The Blacklist, aka James Spader is The World’s Most Awesome Human Being, i.e. Raymond “Red” Reddington Is Criminal Dr. Who, is a strangely disappointing show with serious problems in engagement, premise, and plausibility. You wouldn’t know it from first glance, because Superhero Spader attempts a complicated mythological, weekly crime procedural, and anti-hero examination all in one. Does that sound like too much for one show to present? If the writers are up for it, no; if they aren’t, though, then The Blacklist will frustrate you to no end.
As for me? I realize that James Spader Variety Criminal Hour puts up airs that it cannot deliver. Instead, it delivers cheap thrills and spills, which seems perfectly fine in my book. The problem comes in examining any one element deeper, or expecting realism, because you won’t find either. The first episode presents all sorts of questions – why does “Red” (as he’s known, and I will continue to call him for the remainder of this review) turn himself into the FBI? Why does he only talk to Elizabeth Keen? How does no other criminal on earth seem to know that he suddenly became an informant for the FBI? How does a “full immunity” deal work in this show, what with Red wandering around the world freely and killing people without the United States government so much as raising a whimper? Why does the show refuse to give you any sense of space or time, making it seem like Red is either psychic, a time traveler, having the ability to teleport to plot-relevant scenery, and the like? Seriously, if you’re taking a look at the whole thing on paper, it doesn’t make any sense.
And yet, James Spader remains charming throughout. His usual disaffected, and often aloof, characterization comes in handy for what amounts to a glorified Bond villain, able to play both hero and dastardly serial killer at any given juncture. Clearly, ABC hoped the show would rest on his shoulders and his shoulders alone; plenty of well-known guest actors drift in and out of the show’s gravitational pull, but most of his “adversaries” fling themselves right out of Planet Red‘s orbit before long. The “case of the week” format does work for a general audience, but it often does this show no favors in allowing me to invest in the narrative because…hey, things will be back to normal before long! That takes the punch out of any knockouts The Blacklist often tries to deliver.
And if you were wondering why I haven’t talked about any other person on the show yet…well, there’s really not much to say. Everyone exists to complement Red in some shape or form, whether for rhetorical cannon fodder or to give him a bit of humanity so we don’t feel too bad for liking him (that’s another problem with the show: it doesn’t commit to whether or not he’s a good or bad person, unlike Breaking Bad). I just don’t really care about any of the other characters, even Megan Boone’s supposed secondary lead. She’s just sorta there, and her maybe/maybe not related relationship with Red remains a dumb, uninteresting plot thread that exists for plot artifice rather than any true reason. Her husband is equally annoying, given that they introduce him as a possible secret agent himself only to completely forget such important elements for episodes at a time. We could call it glacial pacing, but I doubt it; the writers just seem to hope and assume you’ll pick up on stuff throughout the series without making it a point to tell you. However, they don’t bother to bring those ideas back to mind within the plots, so you feel somewhat cheated when the characters spout some expository dialogue to bring you up to speed. This isn’t smart storytelling.
Further, when the plot details boil down to really, really horrific things (SPOILERS) – such as an adoption agency which drugs young 20-somethings, puts them into comas, involuntary impregnates them with one guy’s DNA and then gives those children out for adoption (END SPOILERS) – the writers just don’t have the talent or ability to give it some impact other than mild shock value. Red remains too important to the whole plot, so even the opportunity to talk about crime in a realistic way ends up hampered by the show pointing away from horror at Red to say “Hey, James Spader is awesome!” It’s quite jarring, and only when you think back will you even realize this subtle move happens in nearly every single episode.
And yet, given all this, I think the show has its own merits. I just enjoy watching James Spader chew scenery, regardless of how insane of a character he plays; while the extensive vocabulary and witty jabs he employs aren’t always that innovative, they are often pretty funny in a black comedy sort of way. Sometimes there’s simple flashes of brilliance in his performance, and that’s kept me invested so far for 13 episodes. While the plot gets off to a really slow start, it does appear like The Blacklist could go in some exciting directions; more and more, it seems Red kills lots and lots of people on screen, at least heightening his obviously violent past. Even the supporting cast grows on you over time, and while I can’t say if Megan Boone is a robot or not (a popular fan theory, though probably in jest), she does seem to grow into a role just a little bit as each episode commences.
As of right now, though, The Blacklist lies purely in the promise of a prepubescent premise. The execution of said premise just leaves me wanting for something that really takes advantage of it, removing all this perfunctory procedural claptrap for an actual character examination of the man who obviously helms the direction of the show’s path. Maybe it just needs a few seasons to ramp up, and if the ratings are any indication, it will have that time to improve itself. Or maybe it’ll just coast on its laurels, which I hope isn’t the case!
