The Blacklist

So let’s get this out of the way first: The Blacklist is a good show based off an entirely uncreative premise. We’ve got a super smart criminal that purposefully gets himself caught and then starts assisting the FBI in catching a bunch of other “most wanted”s. He also enjoys the finer things in life such as fine dining and five star hotels and talking down to everyone else. The premise is so uncreative that I may purposefully neglect to use James Spader’s character’s actual name (Reddington) and instead just call him Fauxnibal.

Now that we’ve done a good job at pooing on top of The Blacklist’s head, the truth is that the show is actually fantastic once it gets going. And it’s fantastic mostly because of the way Spader portrays Reddington/Fauxnibal. James Spader was the first thing that got me interested in the show. I always knew that he was a celebrated actor, but I could not have told you one memorable role he had played in prior to his brilliant stint on The Office. But he did such a great job as Robert California that he totally stole the show, even from Rainn Wilson. TV career, thereby, cemented.

The way that Spader plays his character in The Blacklist is not terribly different from Anthony Hopkins’s Hannibal Lector, Kevin Spacey’s John Doe in Seven, and even Michael Emerson’s Ben Linus in LOST. In fact, it is something of an amalgamation of them all. But rather than coming off as empty or cliché, Spader is super creepy, charming, and believable. There are few outside of Spader that could have made this show as enjoyable as it is.

But he is not the one and only great thing about The Blacklist. I am fan of mystery when it is done correctly (See: The first three seasons of LOST); (See also: the exact opposite of the last three seasons of LOST). And The Blacklist does mystery very well. Fauxnibal’s motives are not at all clear. Who the real villains are is up in the air. Is there some sort of parentage between Fauxnibal and the lead female character, Elizabeth Keen? What’s up with Elizabeth’s husband? The audience knows that there is definitely more than meets the eye with these characters, but we know little else than that.

The Blacklist is about half way through its inaugural season and is currently taking a winter break. The series returns with new episodes on NBC on January 13^th. Sadly, it’s not yet on Netflix, but I would imagine season one will get there once/if season two begins. In the meantime, I advise you scour your OnDemand, Hulu, and Amazon Prime resources to get caught up if you missed The Blacklist so far. It’s definitely worth your time and it is not a show you can comfortably jump into the middle of. I, personally, will be watching the rest of season one with rapt interest to see how good the payoff on these mysteries will be.