In 2013, when the first season of “The Blacklist” premiered on NBC, television looked completely different. The streaming revolution hasn’t happened yet. The reality series still dominated the agenda of the American screen. The golden age of drama series was already underway at HBO, AMC and Showtime, but traditional TV networks were struggling to produce scripted hits with the old formulas. And suddenly “The Blacklist” was this hit, the most watched drama series in its premiere season, rave reviews, devoted fans, and enough conceptual fuel for a good eight seasons. Yesterday, the first episode of her farewell season aired, tonight she will also appear on Yes and Cellcom TV, and it’s time to give her the respect she deserves.
Above all, “The Blacklist” is the series of the phenomenal actor James Spider, who here received a huge playground in which to develop the fascinating character of Raymond “Red” Reddington, a former American intelligence agent and arch-criminal who escaped from the FBI for decades, who suddenly turns himself in and reveals to the FBI agents the “black list” he has collected over the years of the biggest criminals in the world. He promises to help them catch them all on one condition: he demands to work with the young agent Elizabeth Keen. Apparently there is no connection between them. And apparently this one lasted about eight seasons. This format, with a broad story arc between the regular characters alongside a short story arc with a beginning, middle and end around the “criminal of the week” and his elimination, accounts for 197 episodes of high-quality television and an excellent binge in its own right.
The success of “The Blacklist” on NBC quickly faded, but in 2014 it made a sensation when it was sold by the network for another broadcast on Netflix for about two million dollars per episode. The global success of the streaming series gave it a long life and allowed Spider an opportunity to further refine the character of Red, the unique axis of the entire series, until he became one of the best bad guys in television history (and of course after discovering everything about him that is discovered along the way), in the days where anyone still got excited about flawed anti-heroes with psychopathic tendencies. The ninth season was not very successful, but the finale season should make up for it. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for the bad guy.
>> “The Blacklist 10” // NBC // Now also on yes and CellcomTV