Like most people, I am a fan of America’s past time. No I’m not talking about baseball. Does anybody actually watch baseball anymore? But I digress. The past time I am talking about happens to be planting my ass in front of the TV.
Now that this Fall’s offering is finally upon us, I thought I’d talk about one of three shows I have been waiting to see debut, NBC’s The Blacklist (Mondays, 10 p.m. ET).
James Spader stars in The Blacklist as Raymond “Red” Reddington, a Navy officer turned traitor, one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives who suddenly and unexpectedly turns himself in. Reddington is eccentric, charismatic, a puppeteer and a manipulator, called “The Concierge of Crime” by the world’s underworld figures.
The pilot starts with Reddington coming in from “the cold” and surrendering to the FBI, taunting them with knowledge to stop the kidnapping of a little girl. Reddington agrees to help the FBI under one strange, albeit transparent condition; he’ll only talk with just-out-of-training FBI profiler Elizabeth Keen, played by Megan Boone.
“This guy’s an equal-opportunity offender, a facilitator of sorts who’s built an enterprise brokering deals for fellow criminals. He has no country. He has no political agenda. Reddington’s only allegiance is to the highest bidder.”
The pilot suggests that there is plenty left to reveal about Reddington and Keen’s pasts. Reddington’s insistence on working with Keen baffles everyone at the agency, including FBI head Harold Cooper (Harry Lennix) and agent Donald Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff). Spader’s camera-commanding performance as Reddington is nothing short of brilliant. Boone’s performance is exciting, giving viewers the sense there’s more to be seen.
The Blacklist brings the magic of emphasizing serial elements like the continuing mysteries of Reddington’s motivation and Liz’s past while at the same time following procedural tradition by catching “the bad guy of the week,” as Jon Bokenkamp, executive producer put it. It fits nicely into the empty void the Burn Notice finale left in my viewing schedule.
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