DJariya

After being way way behind on this show for so long, I finally got caught up this past week. Binged season 6 on Netflix over 3 or 4 days.

I know this show doesn't have the same kind of interest and popularity in years past, but season 6 was a pretty strong season. I'm ready to be back for this new one.

Goldberg74

MLBFan24

Goldberg74

I haven't even been paying attention to the new shows. Don't think I will. Unless I hear something cool about one later or get a recommendation, then I can just go back and watch them On Demand.

MLBFan24

Premiere was pretty good. I was entertained. Had to pause about 5 minutes into the episode and read a season 6 finale recap. Blacklist never shows "Previously On" segments and I hate that.

d2cheer

Solid return. Still think there are some shenanigans to who Red may or may not be. At least I hope so.

Goldberg74

Really good episode. The story is moving along pretty quickly.

windom

Liz may be the dumbest supposedly smart character on TV.

MLBFan24

Yacoob

Besides the bones from a couple seasons back, is there any evidence that Raymond Reddington isn't really Raymond Reddington? Somehow from watching the show it seems to me like none of his interactions with any of his old friends or enemies would make any sense unless he's the real Reddington. And his relationship to Liz only works if he's her real father.

windom

Renewed for season 8: https://tvline.com/2020/02/20/the-bl...-season-8-nbc/

MLBFan24

Haha this show won’t die already. It’s ok enough for me to keep watching, but I wouldn’t care if it got cancelled.

Goldberg74

Nice to have back. Loved the storytelling with the forgery plot.

Ressler’s getting smarter each ep.

Goldberg74

Cornelius Ruck (s07e12) - 03/27/2020

I really liked this “whodunit” episode with Reddington flying solo for the hour.

Joely Richardson as Cassandra plays a character that I would to see as recurring... but, you know. (No spoilers.)

The ballet at the end was cheesy but heart-felt (and the absence of the new agent on the team was expected).

This show is pretty much just fluff (no big arch at the moment), so I’m left wondering what the next “big thing” is going to be.

But it’s still good TV.

Stay safe everyone.

MLBFan24

I didn’t think the ballet was cheesy. I guess it reminded me of going to my best friend’s kid’s musical theater plays. While I’m not a musical fan and watching kids do plays isn’t interesting to me at all, it’s important to be a good friend and be supportive. That’s what it’s really all about. My friend knows I wouldn’t really care to attend, but she and her kid appreciate the support.

Funny enough, another NBC show had a “whodunit” episode too:

d2cheer

Still loving this series. Shocked it was picked up for another season but I have no issues with that. One of the few shows I generally look forward to watching. I liked this episode as well.

Jay G.

So, while many other shows' seasons were abruptly halted, cut short, or delay, Blacklist just kept steadily releasing episodes. It seems they shot everything up to part of the finale before shutting down. How to finish a half-shot finale? Why with animation of course:

As a solution, it's pretty ingenious, although not entirely novel. Fringe had a mostly animated episode, although that deliniated more between the animated and live-action with a clear premise for the animation. This episode they had to stop cold a few minutes in to explain why there was going to be animation semi-randomly throughout the rest of the episode. It's similar to the recent reconstruction of the Doctor Who serial Shada, which used animation for the scenes that were never shot for that halted production.

In terms of execution, this was below those two other shows. Both the animation and models seemed a bit rushed, although considering the time crunch they were under, it's impressive they got it done at all. Also, the audio quality of the dialogue was mixed, likely due to the differences in recording equipment and environment from everyone recording from home. James Spader's voice seemed particularly echoey.

Also, it seemed like they sometimes used b-roll or footage from previous episodes to fill in scenes where they could, mostly people talking on the phone. I think all of the footage of Red on the phone was from various previous episodes, and a phone call by the Accountant later in the episode seemed to use alternate shots from the cold open of this episode.

It'll be interesting to see what they do with this episode for reruns and home video. It's possible they could finish shooting the live action when they start up production again, although that might be too much work. Alternatively, they could maybe continue working on the animation and make a better render, and rerecord some dialogue. Or they could just leave as-is.


This article describes how the animation was done, noting that it was done by a company called Proof, that normally does pre-vis content:
https://www.indiewire.com/2020/05/th...ic-1202231458/

Two reviews of the episode:
https://screenrant.com/blacklist-sea...ding-not-work/
https://ew.com/tv/recaps/the-blacklist-season-7-finale/

And finally, an interview with the showrunners about this season, the finale, and what lies ahead:
https://ew.com/tv/the-blacklist-seas...ale-interview/

MLBFan24

Good finale. I applaud their creativity. I usually don’t like the Elizabeth subplot since it is getting stale, but this unique situation made it interesting.

My only (minor) complaint - the animated characters all had their fingers on the gun trigger when running around. Animated gun safety first! haha

DJariya

Episode 19 was not the intended season finale. They were supposed to shoot 22 episodes.

19 was in production when the shutdown happened, but they made it work as a season-ender with the animation included.

windom

So they brought Brian Dennehy back to lie in a bed? I think that was him in one of the non-animated shots. Then he appeared in animated form. Were they planning on bringing him back again since they seemed to be saying he might be waking up soon?

Jay G.

I think that was b-roll, or even some of the same aired footage, from when Liz visited Dom in the coma back in episode 7x10. Notice that in this episode there's no dialogue in the live-action footage with Dom, only voiceover. Whenever there's dialogue, they switch to animation.

Phodg

Hated the episode. I would have rather they just held off until everything gets back to normal (whatever that may be).

d2cheer

I am really getting tired of "How Can we Screw Red???" He is betrayed all the time. LETS move on...

Jay G.

He's only betrayed because he makes horrible decisions, and withholds the truth. Every time Liz learns a little bit of the truth, he tacitly allows her to believe the new falsehood she's assumed or was told. Which means when she later learns out she's wrong, she trusts him even less. His actions this year drove Liz to put her faith in a fake Katerina.

windom

Damn. Clark Middleton, who played Glen, has died from West Nile Virus.

https://deadline.com/2020/10/clark-m...63-1234591880/