chatted up a storm that made the ride to 34th Street relatively quick. Unfortunately, at this time the LIRR trains to home are few and far in between. This allowed me forty minutes to observe the early St. Patricks Day drunks stumbling and keeling over onto the stations sturdy columns -many of them were young women. Young disgusting-when-drunk women... judgmentally sad. Guess that too is part of "HER INSTITUTIONS".
Reflection: You don't have to be a drunk to get home at 3:30 AM.
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