Every time the show flashes to a scene set in the surveillance room, I’m all … ew. How much fucking have they recorded?
Help Wanted:
Capable bodyguards. Hiring two. Must be scary looking, not squeamish, and be willing to take one for the team as needed. Don’t bother applying. I already know who you are.
R.R.
Spader’s performance thus far is keeping me watching. I haven’t seen last nights ep. yet, but it looks interesting.
This show really makes me wish they had cast Spader as Lecter in Hannibal. Other than Mads Mikkelsen I was fairly happy with that show’s first season.
I thought last night was excellent. His soliloquy at one point in the episode was actually beautiful and moving - things I can barely believe I’m saying about this show.
I like this show but here’s my one issue.
The big problem is the Generic FBI Chick. She’s an utter waste of time, because her entire schtick, as far as I can tell, is that’s she’s obnoxiously omnicompetent at everything (She’s a master psychologist! She’s a detective! She’s an action hero!) with neither explanation nor interesting characteristics. Things happen TO her. She’s also shockingly stupid whenever convenient for the plot, and nothing really bad every happens to her even when it frankly should.
Literally everyone around her is more interesting. Her husband is either a fairly ordinary guy with massive cohones who is putting up with her, or a master spy able to fool the best interrogation and investigation. Her boss gives a sense of world-weary dedication, a man tired of the mess but unwilling to stand aside. Her chief coworker is a made of iron badass who people often think is stupid because he’s just that direct. Her other coworker is a tech genius… actually I hate that guy, but only because of the s Hollywood science making hash of everyday stuff that the audience is likely to know.
Then of course there’s Raymond and his crew (all cool). And the villains so far have had incredible amounts of character. The show is often done up as a morality play, and yet we often see some of the “bad guys” more or less getting away with it. Even so, it’s fun to watch them.
It’s just that the “Girl Plot” is so damn useless. It feels incredibly tacked on - something added to make it marketable with a Generic Pretty White Girl Cop. But as the “heroine” is so bland and her characterization doesn’t seem remotely consistent, I can’t give a damn. Then again, I despise Generic White Girl Cops, particularly the blandly pretty ones who can instantly knock-out a grown man through the power Actor Fall Down. That’s something I will let a superhero get away with if he’s had numerous well-choreographed fight scenes. But Megan Boone probably can’t break 125 lbs soaking wet.
I watched one episode and as I was tallying up the similarities to the short-lived Alcatraz, I realized this was not a show for me.
Actors getting cast in this show better not count on getting a paycheck for very long. Red’s bodyguards never got a chance to say very many lines.
I’m having trouble swallowing the FBI as incompetent week after week. Their super secure interrogation center gets over run in just a few minutes time? We’re supposed to believe their guards are that poorly trained and useless?
I was LMAO at Lizzie turning into John McClane from Die Hard. Except she gets knocked out cold at the end. All because she didn’t shoot that terrorist when she had the chance. She left him unconscious. Serves her right that he’s the one that captures her.
The scenes with Red helping the wounded FBI guy were really good. The blood transfusion seemed pretty realistic. It probably would work in a real emergency.
If you’re not watching this just for James Spader, then you need to be on drugs. Preferably both but just one will do.
Are they already reworking the show? Seems like nearly everything they carefully established is done. Apple guy is dead. The surveillance on Lizzie’s house has been exposed. Red is a fugitive again.
Will we get an entirely new show next year?
There no way the fumbling, bumbling FBI on this show can possibly catch Red. Hell, Alan Alda’s group has manipulated the FBI like they are preschoolers.
The most awesome moment in the show was Red’s people attacking the bad guy base and wiping everyone out.
The last few episodes have been weak but tonight’s episode (12/2) got my attention again.
James Spader is THE reason to watch, he’s so good that he makes up for the rest of the cast. I loved Alan Alda in this episode - I also thought the make-up/camera angles were creative since so many people will still relate to him through MAS*H.
Now we Know:
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Red will do anything to protect Emily.
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The apple eating surveillance guy was (most likely) working for the bad guys as they seemed to use their info to locate Red.
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Tom, Emily’s husband, is still under suspicion.
No new episode till January 13, damn it, now that I’m interested again.
I like discovering that theres a group out there even smarter and more powerful than Redington. Alda said they had an arrangement/stalemate with Red for twenty years. I guess thats when Red left his military life and went criminal?
Yes! I neglected to mention the most interesting development - I think (and hope) we’ll see more of the Alan Alda character.
The Alda crowd are the people behind the government, the military industrial complex. They are Red’s ultimate target and his plan is to release all his information on them. Of course, I’m guessing. The military killed Red’s family in an attempt to kill him and shut him up, so he went rogue to gather information over the long term and get revenge. Lizzie is in fact his daughter and he doesn’t want anyone to know that, including Lizzie. How a DNA test wouldn’t expose this is beyond me.
Alan Alda reminded me a lot of Bob Newhart.
I do now think he is not her father.
I don’t think Red’s the father. My WAG is he knew her father, and promised to protect her for some reason.
Have I missed it or has there been no mention of Keene’s mother by anyone, ever? Not her, her dad, not Red, not the FBI, not the husband when the dad died - nada. Seems a bit odd. Maybe his connection to her is thru her mother, perhaps a relative of his?
Blacklist renewed for season 2. I’m surprised by the high ratings. Never can tell what the viewing public will love.
Hope this isn’t off topic but, will this thread carry over into Series Two starting on the 13th?
I missed most of Series One due to football, but definitely looking forward to the next!!
Bains Fan, if you have Comcast you can watch the Series One episodes on On Demand for free.
So far I’m hooked but it’s because James Spader is so much fun to watch. I hope the writing and acting is better next time around.