Current Events > Season 3 of the Blacklist is one of the best so far (entire series spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I won't go into detail rn because I'm watching it while levelling Agility in Runescape, but I will say that while the concept is a little redundant, Tom's storyline is fantastic and the way the separate storylines are playing out is really entertainining. Just finished watching Sir Crispin Crandall, where Tom stabs his new best friend to death with a knife.

When I get time to make a proper big post, I'll elaborate on how I feel.

Charlene's gonna divorce Cooper for sure.

Edit: OH SHIT, SHE FUCKED THE NEIGHBOUR!!

I stopped watching it at like Season 5

Why would someone make a show called "Blacklist"

Yes there are worse examples

Okay, my laptop froze up so I have the time to talk about season 3.

Here's where I start talking about spoilers for the whole series, up to season 9. I haven't seen it yet, but I have read spoilers, and there's a theory that drew me into watching all of the show.

So season 2 ends with Liz Keen starting to learn about her mother, and the first few episodes of season 3 continue this trend. While he's been tight-lipped about it for the most part, Reddington has divulged information about her. And this is meaningful to me because I believe that Katarina Mostova is the person currently portraying Raymond Reddington. Might be getting the lady's name wrong, apologies.

The show reveals at the end of season five that the original Raymond Reddington is dead. I'm assuming Liz shot him on Christmas Eve 1990 to stop him and Katarina's fighting. We also know that Liz is related to Reddington, and my assumption is that she's related to the person portraying him now. And to my knowledge, the end of season eight strongly implies that Reddington is actually Katarina Mostova.

So now we're getting some of the most consequential scenes of the show if this is the direction the show goes in. Because Reddington is talking about the person he used to be in the third person with his daughter.

And it makes their growing connection really fun and weird and heartwarming, a girl and her birth mom who's pretending to be her dad.

I like that Dembe is getting more screentime and more development, he has a daughter and a grandkid and he got his own arc at the start of the season. I hope he's gonna be just as engaging when he joins the FBI in season 9. Pee Wee Herman is dead, hooray, and Tom has been carrying one of the better storylines this season.

The only real weak point so far has been Cooper. I liked him best as season one, this big good guy who toes the line between being upstanding and being pragmatic. He's a good man with principles, but he cares about his team. Season 2 wasn't kind to him, being gaslit into believing he was dying, and now in season 3 he's sanctioning unauthorised ops with Tom Keen. I don't like seeing Cooper go down this dark path - I want to see him being the team dad who brings out the best in everyone.

But Tom Keen himself has been a rollercoaster ride. The Liz/Tom relationship stretched out a little at the end of season 2 (and so did Liz ayyyyyyyy), and so far this season I buy Tom's conviction and the hells he's dragging himself through to make this work. This season makes me want to jump ahead to The Blacklist: Redemption - this guy can clearly carry a show.

Spader's starting to phone it in, having gotten his Executive Producer credit - the constant side-tangents probably make for compelling weekly viewing, but I'm binging the show and they're getting formulaic. More than his quips and stories, I'm here for his relationship with Liz Keen.

And back in season 2, I shipped Ressler and Keen. Someone said that they didn't like it, having seen more of the show. And I've gotta say - this ship has well and truly sunk for me. Like goddamn, even if he's had brief moments of levity and relatability - laughing at one of Reddington's jokes in episode 6 comes to mind - he is just the most conformist, jarheaded goon in this entire show. And like don't get me wrong, I love when they do the thing where he gets into a first fight and cops a stupid amount of damage without getting hurt, but this whole "former friend hunting down the protagonist" thing is getting old. I get that the point is that he's not as good of a boss as Cooper, and his hardline approach is constantly thwarted by Reddington and Liz, but it's just really tedious. But that in itself might make his brief moments of levity that much better.

Also - the dude playing Mattias Solomon? Fucking awesome. I love this guy so much.

MedeaLysistrata posted...

Why would someone make a show called "Blacklist"

Yes there are worse examples

What's funny to me is how often a familiar face pops up in a role. Berlin is the guy from Clown and Until Dawn, and I saw William Jackson Harper - Chidi from The Good Place and one of the characters from Midsommar - in a bit part as a security guard in season 2. And c'mon, even if they exploded him, Alan fucking Alda. So as far as the Hollywood blacklist goes, this show is not living up to that ideal.

I just googled it, and one definition of "blacklist" is "Any list of persons who are for any reason deemed objectionable by the makers or users of the list, as for political or social misconduct, for joining in or assisting a Strike, etc.". That's exactly what this show is about.

And though it's a bit silly, but the concept they've come up with of a list of top secret criminals being fed to the police by #4 on the FBI's most wanted list is an excellent gimmick. That list can conceivably never end, though they've really milked the high profile targets. It's the perfect format for an episodic TV show.

MrMallard posted...

What's funny to me is how often a familiar face pops up in a role. Berlin is the guy from Clown and Until Dawn, and I saw William Jackson Harper - Chidi from The Good Place and one of the characters from Midsommar - in a bit part as a security guard in season 2. And c'mon, even if they exploded him, Alan fucking Alda. So as far as the Hollywood blacklist goes, this show is not living up to that ideal.

I just googled it, and one definition of "blacklist" is "Any list of persons who are for any reason deemed objectionable by the makers or users of the list, as for political or social misconduct, for joining in or assisting a Strike, etc.". That's exactly what this show is about.

And though it's a bit silly, but the concept they've come up with of a list of top secret criminals being fed to the police by #4 on the FBI's most wanted list is an excellent gimmick. That list can conceivably never end, though they've really milked the high profile targets. It's the perfect format for an episodic TV show.

MrMallard posted...

What's funny to me is how often a familiar face pops up in a role

Yeah I find this element hilarious

The music choices in this show have been pretty good. I found an obscure Australian musician thanks to the show, and their use of Our House by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young is how I found the song after not knowing the band for years.

https://youtu.be/XF_zwW0N7iY

A while back, I was watching The Big C, and a song by Ingrid Michaelson came on that I'd been listening to for a couple months. And I've had a habit of finding an awesome indie song, listening to the rest of their music, not liking it so much and keeping the one song in my regular rotation - only to learn it was on Scrubs at one point or another.