So, this is a first for me. I'm choosing to give up on a show that is not merely watchable, but actually good.
The Blacklist had a very strong freshman year, but flagged for me in its sophomore as it got more into the backstory of Elizabeth Keane and her relationship with ex-fake husband Tom; the parts of the equation that I really didn't care about so much. I didn't like Red, but James Spader's charisma was undeniable, and the Keanes didn't have that. Consequently, I didn't care if Elizabeth was a Russian sleeper or a loyal FBI agent or a fugitive or a music teacher from Des Moines, or dead.
And that was it. The big double twist at the end of season 2 left me basically unmoved, and at that point, I'm clearly not invested, so for all the bits that I did like, I've got way too much backed up to watch to carry on with The Blacklist. t's not Hooten & the Lady and it's certainly no Hunters, so I wish it well for the future. In time, I might even come back and catch up.
This picture demonstrates one of the key flaws of The Blacklist, to whit that Megan Boone so often looks inappropriately bored.
After a decades long manhunt, FBI most wanted fugitive Raymond Reddington walks into a Federal Building and surrenders. Having become one of the foremost fixers in the international criminal community, with a vast network of informants and specialists for all occasions, Reddington has also compiled a list - the titular Blacklist - of the people he deems to be truly beyond even his highly distorted moral code. He is willing to help the FBI bring these people down, but only on his terms, and only if he is allowed to work with Agent Elizabeth Keen.
A major breakout hit, The Blacklist is a slick conspiracy drama featuring a tour de force performance from James Spader as Raymond 'Red' Reddington, the Concierge of Crime. By turns charming and terrifying, all affable, folksy anecdotes or cold, harsh threats, he is never less than compelling, with his monologue on his goals in life garnering particular attention, and rightly so.
Unfortunately, The Backlist is at its core a two-hander, and Megan Boone as Elizabeth Keen doesn't have the same effortless assurance, and only partly because Keen as a character lacks Reddington's absolute self-confidence. For the dynamic of the relationship - which is primarily that Reddington chips relentlessly away at the bedrock of Keen's life - to work there has to be some parity to begin with, and it is just a little lacking (Season 2 has an even less assured Keen and a slightly more comfortable Boone, and benefits from it.)
The supporting cast is solid ranging up to good, with a strong core team. Parminder Nagra provides some confusion as a CIA agent with a completely unexplained English accent, but she's a good actress, so okay. Notable cameos from Peter Stormare and Alan Alda playing sharply against type enliven the second half of the season.
The Blacklist has a definite ambition to be gritty, and in pursuit of that makes a very conscious decision which results in unfortunate implications; specifically, Season 1 kills a lot of its female characters. In fact, it pretty much kills all of them except for Keen, and while it never revels in its violence against women, it does get to the point that it feels as if it's taking a certain pride in being willing to have female characters brutally murdered.
Overall, Season 1 of The Blacklist has been a good series with moments of excellence, although in all honesty I think only the monologue really compares with the very first scene of Red's surrender. It picks up the pace a lot after a slightly sluggish first half and starts developing its arc. It remains to be seen whether it can maintain its pace following the unveiling of Kaise Soze expy 'Berlin' in the finale - there is a reason why The Usual Suspects ends with the reveal - but Season 1 was strong enough to give me hope.
