Blacklist is on my Blacklist

 I haven't watched any episodes of The Blacklist since that last post, and I don't miss it. I do feel disappointed that the producers or the writers of the show ruined what was my favorite show. Or maybe it wasn't quite that high on my list in the first place. After all, Star Trek remained my favorite show even during its poorly written third and final season. But to be fair to Star Trek, there were some pretty well written episodes during that final third season. So it wasn't a complete washout by then.

But I understand that Lizzy or Megan Boone hasn't even been on the show lately. Still I don't care. It had become a lousy show. It failed its audience. What the Blacklist failed to realize is that the audience didn't give a hoot about Lizzy or Megan Boone. It was a story about Red Reddington, starring James Spader.

And the first three seasons were great. But the writers, or whoever was in charge of the storylines, tested the patience of the audience and way too much. We needed to know by season 4 that Red is the real father of Lizzy. Sheesh, season 8 is getting ready to be wrapped up and STILL no one has a clue. Sure it's been made clear that Red has some super secret. And he has gone to great pains keeping that secret. Even from the TV audience. It was okay during the first three seasons. But it's not okay to keep this secret any longer.

Make it known once and for all that Red is Lizzy's father. It's the only thing that can make this show have any sense. And if they can do that by the end of this current season, I might just come back and watch this show again. But that's what it would take. I'm not holding my breath.

So you see that photo of Red to the left? That's not just Red turning his back. That's me turning my back. I'm turning my back on the Blacklist. And the Blacklist is staying on my blacklist. A blacklist of shows I don't watch, that is. We'll see if that changes. But like I said. I'm not holding my breath.

Music? Books? TV? Movies?

 I am gradually moving on from the book phase of my life. I've been solidly in the music phase lately, as I had finally put vocals to the music I had written years ago. I have 120 songs now posted on SoundCloud, and I am finally working on my "long awaited" Volume 1 - Rockin' the First Steps album. (Long awaited by me, that is.) I have the songs rewritten now, or rearranged, as they say, and once I have rewritten the lyrics, I will begin the singing process again. And I have no shame in saying that it is the singing process that is the most difficult for me. And there's a good reason for that. I'm not a singer. So there you go.

But I refused to let that stop me. Since I don't know any singers, and my attempt to find a singer through Craig's List was unsuccessful, I sang all the songs myself. With some success I might add. That's not to say I became a singer. I'm not a singer, I say again. But at least I do hit the right notes, and I do stay in key. It's just that my voice is far from a nice pleasant singer's voice.

Singers are not always good singers. People said Bob Dylan couldn't sing well. But that didn't stop him. Neil Young resorted to an unpleasant falsetto voice, but it worked for him and his music. There are probably other examples, but usually singers do have nice voices, which is why they are singers.

As for me? I will only say that my voice, like Neil Young's and Bob Dylan's, works for me and my music. That doesn't mean it would work for Simon Cowell, or any of them. They would probably kick me off their shows during auditions. Whatever. I'm not trying to impress them or anyone else. It's as simple as this: I composed songs and I sang them. That's all there is to it.

Sure there are haters out there. I am bracing myself for the inevitable hater to comment or post a review with a serious trashing of me, my voice, or even my music. Hasn't happened yet, but it will. It happens to the best of people. Whatever the art. Books, Movies, Shows, and music. I remember years ago, when I first became a Black Sabbath fan, I read a review of their latest album. The reviewer was a hater, and trashed their latest album which at the time was Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

This hater criticized the music, of course, but what I remember specifically was that he was calling Ozzy a horrible singer, and to this day I can remember he used the words, "paper-thin voice" in describing Ozzy's singing. I thought to myself even then that this guy was just another hater. I had been hearing haters all around me complaining that they hated Black Sabbath and their music.

It's funny because, to me, Black Sabbath's music was the very best of all music. That doesn't mean that every song they made was a great song. There are some Black Sabbath (and Ozzy) songs that I don't like. One day I will post an honest and sincere review of every single Black Sabbath song. (In the Ozzy era, I mean.) I think I have the right to do that, because no one knows their music better than I do. One day. Maybe soon.

John Brown - A Real and True Hero

 I first heard of John Brown when I was a little boy collecting action cards from the nickel machine in front of the 7-11 store within walking distance from my house.

Actually, these days, I would not call it walking distance for my two sons if they were the same age. (I think I was between the ages of six and ten. It was a long walk, maybe four miles one way, which covered a distance up the street, cut across some railroad tracks and through an orchard.

But back in those days, it was not an issue, and we made the walk, or sometimes a bike ride regularly. I discovered some cool collector's cards in this machine. You put in a nickel through one of those slide in things and out came five random cards.

The first ones I tried to collect were the Mars Attacks cards. For an eight year old, they were so cool. Martians invading earth, and destroying everything in their path. The artwork on the cards was very graphic and bloody. Sheesh, these days the establishment would be censoring the hell out of those cards. But not back then.

Sadly, I discovered them on the last run of the series, and one day I put my nickel in and something else came out. It was a random five card selection of the next collector cards series. Civil War cards.

But these cards were not fiction. They were historically accurate. Even so, the artwork was just as graphic and just as violent as anything fiction could dream up. So for an eight year old, they were cool enough, and I went ahead and collected them and eventually managed to get the entire set.

Civil War Card no. 1

And since the cards depicted historically accurate events, the card that was number ONE was a card that featured JOHN BROWN and his raid on Harper's Ferry to end slavery. On the back of the card, a newspaper article from the time described the event. 

I heard some old movies featured John Brown. I never saw them, but I'm glad to see there has been a recent TV movie and miniseries that included John Brown. Neither one was about him. The Good Lord Bird was more about a boy in a dress pretending to be a woman. 

Last night I saw Emperor and it was about a former slave named Shields Green. He had fought alongside Brown at Harpers Ferry, but escaped and avoided being captured. Or that's what the movie would have you believe. A quick Google search revealed he did not escape capture. But the retelling of true stories allow for "poetic license" which is fine. After all, it's something I did with my own historical novel John Dunn. It adds some flair. In Emperor, it made for a happy ending.

One day, I would like to see a fuller portrayal of this man, John Brown, and his real life and real heroic cause to end slavery. He gave his life for black people. I would think he would be more famous for that. Maybe even have a holiday named after him. Maybe one day there will be.  

Blacklist - Worst Show on TV

So yeah. After this last episode, it is confirmed. The Blacklist has become the worst show on TV. That is, the worst show of the shows I watch. I wouldn't doubt if there's a worse show, but I wouldn't know, since I don't watch all shows on TV. But of those I do watch, Blacklist has become the worst. 

What that means is I will no longer be watching it. I have better things to do than watch a show where the writers, producers, and even the creators of the show are trying to come up with storylines for a show they had no idea would still be on the air for its eighth season. (And it's been renewed again.)

But whatever, I'm off this ride now. As early as its fourth season, it started flopping. And each successive season after that it only got worse. I thought at one point it had bottomed out. But no. It would be now it has bottomed out, if that means I'm done with it.

You see, once a character is no longer true to his/her true character as had been established, that means the writers are grasping at straws and hoping to put something together to keep their ride going. But Red Reddington believing Lizzy's comment that his loyal lawyer has turned against him to join Lizzy, and then trusting some dude who had only just made his first appearance, was just too much for me.

That was so NOT like Red Reddington to trust some guy he never met before over someone who had already proven his loyalty. In short, it was bullshit. And so we have a bullshit show now, whereas once we had a show that I had called my favorite TV show. Now it's just a joke.

Such is life. So many things have happened that are bullshit lately, it's just another one on the "black" list. Excuse the pun. But I thought it was a good one. Or, it could be said the Blacklist is now on my RED list. (That is, if Red lists are the shows I DON'T watch.)

Bye Bye Blacklist. You lost yet another viewer.

The Blacklist - Now a Big Joke

The Blacklist. Once it was a very good TV show. It featured a great actor, James Spader, playing the role of a great character, Raymond Red Reddington. It also had a weak actress, Megan Boone, playing a weak character, Elizabeth Lizzy Keane. But the weak character of Keane and the weak performances of Boone did not matter. And that was because the great acting of Spader and the great character of Reddington more than made up for it.

But now we have to believe the weak Keane has become the "female" Red Reddington. Now, the former FBI agent, Keane, is going to be the top criminal mastermind who will destroy, (that word again) the current top criminal mastermind of Reddington. Yeah. Right. We've heard that how many times now?

This is all one big joke of a show. And to make my meaning clear, a big joke of a show means that a once great show has become a perverse shadow of its former self. In simpler terms, it SUCKS.

I said this before. Reddington was the main character of Blacklist, not Keane. Spader was the star of the show, not Boone. But with Hollywood's focus on "feminism" the past twenty years, they are trying to reverse the roles, I suppose. Just like the joke of making Halle Berry the "female" John Wick. And now they are making the Equalizer into a female, too, on a new TV show. Another joke. It's a fat, old woman, at that. It was enough we had a skinny old woman pretending to be John Wick. Sheesh. Nothing against skinny or fat people by the way. And nothing against old people, either.

But Hollywood has lost it. They don't care. As long as the money rolls in, that's all they need to see. What ever happened to ratings? Well, I won't be watching The Equalizer, that's for sure. I won't even give it a single viewing. I have better things to do. As for Blacklist? Hey, it used to be my favorite show. And I still hope it can return to being that. I have hope because they can still salvage it.

Here's how they can salvage it. First of all, Lizzy NEVER gets the better of Red. That just better not ever happen. And lastly, it better be revealed THIS SEASON that Red IS THE TRUE BIOLOGICAL FATHER of Lizzy. That will be the only thing that can bring any sense to this show. And even better, if it were to also be revealed that the lady known as Katarina was NOT the biological mother of Lizzy.

Then and only then can I say, "Well, they had me for a bit there. Clever assholes, as they were, they had me, but now it's all good." And it will be my favorite TV show again. Will it be? Who knows? I would like it to be. Let's see those qualifiers happen, first.

Favorite Things

 I've been very critical of the TV show The Blacklist. And for good reason. It sucks. But why would I care so much as to dedicate time to point that out? Well, because it had been my favorite TV show, that's why. And to see it "fall from grace" so to speak was a huge disappointment to me.

It seems to have been a recurring thing to me with the things I've considered my favorite things. The Raiders football team is another example. The Raiders were a great franchise. For a long time. And then they become a very bad franchise. And that has been going on for a very long time, too.

I had a favorite rock band. Black Sabbath. But they couldn't keep their line up stable for the life of them. And even though they still made good music, there is no denying the music suffered. One day I will list every song they did, or every album, and give an honest opinion of how I feel about it. 

As for Blacklist, being a TV show, they have more control of being able to maintain greatness. A football team probably has the least control. You have 31 other teams, all with professional athletes, some of whom turn out to be better athletes than others. And when your ability to judge talent suffers, your team goes down. And it's not atypical for rock bands to have problems with their line ups. How many times have we heard about egos and drugs interfering with a bands success? Often.

But a TV show should not have any of these obstacles. If you have the same line up of actors, which it does, and the same writers, which it does, then there is no reason for the show to tank. But Blacklist's writers seem to have forgotten what made the show great.

It was the character of Red Reddington that made the show great. NOT the character of Elizabeth Keene. And the character of Dembe, Red's African bodyguard. And the storyline that followed, which was how Red got the FBI to take down his competition in the underworld, all the while granting him impunity for his own crimes. That was genius. And the show was fantastic.

But after three seasons, they seem to have lost their way. Red's closest allies betray him, and the writers began focusing on topical issues that had no place in the TV show, (like that horrible episode about abortion) which was a very disgusting and disturbing story.

But my repeated criticism is the repeated idiocy of the writing that has Lizzy hating the man who had saved her life over and over again. And this stupid "secret" Red has, which she just can't get over. And now, it's starting to bother me, too. The show has teased its audience enough. Who the hell is Red? Is he Lizzy's father or not? He said he's not. He said she shot her father and then the house burned down. But there was one episode that they showed a clue. In a scene where Red was changing his shirt we saw horrible burn scars on his back. So, what does that mean? Could it mean he was there when the house burned down? Could it be that he is the "father' that Lizzy shot? 

Two things have to happen. Let the audience in on the secret. Reveal that Red is the "father" that Lizzy shot, that it was he who saved Lizzy's life that day, even though she had shot him, and he suffered burns for the effort. And stop this ridiculous hating of Red. He has saved Cooper's life, Ressler's life, and just about everyone else's life on that damn show. Can we please stay grounded in reason if not reality? If they can do that, then I can say once again it's my favorite show.

Blacklist Bottoms Out

 

Blacklist has been so bad the last two or three seasons, it's a wonder I watch it anymore. But I am, and it hasn't gotten any better. In fact, it has bottomed out. I mean it can't get any worse! Season eight is now underway, or maybe it's the conclusion of season seven? Whatever they were, whether they were season seven's conclusion or season eight's beginning, those two episodes were gawd awful.

So, we found out last season that Red is not the former lover of Lizzy's mother and had promised he would watch over her as if she were his real daughter. That was a flimsy way of explaining why he had shown the kind of affection and dedication to Lizzy as a real father would. And even though he has continued to show the affection and dedication of a real father to Lizzy for all seven seasons before this up to and including saving her life countless times, we have to watch this crap.

What crap? The kind of crap from Lizzy, I mean. Her entire role has bordered on boredom to stupidity to plain and simple crap.  Maybe it's not Megan Boone's fault. She has to play the role written for her, right? I mean, she doesn't have the kind of pull that a James Spader will have. Meaning, if he doesn't like what he's reading in a script, he can make it better. And if that's true, what the hell is he waiting for with the kind of crap we are seeing from Lizzy?

Is Spader content with shining, all the while allowing Boone to crap? Sheesh, is she nothing more than a foil to him? Does he believe that the worse she looks the better he'll look? Well, if he does, he's right and it's working. 

So, now, once again, for the umpteenth time, at the end of the last episode, (as in Season 8, episode 2) we have to watch Lizzy proclaiming how she's going to bring Red down, make him pay, utterly destroy him, and yadda, yadda, yadda. How many times has she made that declaration? I've lost count. Just like I've lost count how many times Red has saved her life!

And the combination of those two things truly makes this show suck. AND SUCK BIG TIME. I might use stronger language here, but I'm a teacher and I have to be careful what words I use. But this show sucks so bad that I wish I could use stronger language.

It's like the writers of this show had no idea that this show would last this long, and they don't know what to do with it. They probably had a good idea how the story would go for the first two or three seasons. But after that, it's like these writers are wingin' it. It truly looks like they are just trying to come up with something to last another season.

It reminds me of that other disaster of a show called LOST. They had something going for a bit, but then it was like they had no clue what to do with the story line after the first three seasons. They just winged it from there, and it had probably the worst series ending in the history of TV.

This is where Blacklist is going. For me, the ONLY thing that can save this show is if it is finally proven that Red really is Lizzy's biological father. How that can happen after he's already said he isn't her father, I don't care. Because if he isn't, then nothing about his show makes any sense at all. Because no one like a Red Reddington, or anyone I know even in the real world, would put up with a ridiculous character like Lizzy unless she really was his daughter. His real daughter. So let's see if that happens. Then and only then might I say, "Well, okay."