by Lee Padrick, October 18, 2013The Blacklist, "The Freelancer", S1 E2
WARNING: This review contains spoilers.
Watched the second episode of The Blacklist. James Spader (three-time Emmy winner for Best Lead in Drama), playing Raymond "Red" Reddington, one of the most wanted criminals in the world, is incredibly talented. The Blacklist writers, not so much.
I think Spader could do one of those tacky, annoying local car dealership ads and make it intriguing. I have never watched The Practice or Boston Legal, so I'm unfamiliar with his TV work. As I watched this episode, I realized that he wasn't given much to work with, so he spent most of the show generating variations of the same look I once had when I ate those spicy buffalo wings and didn't want everyone to know how badly my mouth was on fire. This dude has incredible screen presence.
In this episode, he's still trying to negotiate an immunity deal with the Justice Department. But there's a new fly in the ointment, Cooper's (Harry Lennix) boss. She's the head of Cooper's division, and she will not agree on a deal with Reddington. Until later, when she oddly gives in and agrees to an "off the books" deal. That she signs. See, I told you the plot didn't make a lot of sense.
Cooper is all-in with making deals with Reddington because he wants the names on the blacklist. The names on Reddington's blacklist are people that the government officials have never heard of. So Cooper is willing to try to get Red an immunity deal for a list of people he's never heard of but who all have done bad things. At least according to Red, a known bad guy. And Red is capable of coming in and out of FBI custody any time he wants, which is a neat ability if you just so happen to be a Diabolical Mastermind. Don't think too hard about this.
Anyway, Red only wants to talk to Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone). The very attractive Keen may or may not be the daughter of Reddington. We don't know yet, but the show is hinting in a not-at-all subtle way that they are father-daughter, so hopefully there will be a plot twist here. Or the NBC executives think the audience is fairly dull-witted, and want to reinforce the idea that Red is Lizzy's father. Again, don't think too hard about this. In fact, don't think too hard about anything you see on this show.
Meanwhile, Agent Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff) is out investigating a tip from Red about an accident that will happen at a D.C. industrial park. Ressler is slightly smarter than a bag of hammers. The FBI should definitely consider raising the standards on the Civil Service Exam. Ressler spends the episode walking around and being angry that he's not very bright.
Also, Elizabeth's husband is out of a medically-induced coma after suffering a severe beatdown in the pilot. Elizabeth discovered that her husband, who seemed like your average mild-mannered guy married to a smoking hot rookie FBI profiler, had a box full of money, passports, and a gun. Red mentions this development to Lizzy and gives her three options on how to deal with her discovery of the box. She can: 1) turn her husband in to the authorities; 2) ask him what's going on; or 3) not mention it to him for another 20 episodes or so, just in time for the season finale. Wanna guess which option she chose?
I could go into detail about the latest case-of-the-week, but let's just say that Elizabeth and Red try to protect a human rights activist from the titular Freelancer, a hitman who usually likes to disguise his killings as accidents, like plane crashes and train wrecks, which tend to kill lots of innocent civilians. Only this time he decides not to pursue the killing through his usual modus operandi, but instead to try and kill her while dressed as a waiter at a cocktail party/gala. Slightly out of character, but ... don't think too hard about it. But, the human rights activist turns out to be the head of a sex slave cartel, and Red kills her. His penalty for escaping FBI custody and murdering the activist? None that I'm aware of. I suspect he will not be punished and that he'll come and go from custody all season as he, the known criminal, helps the FBI catch more of the unknown criminals on his list.
I'm not going to pretend that The Blacklist is a good show. But for some inexplicable reason, I'm going to make it my guilty pleasure this fall. Despite the huge plot holes, James Spader is fun to watch in this role.
Or maybe I'm dull-witted, and this show is a parody of other Evil Mastermind serials.
Random Thoughts:
- A good drinking game is to take a drink whenever you hear the words "Elizabeth Keen."
- The Freelancer was No. 145 on the list. Does this mean that this series potentially has 144 episodes left? Which would be more than enough episodes to get the show into syndication. Or did I just think too hard about it?
- "His name is Dembe. Just Dembe, like Madonna or Prince."
What did you think?
-----
If you like what you see here, check out The TVPhile Zone on Facebook and Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment