Give Characters Jobs: Blue Bloods

One of my arguments with fiction is that main characters need jobs. 

Blue Bloods demonstrates this truth excellently. Although many of the family dinner conversations are about relationships and school and friendships, nearly all of them deal in some manner with the "family business." 

Crime. Detection. Loss. Punishment. Fairness. 

Granted, the ganging up on Erin gets tiresome (sure, she can hold her own; it still gets tiresome). But some of the absolute best dialog emerges when people in the family try to thrash out a problem. I've mention elsewhere Jamie's great scene at the dinner table after he gets beaten up and family members share memories of stuff he swallowed as a kid. 

On the crime side, I like the scene in "Payback" when Jamie and Erin exchange views on the problem of "he said-she said." 

"Like trying to deconstruct a milkshake," Erin says in exasperation.

Frank and Henry then make the wonderful point that a cop can be a gentleman. 

If you are a writer and suffering from a lack of decent dialog...give your characters WORK! Some of the best dialog I've written--and the most fun--was people arguing over what belongs in museums and what doesn't, precisely because one character assessed pieces for museums. The conversation was the natural result of people discussing what they do and care about and have invested themselves in.