The Blacklist

For a while now, I've been watching this show, so watching season seven didn't feel like I was starting over. It was just like continuing an argument that I left mid-way some days ago.

This season began with Raymond being kidnapped by Katarina Rostova, and just before the ending of the next episode, she had already moved into the same building, next door to Liz, while using another name as hers and composing herself in a good way to Liz's daughter and Liz herself without having an idea what her own mother looks like. From previous episodes, I already figured out who she is, but Liz doesn't know. And watching Naively Liz behaved around her and easily trusted her and put her in the care of her daughter, Agnes, is the kind of dramatic irony I've been seeing in this show, which they did better than any other shows I've seen.

In-between, the series continued with new numbers of criminals almost every week for the task force to catch, which include a data centre saboteur, a private island full of stolen paintings, and an art forger.

Cornelius Ruck from the island episode was the most fun part of the season while I was watching. Though those scenes from Katarine also mattered a lot. But I am also in when there's a new detour. I never resented that.

And the man who remained my favourite character in this show, Raymond continued to do what he was best known for... Always speaking like every day he says it was a threat or joke, or leaving you to guess which is which. And I am seven seasons in, and all those still work perfectly, because this show did something I noticed. They began to make Raymond's secrecy cost him something real that he felt deeply rather than just being a mood.

Aram is still in love with Agent Samar, while their whole love life got genuinely awkward. I guess that was a subplot the show intended to play for real discomfort instead of cute misunderstanding. Ressler and Liz kept getting closer to each other even though they didn't like each other at first.

Then along the way, the real world got in-between the show. The season was supposed to be longer than that according to the explanation given while I was watching it. It was cut short because of COVID, and nineteen episodes were released instead of the usual twenty-two. Then I watched the rest was done through this comic book-style animation style because everyone was told to be indoors during those period. At first, I didn't know that was a real thing because I thought I was watching another series. But I got the explanation at the end.

In this same season, that was the last time Liz's grandfather, Dom, acted before his death a month after. Though he died in one of the scenes too before real life. Katarina and Raymond were the life of this season, so I won't disclose what went on between them, because I want you to see for yourself. This show has earned everything it's asking for here. A way it hasn't always.

If you have been following my review on this show, how are you seeing it? And if you are yet to start, don't start this season. Start from the first season and I'm sure you will enjoy it just like I've been enjoying mine.

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Right from season three when I saw the things that innocent Liz was capable of doing, I became so much more invested in The Blacklist, and in this season five, a lot actually happened because Raymond moved from being this powerful manipulative man to someone who was making sure that his criminal record didn't fall completely after everything Mr. Kaplan started doing. Because he literally went broke, he had to say he doesn't like using the word "broke," but "illiquid." And to be honest, I like some of these parts because they revealed that Raymond was able to keep doing all those things because he had a lot of money and access, but almost everything was gone now. And Raymond was open to hustling with Liz just to raise some cash because he started sleeping in a small hotel, and this time, Dembe, a loyal servant, was not with him.

I will admit that I like how Liz kept evolving because she was not the same person in the previous seasons. And she has also learned that Raymond was her supposed father, thinking that that has already answered some questions she was searching for. But knowing that opened a doorway to another question in her life. And Safe was also so desperate to want to know what was inside those suitcases and why Raymond didn't want her to discover what was inside.

And after the death of her husband, her determination grew widely darker, and I must commend what the writer did here because instead of returning to her FBI profiler job after she had been removed from the wanted list, her grief completely changed her. And in the Ruin episode, I saw how far she is willing and desperate to go when she is pushed beyond her limits. And one thing I noticed, she was already moving with Raymond, knows some of his secrets, and now she has been thinking like him.

And before Tom's death, after so many warnings, I felt sorry for him because he went after the suitcase for more investigation because he knew it was important to his wife, Liz. But he was not strong enough, ignored the warning, and overlooked how many dangerous people were involved with that secret. Though I didn't expect him to die, his death opened another emotional stage for Liz, which changed the direction of this season. But the whole situation became very worse while watching because Tom had investigated the content of the suitcase to an extent; he had already gotten the DNA and was preparing to tell Liz when he was attacked by Ian Garvey's men.

I love the introduction of Garvey because he did just want to eliminate Raymond; he knew exactly how valuable the suitcase was and was planning to use what was inside to get rid of Raymond to gain access to his criminal network. And all these started connecting because others also came up and wanted to stake a claim for different reasons.

And moving to the task force agents. I like how the connection between Aram and Samer was going, they were falling in love slowly even though they didn't want people around to know. And with the whole situation of things around the task force, Agent Ressler's problem started becoming more personal. And as a servant and partner, Dembe still remains one of my favorites because he was one of the few people who truly understood Raymond and could easily confront him with being intimidated. Even though I have not talked much about Dembe and he doesn't speak too much, he just smiles and carries out orders. But his loyalty stands strong, and I like how he's not blindly loyal.

In this season, unlike other seasons where the mystery is always around humans. This time, it's way beyond the suitcase. And it was another big suspense and anticipation for me because I was also looking ahead to know what was inside the case and who really was Raymond. All these questions were coming across my mind, and why did Liz's grandfather keep himself from her?

And the season finale gave me the answer I was anticipating in a suitable way I like. Liz got to discover that the real bones in the suitcase were those of the real Raymond Reddington, meaning the man she has been calling her supposed father was just an imposter. And now again, Liz's mind shifted, and she was trying to discover who her real father was. And at the same time, trying to figure out who the imposter actually is.

Do I like how unnecessary they stretched the whole suitcase issue? No. Because I just feel they need need to deliberately withhold the information that long just to keep the whole mystery alive.

But still, season 5 was absolutely a top notch for me because I got to see how a lot of things were changing right from season 4 when I wanted to know why Raymond was trying to keep the suitcase safe, and now, what I'm after is to know who Red actually was now that I already know the real Raymond Reddington died years ago.

For me, 9.6/10.

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As the season goes on, I begin to find Blacklist more interesting because a lot of plot twists and suspense that was beyond my imagination keep coming out. But this season four shifted my attention a bit from the characters to the criminals that were being blacklisted and handed to the FBI, especially those who have kept the secret safe for a lot of years.

Like I reviewed in the last one, Liz was dead, but her death was planned because this season started with her alive as Alexander Kirk, the man who claimed to be her biological father, taking her and her daughter, Agnes, while Raymond was also trying his best to get them back. But this was only the tip of the iceberg because a lot happened after. But what I didn't expect to happen was how this season turned some of Raymond's loyal servants back against him. Those who knew all of his secrets and moves were trying to pull down everything he had built.

But I seemed to like Alexander Kirk at the beginning because he seemed to care about Liz at the beginning and gave her some depth about her childhood. Kirk turned her back against Red by telling her Raymond was taking her away from her family.

Like I said in one of the reviews, I seem not to like the way the show made it look for Liz to be easily manipulated... she seems to believe a lot of things easily because she was trying to search for answers. And at some point in her life, she was coming in contact with those who seemed to know more than she did because her memory was wiped at some point. But along the way, Kirk's claims fall apart after he discovers that Liz was not his daughter, but a lot of damage was done already.

But what I didn't expect in this season was Mr. Kaplan, the woman who knew a lot about Raymond. Someone who fixes all his dirty work and cleans up all his messages turns her back against him. And also, in this season, I got to see who exactly Mr. Kaplan was. Because she knew Liz right from when she was small, in fact, she was her nanny, so she was trying to keep her safe from Red. Hence, the planning and faking of Liz's death, which Red discovered, and shooting Mr. Kaplan because he saw it as a betrayal. But unfortunately, Mr. Kaplan didn't die, though seriously injured.

And where I saw Mr. Kaplan to be so desperate after her recovery was how the methods she used in trying to pull down Raymond were too extreme. Because she was turning his own history against him by using what he had done, the people connected to him exposed him. At some point, I was like, "His Raymond finished because it looks like Kaplen now has much power over him."

But then, no loyal servant of Raymond, whom Raymond doesn't see as such because he usually calls him "my friend," was Dembe. He really stood out for me in this season because their relationship was free of manipulation. And at some point, Red thought it was Dumbe who was behind all the betrayal, which made it so painful for him because he thought of what they had survived together as partners. But Red's suspicion was wrong about Dembe, and when he realized that, he gave him the permission to walk away, and the later search for Mr Kaplan continued.

In season 3, Tom was in on Liz's fake death, and in this season, he returned to Liz with Agnes. And towards the end of this season, something I'll call the biggest mystery, which Raymond can go to any length to protect, was dug out by Mr. Kaplan: the suitcase that she had hidden. When Tom did as Mr Kaplan introduced, in it were human remains like skeletons. This ending completely stirred up a lot of suspense for me.

I also enjoyed watching Aram, Ressler, and Samar do their task force job without making it sound like too much of a big deal. And I also liked the part where Aram fell in love with an undercover agent, Janet, but Samar suspected her, whose identity was later discovered even though she had already penetrated Aram's system.

I particularly liked how this season played out, unlike the rest, but sometimes what I didn't find so soothing was how long some of the secrets were unnecessarily stretched because I kept on anticipating the mystery to be revealed. It was frustrating at some point, but I guess it gave this season more suspense than I possibly imagined. Still, not a bit of this season bored me because I got to realize that even the FBI was not Raymond's greatest weakness but those close to him who have seen what he can do, the secret he has, and what he has been keeping safe for others to see.

A medida que avanza la temporada, «La lista negra» me parece cada vez más interesante, ya que no dejan de surgir giros argumentales y momentos de suspense que superan mi imaginación. Sin embargo, esta cuarta temporada ha desviado un poco mi atención de los personajes hacia los criminales que aparecen en la lista negra y son entregados al FBI, especialmente aquellos que han guardado el secreto durante muchos años.

Como comenté en la última reseña, Liz había muerto, pero su muerte fue un montaje, ya que esta temporada comenzó con ella viva: Alexander Kirk, el hombre que afirmaba ser su padre biológico, se la llevó a ella y a su hija, Agnes, mientras que Raymond también hacía todo lo posible por recuperarlas. Pero esto no era más que la punta del iceberg, porque después sucedieron muchas cosas. Pero lo que no me esperaba era que esta temporada hiciera que algunos de los leales servidores de Raymond se volvieran en su contra. Aquellos que conocían todos sus secretos y movimientos intentaban derribar todo lo que él había construido.

Al principio, Alexander Kirk me caía bien, porque parecía preocuparse por Liz y le aportó algo de profundidad sobre su infancia. Kirk la volvió en contra de Red diciéndole que Raymond la estaba alejando de su familia.

Como dije en una de las reseñas, no me gusta cómo la serie ha presentado a Liz como alguien fácilmente manipulable… Parece creerse muchas cosas con facilidad porque estaba buscando respuestas. Y, en algún momento de su vida, entró en contacto con personas que parecían saber más que ella, ya que en algún momento le borraron la memoria. Pero, por el camino, las afirmaciones de Kirk se desmoronan cuando descubre que Liz no era su hija, aunque ya se había hecho mucho daño.

Sin embargo, lo que no me esperaba en esta temporada era a la señora Kaplan, la mujer que sabía mucho sobre Raymond. Alguien que se encarga de todo su trabajo sucio y de limpiar todos sus mensajes le da la espalda. Además, en esta temporada pude ver quién era exactamente la Sra. Kaplan. Como conocía a Liz desde que era pequeña —de hecho, era su niñera—, intentaba mantenerla a salvo de Red. De ahí que planeara y simulara la muerte de Liz, algo que Red descubrió, y disparara a la Sra. Kaplan porque lo consideró una traición. Pero, por desgracia, la Sra. Kaplan no murió, aunque resultó gravemente herida.

Y lo que me pareció que mostraba lo desesperada que estaba la señora Kaplan tras su recuperación fue que los métodos que utilizó para intentar derribar a Raymond eran demasiado extremos. Como estaba utilizando su propio pasado en su contra, valiéndose de lo que él había hecho, las personas relacionadas con él lo delataron. En un momento dado, pensé: «Se acabó lo de Raymond, porque parece que ahora Kaplan tiene mucho poder sobre él».

Pero entonces, ningún servidor leal de Raymond —a quien Raymond no ve como tal porque suele llamarle «mi amigo»— era Dembe. Realmente me llamó la atención en esta temporada porque su relación estaba libre de manipulación. Y en algún momento, Red pensó que era Dembe quien estaba detrás de toda la traición, lo que le resultó muy doloroso porque recordaba todo lo que habían sobrevivido juntos como compañeros. Pero las sospechas de Red sobre Dembe eran erróneas, y cuando se dio cuenta de ello, le dio permiso para marcharse, y continuó la búsqueda posterior del señor Kaplan.

En la tercera temporada, Tom estaba al tanto de la falsa muerte de Liz, y en esta temporada volvió con Liz junto a Agnes. Y hacia el final de esta temporada, el Sr. Kaplan desenterró lo que yo llamaría el mayor misterio, por el que Raymond es capaz de llegar a cualquier extremo para protegerlo: la maleta que ella había escondido. Cuando Tom hizo lo que el Sr. Kaplan le indicó, en su interior había restos humanos, como esqueletos. Este final me generó muchísimo suspense.

También disfruté viendo a Aram, Ressler y Samar desempeñar su labor en el grupo de trabajo sin darle demasiada importancia. Y también me gustó la parte en la que Aram se enamoró de una agente encubierta, Janet, pero Samar sospechaba de ella, cuya identidad se descubrió más tarde a pesar de que ya se había infiltrado en el sistema de Aram.

Me gustó especialmente cómo se desarrolló esta temporada, a diferencia de las demás, aunque a veces lo que no me resultaba tan agradable era lo mucho que se alargaban innecesariamente algunos de los secretos, porque no dejaba de esperar que se desvelara el misterio. En algún momento resultó frustrante, pero supongo que le dio a esta temporada más suspense del que jamás hubiera imaginado. Aun así, no me aburrió ni un solo momento de esta temporada, porque me di cuenta de que ni siquiera el FBI era el mayor punto débil de Raymond, sino las personas cercanas a él que han visto de lo que es capaz, el secreto que guarda y lo que ha mantenido a salvo para que otros no lo vean.

For me, 9.1/10.

Translation with Deepl

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The whole of season two brought out some hidden and curious side of Liz, which got me more interested in the whole series, but season 3 made me realize why she was the back bone of the series and maybe the most important character in The Blacklist aside from Raymond. Watching this season, I saw how everything around her was falling apart.

She went from trying to figure out her life around Raymond into turning into a wanted fugitive after killing the attorney general. She lost herself at the same time, safely discovering a part of her childhood while she fell into Raymond's world as she made a decision that changed the course of her life.

I never thought she could change at the beginning, but the season made me know that even the most naive can change just as Liz did. At the beginning of this show, Liz thought that there was a clean line between who she could trust and who to arrest. But after the attorney general manipulated the assistant commander of the task force that Liz shot, that line vanished. Liz had no other choice than to run with Raymond and, for the first time in her career, was not trying to observe how the criminal world works from the outside. She was in it with the most wanted criminal.

Raymond still remains my favorite character because he carried the series, and I still like how terrifying he can be without raising his voice. What I like about this season was seeing how Liz got closer to him with almost no effort. Raymond could be so manipulative and could do that to anyone around him, but this time, Liz has just become a fugitive, and the calm side of Raymond started to disappear. And seeing this alone made their relationship deeper than seeing a most wanted man working for the task force.

And yes, Ressler has become a bit more mature in the season. Because at the beginning, he was doing like the most holy among them, like he couldn't break any rule, but after he was put in a different position to hunt Liz, it changed everything for him. Deep down inside him, he knew Liz to be a better person than what the government had painted her to be. But he still had to just carry out his job. I love watching most of the scenes here because I got to see what loyalty can do and how it can get simply choosing a side.

I also like how Aram and Samar played out their role here. Because they went from being another member of the task force to becoming two people who genuinely cared about Liz, especially Aram, and decided if protecting her was worth the silent risk they were putting on themselves.

Another character that I couldn't ignore was Liz's husband, Tom. Though he still has a very messy relationship with her, I like seeing how they were trying to make everything work together with what happened between them. Then the whole story changed when Liz got to know she was pregnant for Tom. Suddenly, they had to set down their differences.

After Liz's pregnancy was made known, they settled their differences and both got married. But this relationship stirred up a lot of people, like Mr. Solomon hunting Liz, while Alexander Kirk believed that he was the father of Liz. Then he kidnapped her and her baby, hoping that she would use either of them to cure the illness he has.

But the scene that gave me a lot of goosebumps was when Raymond was holding Liz after her apparent death. This scene got so emotional for me because two things happened. Raymond was broken while the person he cared about was lying dead.

For me, season three was where the real series started even though it felt like it was the end of it after Liz's apparent death. It also shows how much Raymond can go to protect those that he loves, people he calls family and those he identifies with. So, I'll give it a 9.7/10 because in this season, Liz went from asking questions to becoming someone that Raymond himself had to worry about.

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A few weeks ago, I shared my review on Blacklist season 1, which really got me attached to the series, but watching the second season, I began to get more understanding of why Liz was brought in and what the show was trying to do with her. I now saw that this has gone beyond a random FBI agent out of nowhere trying to work with the most wanted man on their list.

I started to see that she was trying to understand right and wrong while working with the most dangerous criminal alive while she was slowly being overshadowed to the extent that those lines became blurry to her. Because the more she tried to dig deeper, the more exposed she got.

Raymond still remained the biggest reason why I continued this series, because I have seen his previous movies, and it has become so impossible for me to dislike how good and eloquent he can be, even when he's doing some dangerous things that get me uncomfortable.

What I liked about him is that he doesn't need to show himself too much or act as if he's dangerous, but the mention of his name is enough to bring fear to anyone's mind, including the president's. I also like how he talks, gets funny while telling his long stories, has a normal conversation, and at the end makes a decision that completely changes the life of the person or people he's talking to. He does not need to constantly threaten anyone because of his calmness and look with his homburg or fedora hats....

In this season two, I paid more attention to Liz just to know what she was up to because she got me angry with her decision at some point. Because after she discovered a little of Tom, her husband's identity, she was looking much more suspicious and harder. But at some point, I began to like her change because she stopped acting like a naive FBI profiler that always thinks she can easily read everyone around her when she first got the job.

She started to think outside the box because she was spending more time with Raymond and she started thinking just like him. This was probably when this season got me more hooked. Because seeing an innocent profile changing, not in a bad way, but like someone desperate to find answers.

Another character that always shows up once in a while in some scenes is Tom, and I can't ignore him because those little moments he comes in always carry weight. And his married life started getting more complicated after Liz discovered that the man he got married to was not who he said he was and that he had another life that she was yet to discover.

At some point, she began to avoid and dislike him, but she was still attached to him. And I saw their relationship in a way that feels less like a simple wife and husband betrayal and more like two married people trapped in something they never planned for, let alone understood.

I talked about Berlin in season one, and he was still the villain I enjoyed in this season because he had conflict with Raymond, which felt so personal and was not even about rivals. While Raymond was dealing with his own tactic on how to find him. They finally met, and the whole issue was about how much he hated Raymond due to their past experience. The misunderstanding between them.

I also liked that his special agent Samar Navabi was introduced to this new series. She was an addition to the special task force, and the way I see her, age did not seem to be intimidated by Red. And Ressler became more of a team man even though she didn't like the whole interaction between Raymond and Liz even though the job damaged him in a way. Also, Assistant Director of the FBI task force, Cooper, and Aram continued to do their part and made the series look more alive in a way that they did not just exist to go after criminals. Dembe also remained a loyal servant to Raymond.

The favorite episode, I'll say, I enjoyed most was probably the  Luther Braxton  episode where the whole series took me back and gave me more suspense about Liz's past and how she's probably connected with Raymond. I also enjoyed the season two finale when Liz, who was on the run, finally killed Tom Connolly, the US attorney general who framed Liz and wanted her gone. This act made Liz a fugitive, and she became closer to Raymond. This showed how far she had moved from the Liz I first saw in season one.

Still, what I seem not to like about this season is how the show keeps introducing another mystery before the previous one gets solved. It was all linking into each other, and I guess this was what gave it more suspense than I can't even predict, unlike other series.

I like the slow transformation of Liz. It was not a rush because she was finally realizing who she is and finding out her own story. I also liked when Raymond told her to start thinking like a criminal, which she eventually got to understand along the line.

This season two was mainly about Liz, and I like how they put it because what I saw was not Liz just catching criminals; I saw how much of herself she lost while trying to. So, I'll give this session two a 9.6/10

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