The Blacklist S1E11
WARNING: This review contains spoilers.
After a holiday break, The Blacklist is back for .... well, not much.
After a satisfying two-parter with "Anslo Garrick," I settled in for epic The Blacklist. The first red flag was the episode title. "The Good Samaritan Killer" made me roll my eyes, but I had visions of a blacklister that contracted to kill other blacklisters for favors, instead of money.
The opening scene with the mother and child, and the guy giving her the drugged coffee? "She must be a secret agent person or something," I said to myself. Nope, she is the victim of a case-of-the-week serial killer, and Liz must find the killer and bring him to justice because .... (in my best movie trailer voice) "This time, its personal!" Give me a freakin' break. The serial killer is a Dexter-ish ER nurse who deals with domestic violence victims and tortures and kills their abusers.
Meanwhile, our Man-of-the-Hour-With-Style-and-Power is running around killing all the folks that were involved with his capture by Anslo Garrick. He is even cheesily killing folks to Johnny Cash's "When The Man Comes Around." Can you tell this episode isn't working for me?
After he exacts revenge on all the Garrick mercenaries, and after Liz tracks down the Good Samaritan (named because he leaves his victims barely alive and calls 911 to save them? Really, who dreams up this stuff?) and shoots him before he can creepily torment his immobile elderly mother some more, we get a reconciliation of Red and Liz. Seems they have made up and will get back to catching blacklisters next week.
If that was the case, why did I have to sit through this week's episode? This was not my favorite The Blacklist episode. Seems this show is in a perpetual state of taking a step forward-a couple of steps backward.
Finally, we now know who the mole is. The show threw us a twist, making us think it was Aram. I was floored, but Aram as the mole was very believable. Then, the show pulled that rug out from under us and identified Grey as the mole. Grey?!? So Red kills Skinny Pete, and the whole mole (sorry, I giggled when I typed that) thing is settled. Except that the mysterious Grey is now dead. And I was hoping for a Grey-flashback episode later in the season. Well, there's still Dembe.
I have mentioned it before, but the premise of this show could be much more fulfilling if it was a 12-episode season, versus a 22-episode season. With a shorter season, we could skip some of these filler episodes where nothing happens and advance the season's arc at a more coherent pace.
I look forward to getting this train back on the tracks next week.
Random Thoughts:
- Tom wants to interview for a teaching gig in Nebraska. Good riddance! But if he won't go to work at his job in D.C., he probably won't work in Nebraska, either.
- Ressler is back at work and walking with a limp. C'mon, he would have lost that mangled leg in real life!
- Still don't trust Meera, the CIA chick.
- The scene where Liz threatens the wife beater in the hospital was so superfluous. I think I actually screamed at the television.
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