I was a little concerned after last week’s episode of The Blacklist, especially that they seemed to be largely abandoning their week to week format in favor of anything and everything that dealt with Red, Liz, Tom, and Agnes. This week was a much better course correction, though their obsession with those characters still persists. They had two nearly completely separate stories on the show this week, but one of them was exciting enough to suffer through the latter.
This week on The Blacklist: Reddington follows a lead from Kirk’s doctor on Kirk and Agnes, while Tom follows the same from Ressler, but they’re led to different places. The task force pursues a patent office worker who is stealing people’s patent ideas and then killing them. Aram makes some progress in his personal life, much to Samar’s chagrin.
In general, I have enjoyed watching Red, Tom, and Liz, so I keep (relatively) quiet about the lack of screen time some of the other characters get, even though they’re all wonderful. So I’m as surprised as anyone to be saying that I cared much more about what was happening with the task force than the tired “Is Kirk my daddy” plot for the main trio plus Dembe. The weekly villain I found extremely compelling, and I found myself desperately wanting to know what he was up to and his motivation for doing so.
On the contrary, the story with Kirk is getting stale, FAST. I know it’s getting stale because (spoilers!) when Tom recovered a DNA test that revealed that Kirk is in fact Elizabeth’s father, I was not amused. I do find myself wanting to know why Reddington has lied to her to this point, or exactly what the relationship between the two of them was, but getting there is really ticking me off. Shocker: Red did something, Elizabeth finds something out, she’s mad at him, they don’t speak for awhile, they reconcile, repeat. That last sentence describes every single season of The Blacklist.
Here are some other various, random thoughts I had while watching the episode:
- In case you were wondering, that villain was Adam Godley, or Elliott Schwartz from Breaking Bad. Guess everyone breaks bad eventually, huh?
- I’m really loving the story with Aram’s girlfriend and Samar being jealous. It’s so cute. I wonder, though, if there’s any merit to Samar mistrusting her, or if it’s just jealousy. Could be a fun little mystery there!
- Is it too late to start a petition to get Ressler to move on to The Blacklist: Redemption with Tom? I’m not knocking Ressler at all. As a matter of fact, I’d like for Diego Klattenhoff to get more screen time, and he and Tom seem to have a rad bromance in the making. I’d hate to squash that by separating them.
This episode proved two things to me. One, that the villain of the week format can still be done well on this show, and two, that Liz’s parentage is not a source of compelling drama any longer. There really should be something new that comes into play, which would likely be a better use of such great dramatic talent like James Spader and Megan Boone.
There’s still plenty of good stuff in this show, but it’s time to resolve some of these lingering mysteries and introduce new ones. In fact, there are few more compelling to me than why exactly Reddington wanted those inventions. The creative team have really good instincts, but seem to clam up and fall back on this same story. They should stop doing that, because their ideas are great.
What did you guys think? Did you enjoy the episode? Let us know in the comments!
The Blacklist airs Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC
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You are still too nice. I’ve been reading your reviews for a while now and kept wondering how you are still able to find anything good in this show. ;)
I only still watch because of Diego Klattenhoff, so I simply HAD to comment on your idea sending Ressler to the spin-off. Please, no! I would sign ANY petition to give Diego Klattenhoff more screen time, a Ressler spin-off, an own show, everything, except for anything that has to do with Tom and / or Liz.
The obsession of the writers with these two characters caused the problems the show has now. Tom is a great character, but they ruined him when he had to come back because “he loves her.” It turned the show from a drama series to this almost unbearable soap opera about couples, hook-ups, babies, and daddies.
Just think about how great the show could have been if Liz had just been a means to an end for Reddington to get information on the cabal (and then had been killed off because she was no longer needed), Tom had worked for the cabal, Red had teamed up with Ressler in order to take the cabal down, and Cooper (Lennix is also sadly neglected) could have turned out as the ultimate bad guy in the end.
There are many other possible interesting scenarios–and none includes the worst character on TV ever: Elizabeth Keen, portrayed by–sorry, but it’s true–one of the worst actresses on TV ever. (Megan Boone will suffocate from swallowing a fly one day if she doesn’t learn to shut her mouth.)
Ressler working with Tom is completely OOC. The writers have no consistencies in their characters anyway, except for that Liz is whiny and complains about Red, then trust him again, then she trusts someone else, betrays them, lies to them, whines… and that there is no consistency. One episode the character says so, the next the complete opposite. They never go through with anything. Everything just circles around itself for ages, and the rest are effects. Even the characters and their reactions are just effects.
We are in season 4, and I registered plot hole #10,679. They don’t have stories for their characters. Nobody does anything. Everyone is just THERE. Your desire to see Ressler move to the spin-off with Tom probably bases on your secret wish Ressler WOULD have a storyline at all and if he was investigating Laurel Hitchin, instead of just threatening her and saves her “for another day” when Tom has finally moved to the spin-off and the writers don’t know what to do next.
The only reason for agreeing on sending Ressler to the spin-off would be if the writers plan to make him the next lapdog for Lizzie when Tom leaves her and she’s all alone and whiny again and has no one to trust. Diego Klattenhoff definitely deserves better; he can almost never show what awesome actor he is because he’s beaten with stupid lines, standing around, doing nothing, trying to make the inconsistencies of his character work. I even understand why people don’t like Ressler. He’s terribly written, and only Klattenhoff’s performance prevents him from being a complete moron.
James Spader deserves better, everyone in the cast does. It’s definitely not their fault. They can’t spin gold from the crap the writers produce every week.
So, why don’t you start a petition for a Ressler spin-off–completely Tom-free and Liz-free? I’d be the first to sign. :)