The Blacklist

Starring: James Spader, Megan Boone, Diego Klattenhoff, Ryan Eggold, Parminder Nagra, Henry Lennix, Amir Arison, Mozhan Marno, & Hisham Tawfiq

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The Blacklist is the wildly innovative new crime drama that took network television by storm four seasons ago. The show did so well in the ratings in fact, that Netflix shelled out a ton for the exclusive streaming rights, but was it a good investment, lets find out.

Raymond Reddington (James Spader) is number one on the FBI's most wanted list. There isn't a crime that this former government agent hasn't committed, so everyone is shocked, when after years on the run, he turns himself in under the condition that he speak with Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone), an agent who just started working at the FBI, that very day. Eventually Reddington comes to an understanding, that he will provide information about the worst criminals out there, from what he calls his blacklist, but he will only do this for Agent Keen.

On the surface this show is ingenious and was originally very addictive. The writers of this show have a way of developing the bad guy that would put Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to shame. Some of these guys have committed acts and exhibit personalities like you have never seen, but they all fail in comparison to Red. The show is extremely addicting, but it is somewhat narrowly focused for a continuous show. 

What I mean by this, is that the show features continuously running story lines and you have to see every episode to keep up, but these are such a small piece of each episode, that the series almost plays as though it were episonic. Some of these story lines run in circles and drag out throughout entire seasons, long after the audience has figured them out, as a viewer that can be quite frustrating.

All that aside, James Spader is the star and he is as good as he has ever been. Most actors come across their career defining roles early on, and its somewhat unusual for someone to find the character they will forever be associated with, after they've been doing this for decades, but much like with Anthony Hopkins and Hannibal Lechter, James Spader has found his role. Spader will be forever known as Red and for good reason.

The bottom line, sometimes the story lines are frustrating, but James Spader is as good as it gets, particularly on a network show. The writing isn't always amazing, but the character development for the Blacklist is top notch. This show is unusual in that it's more about the personalities than it is about the actual stories, but that really is the point isn't it, something different?