I think all of these continuing one-hour dramas play the same game and string audiences along for months and months and months. They stick to a formula, present new stories, while weaving in the big new "conspiracy" happening across the entire season. The real trick is they withhold key facts and details from the audience and dole them out in very small bunches. Of course, Red could have revealed all this information in Show #1, but then they couldn't have gotten another 133 episodes out of it.
No. I'm saying there's an art to good storytelling and knowing how to provide enough complex details to keep the audience distracted and still dole out little chunks and answer questions while moving the show along. And this is often done very badly these days. The Blacklist to me is a good example of a show that's become very perfunctory, predictable, and formulaic, but it survives because at its core, it has a helluva good actor -- James Spader -- and a terrific concept of an incorrigible criminal who inexplicably wants to bring other criminals to justice and help the woman who might (or might not) be his daughter. But the episodes get dragged down quite a bit when Spader isn't front and center in the show, and the ratings have shown that. BTW, they established a little detail in the first season that they've kind of forgotten about in recent shows: Red Reddington has terrible burn scars on his back... and Lizzie as a little girl was in a burning building when she shot a man who might have been her real father. I'm hoping executive producer Jon Bokenkamp will eventually give viewers an explanation that makes sense.
The problem I see with The Blacklist is when "the bad guy of the week" took over the conspiracy plot, something I clearly saw on season 4 when I started not to care about this series. When a series gets repetitive I get bored easily. In addition to that my limit for a series seasons is 4, the new Battlestar Galactica despite having some filler episodes got to mantain the expectation and exciment up to the last episode of season 4, Fringe did the same up to season 4 but at the end of this season it started to feel tiring and the conspiracy plot had nothing more to offer, fortunately Warner Bros. didn't cancel it and wrapped things up on a 13 episode final season. But I understand this is a bussiness and if people are still watching then TV networks and studios don't have to bother creating new series.
I bailed at a certain point last season because I didn't like the direction I thought the show was heading in. From a glance at the page that Dok posted {#1393} a link to, it appears I should have had more faith. I'll be watching when the new season starts up.
One thing I laughed at is that one group of writers thought it'd be interesting to get Lizzie pregnant and then have a whole drama with the birth of the baby, which is one of the oldest TV cliches in history (going back to Lucy). The new writers quickly realized they had written themselves into a corner, because there was no way for mom to be a full-time spy/FBI agent, so they had a "family friend" suddenly swoop in and take care of the kid for several years. Once Red Reddington was exonerated and let out of prison (yet again), they used that as an excuse for Liz to get the kid back. At this point, the kid must have whiplash, being bounced around to different people so often over the past 3-4 years. It's always hilarious to me when TV shows go through plot problems like this, because the moment it happens, I immediately think, "well, this is gonna be a problem." And it inevitably is. It's kind of like the "Cousin Oliver" problem: even in a dramatic show, there's a big problem, when you introduce a large personal change in the show with one of the lead characters... like a child or a marriage or a permanent injury. Let's hope they finally put this thing out of its misery and resolve everything by the end of the season.
Just started season 6, which recently landed on Netflix. The show is silly, repetitive, badly written, and atrociously acted except for Spader. But Spader is great as always, so that's just enough to keep me watching.
I wouldn't say it's atrociously acted, but it's not great. I agree with your other comments, and would add "a lot of the plots hinge on wild coincidence," which makes me crazy. Spader is terrific. I think the best episode of the last season was his entire murder trial where he defended himself, which had more than a few echos of Boston Legal.
Yeah, you could see that Spader had a lot of fun doing the courtroom episodes. But a huge problem with Blacklist continues to be that the subplots involving any of the other characters (without Spader) really slow down the show and often get far away from the overarching story of Red Reddington, the Russians, the truth behind Lizzie's identity, and so on. I think the producers are painfully aware of this problem.
i have no idea what happened tonight with the spring premiere of the blacklist. all week both my DVR and NBC has been saying that there would be 2 episodes of the blacklist tonight. well, that did not happen. the second episode never aired, instead a 2 hour dateline is on. no explanation whatsoever. anyone know what happened?
Yeah, there's this virus killing thousands of people around the world. Maybe you've heard about it. A disaster this massive is going to alter TV schedules drastically. Right now, they're saying March 22 for a 2-hour return of The Blacklist... The Blacklist's James Spader Is Already Getting Fans Pumped For Season 8
I've bailed on many series around season four. The Blacklist, Homeland, Person of Interest etc. American shows needs to wrap up before it just get weird and uninteresting.
did you enjoy that? you like making fun of people? if, IF, they would have had something about the virus on TV instead i would have totally understood, however, it was a 2 hour dateline about nothing. and march 22 is sunday, and the story you cited says "tonight" "march 22" yet is dated in the byline march 20. guess you believe everything you read on the internet eh? so thanks for all your help.
I've lost interest with it as it's gone a bit silly with Red locked up and Liz transformed into a righteous vengeance killer, ala comic books. So far mrs. Fred hasn't mentioned watching another episode. Fingers crossed.
Can't take a breath if you're infected. Saw the new episode of Blacklist, and it was kinda "eh." They're going for more of a comedy vibe, which is weird. All that goes away in later episodes. To me, it's gotten worse. How am I making fun of people? I'm saying that you're out of your mind if you're worried about the TV schedule being altered, given that we're going through the worst epidemic in modern human history. There are things far more important than TV out there, ya know. Life and death stuff, far beyond morons arguing on the internet.
So I’ve never seen a episode. Might be having some upcoming free time. I’m thinking I should check this out from the beginning. As with most long running series the first few seasons are the best?
I'm still hanging in with this silly series. The production got caught short when the pandemic hit in March, so they finished the season-ender episode with a partial animated show, where they recorded all the actors' voices and did it all as a cartoon! ’The Blacklist’ Trailer For Hybrid Live Action/Animated Finale – Deadline It's one of the biggest "WTF's" I've seen in recent network TV history...
