The Blacklist

[redarm]

New show on NBC staring James Spader as an ex us military defector who has been off the grid for 20 years and has been living on the bad side for all that time.  He has turned himself over to the FBI, and in exchange for immunity  he will provide info on a list (the blacklist) of bad guys that are the worst of the worst so that they can be captured/stopped.  The character will only do his revealing through a rookie agent profiler with whom it seems he may share a common past.

 

I like it so far.  There is plenty of action, lots of twists, and I love the way the main character screws with the feds constantly.  Two episodes in and there are quite a few interesting story lines to follow.  There is the possible history between Reddington (the main character) and Elizabeth (the rookie), the possibility of some strange activity by her husband, the how of what Reddington knows and what he does (almost super villain smart and devious),  The obvious animosity between some of the agents and Reddington.  The dynamics between his hand picked security team and the feds.  It's all pretty interesting.

 

Anyone else seen this yet?

[SBoydW]

Yeah, interesting so far. Curious to see if it's going a little to fast for it's own good. Btw his name is Reddington, and you may want to add a spoiler warning to the topic.

[Leelou]

It seems like an interesting series so far. 

[Mendorah]

Yes, I'm enjoying this show very much so far.  In fact, I may switch to watching it live and recording Castle to watch a little later at this point.  The whole story has me intrigued.  I'm dying to know what their connection is. And the whole thing with her husband and how she handled it last week has me itching to find out what her new motives are this week.

 

I LOVE James Spader!  I've always thought he is at his best when he's smarmy.  I'm actually glad they made him darkly witty in this role as opposed to his smug wit in The Practice.  Which I Loved him in as well, but he was written so you loved to hate him.

[Lanthirrhos]

I'm all caught up with this show now. (Hulu stores the most recent 5 episodes for anyone wanting to catch up... we're only on episode 4 as of yesterday) I feel like the pilot was a strong episode, but not really a strong pilot. I feel like they could have sold why the list was so important a lot better than they did. (it basically ended up with a mention at the end of the episode.... "Oh yeah, there's a list!") That's really a moot point because I enjoyed it enough to keep watching anyways.

[Lilbaz]

Episode 4. He's her dad and the woman in the pic (dated 1990) her mum?

 

But who ordered her tortured? The other guy didn't know why she'd been taken.

[Cybertrolloc]

Lilbaz, don't quite follow. You mean why did the villain of the week take her or the scar (which we don't have much on yet)?

 

Spader reading the phone book is worth watching...and it hasn't quite come to that point. There wasn't a lot of him in episode 5 and it was pretty painful.

 

- The networks really hate the FBI. TV 3 letter agents are usually dumb action heroes, but we're getting to The Following dumb here fast.

- Might be part of above, but pretty horrible acting from those playing FBI here.

- Maybe they'll do something interesting with the several plots going on, but get the feeling it's going to get Alias dumb pretty fast.

- For a turn-off-brain drama (was really hoping it wouldn't be that), there's a lot of gore.

 

Hopefully evens out a bit, but if it doesn't, just assume the showrunners really hate humanity :)

[Lilbaz]

When the stewmaker started torturing her. He said "sorry, but i was told to make this hurt". Told by whom?

[Lilbaz]

Not seen episode 5 yet so no spoilers please.

[redarm]

When the stewmaker started torturing her. He said "sorry, but i was told to make this hurt". Told by whom?

 

 

The guy who hired him in the first place. When they took him at the airport they took her and then they gave her to the stewmaker. I'm pretty sure they are the ones who said to make it hurt.

 

[Lilbaz]

 

When the stewmaker started torturing her. He said "sorry, but i was told to make this hurt". Told by whom?

 

The guy who hired him in the first place. When they took him at the airport they took her and then they gave her to the stewmaker. I'm pretty sure they are the ones who said to make it hurt.

 

But that guy said he didn't know why the stewmaker took her when questioned

.

[redarm]

 

 

When the stewmaker started torturing her. He said "sorry, but i was told to make this hurt". Told by whom?

 

The guy who hired him in the first place. When they took him at the airport they took her and then they gave her to the stewmaker. I'm pretty sure they are the ones who said to make it hurt.

 

But that guy said he didn't know why the stewmaker took her when questioned

.

 

 

 

I don't remember that. 

 

 

I just remember him saying he didn't know where the stewmaker was but had a contact. It would be way more interesting if was someone else though. But who??? Red wouldn't do it, I think. Maybe, who knows. He is a psycopath. The guys watching her house maybe?

 

[Lanthirrhos]

 

We already know that Red has an adversary (one that he can't get to on his own). Might be him. I honestly can't remember the exact phrasing during the part in question, as to who wanted her hurt.

 

[Lilbaz]

Always remember I am totally fallible. Could have remembered it wrong.

[redarm]

Always remember I am totally fallible. Could have remembered it wrong.

 

 

Me too.  Hell, I got Red's name wrong in the original post.   

[Cybertrolloc]

This one hurt. Tons of script problems again featuring the weaker actors (husband and cia agent excepted, although the characters are wtf). I'm sure Spader's on camera eye-rolls are for the horrible performances from the other actors now. And with this guy directing: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0035060/?ref_=tt_ov_dr

 

Plot-wise, we haven't gotten anywhere on the mysteries and added 3 or 4 more this episode. Episode plot-wise, shoot the writer, now (omg it's the series creator on this ep). Pretty soon it's going to be down to skip every scene Spader isn't in :)

[Senexx]

Setting up a complex narrative - good.

 

Ramifications for Reddington - none.  Poor ala Geena Davis in Commander in Chief

[Aidanna]

 

 

 

When the stewmaker started torturing her. He said "sorry, but i was told to make this hurt". Told by whom?

 

The guy who hired him in the first place. When they took him at the airport they took her and then they gave her to the stewmaker. I'm pretty sure they are the ones who said to make it hurt.

 

But that guy said he didn't know why the stewmaker took her when questioned

.

 

 

 

I don't remember that. 

 

 

I just remember him saying he didn't know where the stewmaker was but had a contact. It would be way more interesting if was someone else though. But who??? Red wouldn't do it, I think. Maybe, who knows. He is a psycopath. The guys watching her house maybe?

 

 

I don't think Red is truly a Psychopath. He is obviously doing things that are not morally acceptable, but he obviously cares about people other than himself. 

 

 

He took the girls picture from the stewmakers album, he killed the guy for taking her... He is obviously attached to her emotionally. Psychopaths don't do that...

 

[Aidanna]

Did anyone see this weeks episode?

[SBoydW]

Yep. Confirms the Reddington-Lizzy family theory.

[Aidanna]

I was pretty surprised that they confirmed so early in the show.

[Cybertrolloc]

I don't see how they've settled anything recently, doesn't seem to me like they limited where they could go at all (which is anywhere). Maybe the task force head is Red's son--maybe every character on the show is Red's kid. :) This week was pretty bad in the national emergency, so only send in the two scrubs way. Weird where they spend money and where they don't on this show.

 

Now Spader could probably get away with hey look over there, a (squirrel, cloud, patio, etc...) IRL, but when he does it every week...

[Aidanna]

How did you like the newest episode? I just watched it and I have to say - I thought it was pretty good. 

[Cybertrolloc]

I guess that's where the budget for extras went :)

 

FBI agents are doing better acting-wise, that's good. Lots of Spader = better (I'd prefer much less action hero from him in this role though). Premise is pretty bad, but plot-wise this show has been cliche-town, so not any worse there. Keene as Die Hard had some good moments, lots of head-desk ones too (at least the acting was better than the horrible opening scene...it's not a new low, but it's pretty bad considering there's clear motivation and a decent actor to play off of).

 

Best case, the FBI team gets wiped out and replaced by better actors (shame that Redding's team doesn't look to be in good shape, they were fun).

 

At this point I can't be bothered to care which of the many agents with mysterious pasts in sensitive jobs is the mole this week. (8ball says network guy, there's no other reason he can't be a voice on the radio if that.) Oh, I'll throw in a decent chance of Redding planned it all.

[Aidanna]

I definitely agree that I like having more Spader. I don't think the acting is horrible though - I think there is a lot on tv with much worse acting going on. And I don't know that they will cut the budget on blacklist too fast - I think NBC is trying to raise raitings, and other than the voice and chicago fire, blacklist is their best hope for that.