Great start tonight. James Spader is quite good as the mastermind criminal/terrorist.
Megan Boone did ok. She’s no Jodie Foster but I think she’ll grow into the profiler role. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of relationship develops between Spader and her. Is he her dad?
I was wondering about the relationship, too. And what’s with the husband? Who is he working for?
I thought it was great.
“Series” 1 is gonna bug me all season. American shows refer to seasons within a series, making this Season 1.
I thought the pilot was good, and would be pretty excited for the season except that The Following had a similarly compelling pilot but then fall off a cliff halfway through the first season. So I’m cautiously optimistic, like a beaten dog who still comes when he’s called but now expects a swift kick in the ribs.
I’ve been watching too many British shows. Series 1 was a slip. I’ll ask the mods to fix the thread title.
I hope they drop some of the gimmicky camera work. Twenty dudes appearing with rifles to surround one guy quietly turning himself in is just too over the top and borderline silly. The helicopter swooping down to pick up the profiler for work was also way over the top. I understand the elaborate prison cage is an homage to Silence of the Lambs. But it still bugged me. Yeah, I get it. This is a super high security unit. Point made.
They potentially have a good show here with interesting characters. The long blacklist of baddies and plots are a good source of stories. Focus on that and tone down the camera shot gimmicks.
Done.
Thank you Twicks. 
I watched it. It could be really good, but right now I think it’s over the top.
Every time they arrest a dude, they need 20 guys? That happened twice. Every time a bad guy shows up, he can just run away scot-free? That happened twice (once with Zamedi leaving the husband, once with the guy that disarmed the bomb). Emily better start carrying a gun so she can pop bad guys or this is going to get ridiculous. Reddington knows everyone, how everything is going down, and can identify entire operations at a glance? Come on. The FBI maintains a giant warehouse on the off chance they need to house one guy? Come on. They implant him with a tracking chip and never suspect he can just dig it out? Come on. Husband is a super-secret super-agent and the FBI profiler wife never guessed? Come on.
That said, the interaction with Reddington and Emily is masterful. It’s worth watching just to see them verbally go at each other. But the FBI agents need a brain transfusion or the show is going to get old quick. And if Reddington knows every detail of every plot for the rest of the season that’s going to strain credulity. If they treat it as a “Catch me if you can” where he’s just an expert that might be ok, but if they treat it as “Oh, I’ve been personal friends with this guy for 20 years and he’s fine with me stopping his revenge operation”, I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch.
ETA: The scene where Emily stabs Reddington in the neck is SO over the top, I assumed it was a dream sequence. After it turned out to not be, I wanted to know why she wasn’t in jail for trying to kill someone in custody. Totally shattered the illusion of reality there.
I just realized this is the same sweet guy from Stargate SG-1? Geez he got old and bald. Never would have dreamed Dr. Daniel Jackson could be so scary and ruthless.
You should’ve seen him on “Boston Legal.” Brilliant and playing an ambiguously gay or bi-sexual deviant. Loads of fun.
Jeez, talk about a stressful first day on the job!
My wife and I decided to watch mostly because of James Spader’s involvement. Seems like a good “turn off your brain and enjoy the ride” type of show. Definitely a lot of points that bordered on ridiculous. Like yellowjacketcoder mentioned, she stabs the guy in the Carotid artery and not so much as a mild reprimand from her superiors? Then the next day (or later that same day?) he’s walking around with a bandage on his neck, as if he cut himself shaving.
The scene where they were diverting traffic on the bridge made me want to yell “don’t you know you’re in a tv show and that’s an obvious trap?” And the kidnapping couldn’t have been successful unless the kidnappers had expected the FBI to have been tipped off, so they would pick up the girl intending to drive her to safety. Seems like that would have implicated Reddington as manipulating the whole thing, but apparently it seems to have solidified the FBI’s trust in Reddington for telling the truth.
Yeah, looks like he’s clearly supposed to be her long-lost dad, unless that’s a red herring (Redd herring?)-- seems too obvious.
When she came to the hospital the other agent told her she couldn’t see him, and that she was scheduled to face the review board for injuring him. Of course, then he let her into the room, alone, without even a cursory weapons check, which didn’t strike me as the smartest move…
He can’t be her father. She knew about him abandoning his wife and child and she told Beth that her father had given her the scar on her arm. Also her background check showed no link between the two of them which seems like it would be easily alterable by Reddington but she doesn’t know him.
She is clearly important to him but possibly also to others - unless Reddington planted her husband with her.
Does anyone know if they will be replaying the Pilot? I forgot to set the DVR.
Do you get Free On Demand? It’s likely already up.
Probably. My wife said they are replaying it Saturday night.
I wonder if they’re going to go for the M Night Shamalamadingdong twist of “He’s really her father, the douchebag that gave her the scar turns out to be her stepfather”. There have been worse plot points.
Is the husband CIA? a drug dealer?
My suspicion? He works for Redd, and doesn’t know that. The surest way to reveal a spy is to plant one first.
In these shows, why do the heroes (and villains) have to have graduated at the top of their class? Can’t a 2nd/3rd/4th ranker not make a good agent or criminal mastermind?
Well what they said was he graduated the Academy at 24. That means he was either at the prep school for two years, so he needed some help, was prior enlisted which wasn’t mentioned, or was delayed for some reason for about 2 years.