Blacklist Still Sucks - Worse Than Ever

When I mentioned in a previous post that The Blacklist was continuing its downward spiral, I didn't realize how right I was. I dared hope that the Aram resolution was going to be indicative that perhaps the show was coming back to its prior greatness.

But it was not to be. It seems the writers keep finding ways to make the show lousy. It started with the falling out of "Mr. Kaplan" and how "she" became an enemy of Red's after being a staunch ally. That ended badly, with the suicide of Kaplan, in her effort to destroy Red. Then you had Lizzy and her ridiculous antics to "destroy" Red, along with the help of Red's other daughter.

That was somewhat resolved, but only after Red was mere seconds away from being lethally injected. But still, Lizzy, like Aram, came around, unlike Mr. Kaplan.

And now we have yet another falling out. Now it's Dembe. I mean, come on.... If it's not one ally of Red's it's another. And Dembe was Red's most loyal ally of all. But, not anymore...

This is so tiring. I mean, it's been tiring for a long time. My god, don't these writers have any better ideas than to keep sowing discord among Red's allies time and time again? And now Dembe? For chistsake, no.... Not Dembe, but yes. Dembe. I mean he was only my favorite character, after Red in the entire show. His unyielding loyalty was awesome. Apparently it wasn't so unyielding after all.

And there's another thing. Finally we learn who James Spader's character really is. We've been slowly introduced to the idea that he's not the real Red Reddington. Okay, I was willing to go with that, as long as he was the real father of Lizzy. I mean the real biological father. But no, we don't even get that. Talk about a let down. That was the killer. The show sucks. Big time.

The only thing that could possibly had justified Red's apparent "obsession" with Lizzy is if he was her REAL father. But it turns out he's not. He's just the former lover of her mother. Never mind that she had an affair and a baby with another man. (the real Red Reddington.)  Never mind that she's leaving him because the Russians are out to get her. But this guy, some Russian contemporary of Lizzy's mother, decided to take the place of Red because.... Who knows why?

The show didn't explain that to my satisfaction. I think it was to keep Lizzy's mother safe. Say, what? How does him becoming Red keep her safe? Well they tried to explain that somehow, but it was impossible to explain, imo. It turned out to be just plain stupid.

So the guy promised he'd take care of Lizzy as if she were his own. Sorry...that doesn't work for me. "As if" just doesn't work. Look. I'm a father. I have two sons. I would go to the end of the world for them. Just like Red had been doing for Lizzy. But it would only work if she were his biological daughter. Not some baby your girlfriend had with another man. Nope. Nope. Nope.

Only a fool would do that. So what now? Hope that some additional episodes can fix this? There is another one or two on the way before the current season is over. Can they fix it? We'll see.

Blacklist - Aram gets over it

Aram

I had complained about the direction in which The Blacklist was headed, and it was due to the fact that they were writing Samar out of the show. It was a major problem for Aram but the next episode took care of that problem. It was written well enough, and tied up some loose ends, but still I believe Aram should never have blamed Red, or held it against Red for doing Samar a huge favor even if it meant she had to leave him forever.

The character of Aram is actually a very good one. He's a behind-the-scenes type of FBI guy, meaning he's not the one in the field shooting up the bad guys. He's more the mild mannered type, and his ability to work computers is invaluable to the team. He also offers some comic relief.

I didn't like that Samar had to go, because I liked her character, too. I still believe that, overall, the Blacklist is tanking, and it's too bad. It had been my favorite show. Red Reddington is a great character, and James Spader's portrayal of him is golden.

Another favorite character in the show is Harold. He seems to be the only one in the show who actually appreciates Reddington, (although Lizzy is coming around.) I mean Reddington has saved all of their lives time and again, and saved their careers as well. But it seems that this show has the premise that if a guy saves your life, so what? You gotta hate him anyway. Forget the fact that if it weren't for him, you'd be dead. Let's just hate the guy and destroy him.

Harold is the only one who hasn't had that sentiment. (Maybe Samar is another.) But Lizzy, Ressler, and Aram as of recently, have all harbored a hatred for Red. Kudos to Harold, the only decent one in the bunch. If it weren't for Harold, I'd have quit this show long ago.

Blacklist Continues to Suck

Just when I thought Blacklist was going to emerge from its downward spiral, it flushed itself right back down the toilet. I had complained that at the start of this current season, (season six,) Lizzy had decided to turn against Red Reddington, and had sworn to destroy him. This after Red Reddington had saved her life, oh, about half a dozen times, and the lives of most or even all of her friends in the FBI.

So it was like, huh? A man saves your life, multiple times, and now you want to destroy him because he may not be the same man you thought he was. Why don't you just ask the dude? No, it's more like let's destroy him instead.

But as the season progressed, Lizzy decides that maybe she doesn't want to destroy him. And this after she quite nearly did. Seconds from being lethally injected, Harold, the FBI Deputy Director comes through and gets the president of the U.S. to call and stop the execution.

Okay, and Lizzy is back on board with Reddington. But wait. Now, Red Reddington saves, once again the lives of Lizzy's fellow FBI members, this time Aram and Samar. But to do that, Red had to abide by Samar's wish to leave everyone behind so as to "hide" from the assassins trying to kill her. But wait, because Red had a hand in helping Samar "disappear off the grid," now Aram hates Red and HE wants to destroy him. Never mind that he's the one keeping Samar alive.

Come on...this is getting beyond ridiculous. I mean, the guy can't understand that Red is only doing what Samar wanted, which was to get away for her safety and to protect everyone from harm? And now he can only harbor a hatred for Red for "taking her away from me..."? This is so dumb, it's like the guy has the IQ of a five year old! Is the idiot still in kindergarten?

Nope. It's dumb. Too dumb and I can't stand dumb. Can't anyone write some smart episodes with some smart plots for Blacklist please? Let me know when they do, and stop regurgitating the stupid story lines that I've grown tired of long ago.