The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

http://imageshack.us/a/img209/3543/oir4.jpg

Synopsis:

WHO IS "RED REDDINGTON?" - SEASON PREMIERE - Ex-government agent and one of the FBI's Most Wanted fugitives, Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader) mysteriously turns himself in to the FBI and offers to give up everyone he has ever worked with including a long-thought-dead terrorist but under one condition - he'll only talk to newly-minted female FBI profiler, Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) with whom he seemingly has no connection. For Liz, it's going to be one hell of a first day on the job and what follows is a twisting series of events as the race to stop a terrorist begins. Also starring are Diego Klattenhoff, Harry Lennix, and Ryan Eggold.

The Pilot was directed by Joe Carnahan


Trailer:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/k9_qgX7pTlc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

the trailer looks very interesting... can't wait to see the show.
Interesting look Spader has there ;)

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

I am completely on the fence with this one. I'm going to have a lot of shows this season and certainly don't need to add another one but it looks very interesting... I may just record tonight's episode and see how it is.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

Going to give this a shot - premise looks interesting, but I can see it being one that gets old real quickly or becomes so complex to hold everything together that it becomes an absurd storyline.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

gonna give it a shot, despite the use of the tired "not expecting a car crash" scene.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

I will check it out.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

My DVR is set also.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

Someone pointed out in a review that this show is essentially an adult version of Where In The World Is Carmen San Diego? I guess in one of the later games when you catch Carmen she has to help you find her other fellow thieves by giving you clues about their whereabouts.

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Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

Sepinwall's mini-review:

I told myself I'd watch this or Hostages (if either at all). I'll check out this.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

Megan Boone plays a great Olivia Wilde

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

I love James Spader and I had heard good things about this show, but I was pretty meh on the pilot. I'll give it another watch next week, but this show is already on the bubble for me.

I didn't find much chemistry between Spader and the female lead, and I am getting pretty sick of shows that feature endangered children as plot points. A little girl is intentionally smashed in a car, gassed and if that wasn't enough, a bomb strapped in her backpack? I don't think the show earned those kind of stakes yet.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

:thumbsup: I thought it was pretty good. Mainly highlighted by James Spader. Red Reddington is an interesting character. Kind of a mix of Hannibal Lecter and Alan Shore. I liked how Spader played him as being snarky and sarcastic like Alan Shore.

BTW, if you haven't seen the trailer that I posted in post #1, don't watch it. It pretty much gives away every key plot point in the Pilot.

The action sequences, including the kidnapping sequence were pretty exciting and well directed. Kudos to Joe Carnahan. I wonder how much of this was actually shot in Washington DC.

As for Megan Boone as the female lead. I thought she was okay. I think the Elizabeth Keen character has room to grow.

I enjoyed this far more than the Pilot of Revolution, which aired in this timeslot last season. I noticed the showrunner of this is John Eisendrath. He was the showrunner for Alias & the later seasons of the original 90210. Hope that he and his writers keep it up for future installments.

I can tell that this show will be a little mix of procedural (finding the Blacklist people) with some character and long-term story arcs (Keen and Reddington's past). I think ratings-wise, this is going to do really well. Being episodic as opposed to serial is going to help it gain viewers throughout the year.


Going to call it right now:

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

It's so obvious that no way can it be true. Of course everything else in the show was so predictable, including the husband. Still an enjoyable watch, and for some reason it reminded me a lot of Alias, not sure if it's just because of the show runner or what.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

I thought it was OK and will check out another episode or two. I thought Spader was too much of the all knowing master manipulator, which is kind of the point I guess, but I think they kind of dumbed down everyone else to facilitate that.

The sequence that really annoyed me was when she goes home and starts yelling and screaming about the "It's a girl" sign and then they cut to show the husband sitting with his back to her and she just walks by to get a drink. It was so unnatural that when they did the reveal the only surprise was that he wasn't dead. Maybe later we'll find out she's a severe alcoholic.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

I enjoyed this one much more than I thought I would. I didn't see the twist at all.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

It was OK but nothing I'm too excited about. I was a little concerned when our brand spanking new FBI agent, when confronted with a little girl wearing a chemical bomb didn't bother to call for backup or start evacuating the scene. Seriously, what's the standard operating procedure for that one? That's only slightly less forgivable than letting some unknown dude run away with the chemical weapon. This was her first day as a profiler, not as an agent so she should know better.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

She wasn't a new FBI agent. She was new to being a profiler. She said something to the effect she had been an agent for 4 years or so. I do agree that the lack of evacuation was ridiculous, but, I thought maybe I missed something with the conversation with Reddington about the bomb going off if she tried to evacuate.

I thought it was halfway decent. Interesting twists. I'll keep watching.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

The fact that she wasn't a new agent is why I had such a problem with her actions. I dont' recall Reddit mentioning anything about the bomb other than his colleague was on the way to help.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

Thanks. I couldn't quite figure out who she looked like.

That was my guess as well.
Also thought it reminded me of Alias. Now I know why.

Same here. Gonna stick around a little more and see how it goes.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

I sure didn't find that predictable. I would think with the 2 main characters with so much backstory to tell, having another person with possibly even more backstory will slow down the show. I guess we'll see. Hopefully, not as I really liked this pilot.

As for the zoo scene,

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

Looks like Blacklist won the battle of new shows at 10:

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/287...ostages-hollow

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

I liked it. I like the lead chick. Spader is awesome. But, Liz's introduction scene with her husband and all the "babys" and "dudes" and upbeat music was annoying, and seemed more suited for an ABC show.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

The reason it was predictable was that Reddington said earlier


Did Reddington concoct all of this before he gave himself up? Otherwise how did he communicate with the outside? Why was the tracker in what looked to be a (useless) trigger? Why not take that huge, identifying pink jacket off the kid? Who the heck shot that scene in the zoo, it gave me a headache? How the heck did Reddington know she happened to tear up the floorboards and find a clue?

Lots of deus ex machina here, especially with the "tattoo" being the giveaway. Still enjoyable, though.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

I think Reddington was behind the entire thing. He obviously wasn't being truthful when he said he didn't know the details of the plot since he arranged escape from the hospital, met up with the serb?, had the bomb tech on call near the zoo, and was responsible for the husband's capture. He was likely responsible for the girls kidnapping as well since the FBI's reaction to his warning had to be part of the plan to grab her.

Re: The Blacklist -- Series Premiere -- "Pilot" -- 9/23/13
 

Well, there was a clue given. It didn't come completely out of left field. But, yeah, things are pretty tidy at times. I guess we'll just have to roll with it. Like the ambush scene.