‘Boston’s Finest’ Renewed For Second Season

TNT has ordered a second season of its reality documentary series, Boston’s Finest.

The network announced an eight episode order for the series on May 11, 2012. The first season premiered on February 27, 2013 to 1.21 million viewers.

The upcoming second season will be shortened to six episodes, and will premiere in early 2014. The series will also be encored on TNT’s sister network, CNN.

The series is executive produced by Donnie Wahlberg, Julie Insogna-Jarrett and Seth Jarrett.

Boston’s Finest follows four different units within the BPD: day and night gang units, the fugitive unit, and the patrol unit. Wahlberg, who grew up in Dorchester, the largest neighborhood in Boston, is no stranger to the BPD.

“That was one of my agendas with the show, to get them to love my family, because they arrested half of them my whole childhood. I had very few [run-ins]; I was the good egg,” Marky Mark’s older brother said. “The family name is in the police blotter; there are a lot of mug shots in the Boston Police Department files.”

Incidentally, Mark Wahlberg uttered a similar sentiment in the 2005 film Four Brothers. When the brothers have to deal with the police after settling the score with the man responsible for their mother’s death, Wahlberg (who plays Bobby Mercer) tells Jeremiah (André 3000), “Cops love the Mercers, Jerry.” The Mercer boys had their fair share of run ins with the law — an example of art imitating life?

The Blue Bloods actor added, “I hope to earn some of their respect. They certainly earned mine.” He went on to say, “Boston has its share of crime, but they’ve done a good job. The gangs were really, really bad; now they’ve been proactive, trying to keep these kids from doing it before they do it. Don’t show up after someone’s shot; show up before.”

The season finale on April 17 drew only 0.91 million viewers, but the season low came the previous week with only 0.60 million viewers.

The series has received generally favorable reviews, scoring a 75 on Metacritic.

Will you be watching the second season of Boston’s Finest?