If you’re looking for more powerful entertainment with Donnie Wahlberg to help you cope with the grief of the canceled series Blue Bloods, you don’t have to look too far for streaming.Donnie Wahlberg may be far less well-known as an actor than his brother Mark Wahlberg, who is two years younger. But after his 279 episodes of Blue Bloods at the latest, he is a permanent TV fixture. Now that the series has been canceled, many of the star’s fans will have to look back to find more good series entertainment with Donnie Wahlberg. And hopefully get stuck with one of his best series roles ever.
Blue Bloods star Donnie Wahlberg was in the best war series
Although Donnie Wahlberg is campaigning for the continuation of Blue Bloods, the chances of the series returning after season 14 are slim. But even when he increasingly shifted his film career to series in the early 2000s, the American actor made an impressive appearance that was a must-see: He was part of the main cast of Band of Brothers, where he was given a really strong episode that was all his own.
(Donnie Wahlberg in Band of Brothers still 30 years young)
Even after more than 20 years, Band of Brothers is still a masterpiece. The HBO war series by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg follows Easy Company into the Second World War in 1942. The paratrooper regiment works its way west from France to the German front and is repeatedly involved in battles with heavy losses. The series brings the horror of war to life in a realistic and detailed way by means of haunting individual fates. Under leader Richard Winters (Damian Lewis), future Blue Bloods star Donnie Wahlberg is also an important member of the soldierly “group of brothers.”
69 minutes of Donnie Wahlberg convincing us of his leadership qualities in Band of Brothers
The series Band of Brothers sheds light on the life of a soldier by attaching itself to new men who experience war first-hand each episode. This can be Captain Winters at the beginning and later medic Eugene Roe (Shane Taylor). In this way, the community of soldiers is always together, but everyone gets their place in the spotlight at some point. Donnie Wahlberg’s character Carwood Lipton makes his grand entrance in episode 7.
(Donnie Wahlberg in Band of Brothers)
The 69-minute episode is entitled “The Breaking Point” and deals with the (dis)ability of leaders in war. The new direct superior of Easy Company, Norman Dike (Peter O’Meara), always disappears when he is most needed for a combat decision. Then it’s up to Donnie Wahlberg’s Sergeant Lipton to keep up morale.
It’s a difficult frontier walk for the sergeant, who is neither quite an ordinary foot soldier nor a real decision-maker. So Lipton lends a sympathetic ear to his comrades’ complaints, but is also careful not to openly denigrate his incompetent boss. He masters the task with flying colors and thus unwittingly recommends himself as a leader who always knows what to do.
You could almost read Donnie Wahlberg’s role in Band of Brothers as a complete antithesis to his hot-headed NYPD detective in Blue Bloods. Because where his Danny Reagan doesn’t take the rules too seriously, his Carwood Lipton keeps a cool head as a reliable soldier and grounds his fellow human beings.
The fact that we can easily take both roles from Wahlberg is what sets him apart as an actor. If you haven’t yet seen his strong performance in the war series, you should definitely catch up on episode 7, which also works on its own. After that, you’ll definitely want to have the actor on your side in every situation when the going gets tough
