Blue Bloods Showrunner Reveals the Real Reason Behind the Overuse of a Certain Word in the Show

The series follows the Reagan family, played by notable actors like Tom Selleck, Donnie Wahlberg and Bridget Moynahan, all of whom work in police, and their regular family dinners, where all Reagans meet to reaffirm their bond – and often to discuss their current cases – is one of show's fixtures.

But as some of the more critical fans say, another fixture of the show is regular abuse of English language. It is not especially unusual for a show to use a word or several more frequently than is common for an average English speaker.

It might easily be a part of the show's formula. But script writers of Blue Bloods really go out of their way to insert certain words, most of all "forthwith", into the dialogue.

So, over time people started noticing this tendency. It became a common target of jokes in the fandom, like a Redditor proposing to take a drink every time you hear "forthwith" during an episode – though for some of the earlier episodes this game is likely to end with you getting wasted.

Some people have started to believe that Blue Bloods is using the term as a running in-joke.

According to showrunner Kevin Wade, however, that's was not an attempt at humor, but an attempt to reflect the way actual policemen tend to speak. As he said in an interview with Express:

"We used to use [forthwith] a lot in the early, early seasons because it's an incredibly arcane NYPD thing that's actually still used.

We were always like, 'Nooo, some guy on the street with a cup of coffee and a donut is saying, 'Yeah, do that forthwith?' We use it occasionally, but this reader is perhaps thinking we use it more than we do."

As Wade then noted, they've started to tone down the use of this word, after the audience started to notice it, but they still think that sometimes it just fits the atmosphere:

"I think I would know because it always bumps a little for me when I hear it, then I go, 'Alright, it's authentic — leave it."