 Tagline: Never trust a criminal...until you have to. Former government agent Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader) has eluded capture for decades. But he suddenly surrenders to the FBI with an offer to help catch a terrorist under the condition that he speaks only to Elizabeth "Liz" Keen (Megan Boone), a young FBI profiler who's just barely out of Quantico. Storyline: Former government agent Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader) has eluded capture for decades. But he suddenly surrenders to the FBI with an offer to help catch a terrorist under the condition that he speaks only to Elizabeth "Liz" Keen (Megan Boone), a young FBI profiler who's just barely out of Quantico. Written by NBC 1.01 Pilot - Raymond "Red" Reddington, a former government agent-turned-one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives, mysteriously turns himself into the FBI headquarters. He offers to help the FBI find Ranko Zamani, a long-thought-dead terrorist, but under one condition; he will only talk to new FBI profiler Elizabeth Keen, with whom he seemingly has no connection. Reddington informs her that Zamani will kidnap the daughter of General Daniel Ryker. The FBI retrieve the child, only for her to be kidnapped by a surprise attack on the convoy. Keen learns that the adoption she and her husband Tom Keen applied for was approved, but when she returns home she finds Zamani beating Tom and demanding to know what she knows of his upcoming attack. He then stabs Tom and escapes. As Tom recovers in hospital, Reddington tells Keen that he knows the truth about her husband and asks what Zamani revealed to her. Reddington later escapes to meet Zamani, who was instructed by Reddington to break into Keen's house. He places a tracker on Zamani which enables Agent Donald Ressler to track him down. Zamani is killed in the confrontation with Ressler. Keen realizes the attack will be at the zoo and finds the daughter with a chemical bomb strapped to her, which is disarmed by one of Reddington's associates. With the threat gone, Reddington reveals that he has intelligence to help the FBI find unknown threats he had gathered over the years. Meanwhile, Keen returns home and finds a box under a floor board, filled with money, a gun, and several passports with aliases, all with Tom's photograph. (Disc.1) 1.02 The Freelancer (No. 145) - The powers that be will not grant Red his request of immunity. Red, meanwhile, predicts an impending catastrophe; a train derailment, which is believed to be the work of an assassin known as "The Freelancer". Red and Keen travel to Montreal and learn of the Freelancer's next target: Floriana Campo (Isabella Rossellini), a humanitarian working to end sex slavery by cartel gangs. As the FBI provides security for her fundraising event in New York, Red refuses to aid them further until his immunity deal is signed, and he is given a tracker and a private security detail. The Attorney General agrees but adds CIA agent Meera Malik (Nagra) to the detail. Red joins Keen at the charity event and positively identifies the Freelancer. Ressler chases and apprehends the assassin, who confesses that Red hired him to poison Campo. It is revealed that Red knows Campo is a fraud; she is actually running her own sex slavery ring while her charity eliminates the competition. Meanwhile, after Tom Keen is released from hospital, Elizabeth decides to place her husband's secret box back under the floorboards, and views a visual recording of Tom speaking of his love for her during the adoption hearing. (Disc.1) 1.03 Wujing (No. 84) - Wuijing, a high-profile Chinese criminal, kills a CIA agent in Shanghai to intercept a message, but Wuijing's team fails to decrypt the name in the message. Wujing contacts Red, seeking his help. Red profiles Liz as a researcher in MIT and takes her to meet Wujing and decrypt the message in a radio station in the US where Wujing is forting. Liz decrypts the message with the help from a CIA provided device. On the route to escape, Wujing is captured by forces. Red also answers Liz's question on why he chose her: because of her father. Liz requests a ballistics report on a gunshot from the gun found in her apartment; the results are classified as it was involved with a high-profile homicide, and all future usage of intelligence resource of Liz is flagged for review by her FBI boss. An unknown party sets up surveillance in Liz's house, monitoring audio/video feeds from across the street. (Disc.1) 1.04 The Stewmaker (No. 161) - While continuing her investigation into the truth about Tom, Liz testifies against drug lord Hector Lorca. Later, another witness is abducted when he is forced to testify against the dangerous drug trafficker. Red's interest is piqued and he informs the team that the witness may have been taken by "The Stewmaker", a man responsible for hundreds of missing and presumed dead individuals. Meanwhile, in an unlikely twist of events resulting in Liz's capture, Red and Ressler must work together for the first time. Red saves Liz from The Stewmaker by killing the latter, while stealing a photo from a picture album. While recovering from her ordeal, Tom surprises Liz with a vacation trip, which she realizes is the location of her investigation. (Disc.1) 1.05 The Courier (No. 85) - Red finds out that The Courier – a middleman that no one crosses – is delivering a package worth millions of dollars to an Iranian spy. The Courier is a "ghost" and no one, including Red, knows what he looks like. While racing to stop the mysterious criminal transaction, Liz inadvertently finds herself thrust into a dangerous kidnapping plot. Ressler finally accepts that Liz is a valuable asset to the team. Meanwhile, the strangers across the street watch through the surveillance cameras as Liz confronts Tom about his dark secret. (Disc.1) 1.06 Gina Zanetakos (No. 152) - After Tom confronts Liz about the box, he claims he is innocent and insists that they turn it into the FBI so his name can be cleared. Elsewhere, Red informs Liz and the FBI that the next name on the Blacklist is a beautiful and deadly corporate terrorist, Gina Zanetakos. Elsewhere, Tom maintains his innocence while being interrogated. Soon Liz realizes there is more than meets the eye when she discovers the passports containing Tom's face are forged. (Disc.2) 1.07 Frederick Barnes (No. 47) - After a chemical attack on a subway, Liz and the FBI search for the man responsible. Liz reluctantly calls on Red for his help after she finds her search for the next person on the blacklist, brilliant scientist Frederick Barnes, heading to a dead end. Meanwhile, Liz wants nothing to do with Red, outside of work, after he again implicates Tom. (Disc.2) 1.08 General Ludd (No. 109) - Liz uncovers an elaborate plot to destroy the country's financial system when a new name on the Blacklist is revealed by Red. Meanwhile Tom supports Liz when a family member falls ill. (Disc.2) 1.09 Anslo Garrick (No. 16 - Part 1) - Donald attempts to protect Red from a possible assassination attempt but is misled. The newest member on the blacklist, Anslo Garrick, (Ritchie Coster) infiltrates the attack in an effort to assassinate Red. During the raid, Donald is severely wounded from a shotgun blast to the leg. Red carries him to a bulletproof holding cell and the two remain locked inside, as Red attends to Donald's wound. Meanwhile, Liz gets caught in an elevator and tries to figure out what is going on. She frees herself and works her way through the facility, taking out Garrick's men along the way, until one of them knocks her unconscious. A code is needed to free Red from the cell and without it, Garrick starts killing people. Harold is the only one who knows the code, but refuses to give it to Garrick. Red is forced to watch as Garrick kills Luli. He begs Harold to open the cell to no avail. With Garrick now with a gun to his head, Dembe tells Red that he's not afraid to die and that they'll meet again. The two say goodbye to each other by reciting a verse from the Quran. A gunshot is heard as the episode cuts to black. (Disc.2) 1.10 Anslo Garrick (No. 16 - Part 2) - Liz infiltrates the blacksite and disarms the signal jammers to call in backup but is captured by Garrick. In an effort to save Liz, Red blackmails Ressler into giving up the password, and surrenders to Garrick. Liz escapes captivity during the getaway, and utilizing a contact Reddington named prior to her escape, Liz learns of an unidentified party providing surveillance on everyone in the task force. A discovery made by Aram leads Liz to the surveillance team stationed in the building across the street from her place. While in captivity, Red resists torture and is evasive with talking to a former colleague (Alan Alda), who hired Garrick to capture him. He later manages to kill Garrick with a pair of surgical scissors and escapes before an FBI rescue team led by Liz enters the scene. A hospitalized Ressler is visited by a former fiancee he alluded to in the previous episode; Reddington is wanted for capture by the task force; the Keens move to Red's safehouse. Red makes another phone call to Liz stating that he will be there for her when needed. Liz asks Red if he is her real father, but Red denies it, and gives another warning about Tom before disappearing. (Disc.2) 1.11 The Good Samaritan (No. 106) - The entire FBI team is under investigation as internal affairs tries to find the mole. Elsewhere, Red is missing and conducts his own investigation into who betrayed him. Meanwhile, a serial killer from Liz's past, "The Good Samaritan" (guest star Frank Whaley), strikes again. Liz is allowed to join the hunt for the killer, as Cooper knows Red will likely realize how much this unsolved case means to Liz and reach out to help her. Soon Liz discovers the victims are all linked through abusing a family member, and that the killer was likely an abuse victim himself. Though she kills the man responsible, she gives the man's final near-victim a warning to treat his wife better or she'll make him regret hurting her. In the end, Red confronts Grey for betraying him and kills Grey via suffocation to make it look like an accident. (Disc.3) 1.12 The Alchemist (No. 101) - Red informs the team that "The Alchemist" (guest star Ryan O'Nan) a man who relies upon science to transform a person's DNA - has been contracted to protect a well-known mob informant and his wife. As the team goes undercover to catch him, Liz finds herself on the hunt for an unlikely couple. Meanwhile Liz and Tom find themselves at another bump in their relationship and Ressler debates whether or not he should give his ex-girlfriend his blessing. Meanwhile, Red continued conducting more investigations of his own and discovers the identity of the FBI double agent. He later pays Meera a visit at her house with a loaded gun pointed at her. (Disc.3) 1.13 The Cyprus Agency (No. 64) - After a recent spate of abductions of babies from their mothers, Red informs Liz that the "Cyprus Agency" is the illegal adoption organization responsible. More or less coincidentally, Liz and Tom contemplate adoption of their own which fuels Liz to track down the organization's CEO, Owen Mallory. Meanwhile, Meera willingly aids Red in his investigation for the mole. Covertly using Cooper's badge, Meera's intelligence leads Red to Diane Fowler as the ringleader of the leak, prompting him to kill Fowler in her own home. She tells him that she knows about "that day", about what happened to his familiy. But Red still kills her, responding that he wants to know it more than anything in the world, but he'll find someone else who knows. He then calls Mr. Kaplan to clean up. In the end, Liz finds herself unable to adopt a child as long as her marriage to Tom continues to suffer emotional strain. She is shown frustrated at home sitting in between baby stuff, while Tom goes to see Jolene, the woman who was flirting with him. (Disc.3) 1.14 Madeline Pratt (No. 73) - Liz helps Tom come to terms about their impending adoption while Red reveals that a woman from his past, Madeline Pratt, is the next target on the Blacklist. Prat enlists Red's help in stealing a statue called the Effigy of Atargatis in the Syrian embassy. The statue secretly contains coordinates for Soviet nuclear detonation codes, which has the interest of the Russian Mob. Red enlists Liz's aid in the operation, only for the pair to be double-crossed by Pratt. Faking their capture, Red succeeds in getting the location of the effigy from Pratt, while one of Pratt's allies is arrested. Meanwhile, Cooper's investigation into Diane Fowler's disappearance is effectively stonewalled by a Special Agent Walter Gary Martin of the D.C. Bureau, and that the orders "came from the top." (Disc.3) 1.15 The Judge (No. 57) - When a former Assistant U.S. Attorney is found bedraggled and walking the street after being missing for 12 years, Red suspects he was a victim of "The Judge", a mysterious person that runs an underground operation dispensing "eye for an eye" justice on officials who have wrongly convicted people. Red gets Liz going on that case, then tackles his own agenda in finding out why a woman named Lucy Brooks has been following him. Lucy, as it turns out, is Jolene, the woman seducing Tom at a teacher conference in Orlando. As Liz works the case of The Judge (revealed to be a woman named Ruth Kipling), a man named Alan Ray Rifkin is about to be executed for treason, and it is discovered that Cooper is the Federal agent who put him away. Cooper becomes The Judge's next target and is nearly electrocuted, until Red arrives with proof that Rifkin really did commit the crimes for which he was executed. When Cooper suggests Red brought this case to gain leverage on him, Red replies that "a war is coming", and he may need Cooper's help. Back in Orlando, Tom declines "Jolene's" offer of an affair, proclaiming his love for Liz. Jolene/Lucy then gets Tom to admit that Liz isn't just his wife -- she's also his target. (Disc.4) 1.16 Mako Tanida (No. 83) - Mako Tanida escapes a Japanese prison and kills an FBI agent, claiming revenge for "collateral damage" caused by the FBI when they were after Red. After another FBI agent turns up dead in America, Ressler fears he may be next, as he was part of the team searching for Red back then. He grabs Audrey and attempts to take her somewhere safe, but his car is rammed by Mako's driver. In the ensuing melee, Mako shoots and kills Audrey. Ressler vows to take out Mako, despite warnings from Cooper and Red to let other agents take it from here. Collaborating with an old FBI buddy named Bobby, Ressler tracks down Mako, but later learns that Bobby is the mysterious "Iko" -- the man who took over Mako's crime operation while the latter was in prison. Just then, Liz shows up and Ressler resists killing his old buddy, though Bobby commits suicide anyway. Meanwhile, Lucy/Jolene announces plans to move in next to Tom and Liz, but Tom later meets Lucy in a hideout and the two converse about mutual though possibly conflicting plans to get to Red. Tom assures Lucy he has done everything he could to maintain the ruse of his devotion to Liz, but complications arose when he was knifed by the men sent for Red, causing Liz to find his fake passports and cash. Later, the man named "Cowboy", a bounty hunter hired by Red, tracks down Tom and Lucy, but he is captured and killed by Tom, moments after Tom had also killed Lucy. (Disc.4) 1.17 Ivan (No. 88) - A programmer for the N.S.A. is supposedly killed in a car crash, but further inspection has revealed that his car was hacked. When investigating the programmer's death, the task force learns that the N.S.A. was working on a prototype device called the "Skeleton Key," capable of hacking into the entire American electronics infrastructure. Reddington initially believes an elusive Russian hacker named Ivan was responsible for the theft, but a personal meeting with him reveals that Ivan never had any problems with the United States, and instead was solely focused on the Russian government the entire time, claiming that someone else was masquerading was him. Further investigation into Ivan's claims leads the task force to high school student Harrison Lee, who was responsible for the theft of the Skeleton Key. Lee stole the key and used it for his own ends in order to enter a romantic relationship with the daughter of one of the Skeleton Key scientists. Meanwhile, Liz investigates the disappearance of Jolene/Lucy after being approached by Lucy's former parole officer. Liz discovers Tom's makeshift headquarters after tracing Lucy's last voice message, but Tom performs a sneak-attack on her at the hide-out, fleeing before Liz could recognize him. During the aftermath of the Skeleton Key crisis, Liz receives an email containing a copy of the gathered evidence from the parole officer, and finally understands Red's repeated warnings about Tom after recognizing a toy Liz gave to Tom the morning of the investigation. Upset by the recent revelation, Liz turns to Reddington for emotional support. (Disc.4) 1.18 Milton Bobbit (No. 135) - A series of seemingly unconnected murder-suicides are attributed by Red to a life insurance claims adjuster named Milton Bobbit, who is able to convince terminally ill people to carry out the acts in exchange for financial rewards for their surviving family members. The targets of the murders are ultimately discovered to all be part of a clinical drug trial for Type 2 Diabetes that caused people to die, and Bobbit himself is found to be terminal. Liz, Ressler and the team must catch up with Bobbit before he himself takes out the next victim: the doctor who headed up the trial. Meanwhile, Tom proposes that he and Liz renew their marriage vows, given all they've been through, and has his brother Craig officiate the ceremony. Craig pulls Tom aside and says he's certain Liz knows the truth about him, but Tom isn't convinced. In their new safe house, Liz demands answers from Red regarding Tom as well as Red's interest in her, but all Red will say is that he's watched her closely ever since Tom came into her life. After Red gets some DNA results on Tom, he determines that Craig (real name "Christopher") is not Tom's brother. Liz traps Chris in his hotel room and tries to get answers. Tom calls Chris while Liz, Red and Dembe are in the room, and mentions "Berlin". Red demands to know what's in Berlin, but a frightened-looking Chris says he cannot say anything. After Red threatens that he'll find a way to make him talk, Chris hurls himself through the hotel room's window, falling to his death, after which Tom attempts to convince Liz that Craig had to fly home. (Disc.4) 1.19 The Pavlovich Brothers (No. 119–122) - A woman named Xao Ping Li, involved in a chemical weapons project known as White Fog, is drugged at an immunization center in China and whisked to Washington, D.C. The Pavlovich brothers specialize in abductions of high value targets, including General Ryker's daughter (see episode 1). According to Red, they are in town planning their next hit, which turns out to be Li. Meanwhile, Tom discovers that Liz knows his secret, and informs his people. While the team tries to locate the Pavlovich Brothers' target, Red makes a deal with the Brothers to abduct and deliver Tom to Liz. Liz tries to torture Tom into revealing his bosses, but he quickly turns the tables and corners her. After explaining his job never included hurting her, he claims to be "one of the good guys" and tells Liz that Red isn't at all who he seems to be. Before fleeing, Tom tells Liz about a safe deposit box. With Tom in their view, Red instructs Dembe not to capture him again, but rather follow his tail. The next day, Liz finds the deposit box and is shocked by what she discovers inside. (Disc.5) 1.20 The Kingmaker (No. 42) - After a politician in Prague is framed for a murder, Red suspects it's the work of The Kingmaker -- a strategist behind the rise of some of the world's most powerful politicians. Red is seen meeting with an ally about the Prague matter, and the man tells him that the recent news of a seige on Red's interests is causing several key people to start distancing themselves. Liz views the photos that Tom had led her to, which show Red at the hospital where her adoptive father Sam had died. She confronts Red about it, but he steers her toward the more urgent matter of The Kingmaker being in the U.S. Liz and the team are able to uncover a plot by The Kingmaker to run the car of a New York Congressman off a bridge. Making him look like a hero by saving his family will put him in the best position to win a special election for a Senate seat, which The Kingmaker vacates by killing the Senator. Alarms go off in the home where the murder is committed, with Ressler and Liz entering the home. The Kingmaker attacks Liz and applies a choke hold, before being fatally shot by Ressler. Red meets with Fitch, telling him his businesses are under attack and suggesting it's a mutual problem. Fitch meets with members of his global alliance, then tells Red they have chosen to pull out of any association with him, despite Red's threats to expose them. Liz phones Red to inform him about The Kingmaker. Red says he wants 10 minutes with the man to find out who ordered the Prague incident, but Liz has to tell him that The Kingmaker is dead. Liz then visits Red about her adoptive father, with Red finally admitting he hastened Sam's death. Liz calls Red a "monster", and says the two of them are through. (Disc.5) 1.21 Berlin (No. 8) - Liz tells Ressler, and then the FBI, her story about Tom. In the midst of a virus outbreak inside a bank, Liz refuses to work with Red and sends Cooper her resignation, informing him that Red killed her father. Red tries to explain to her that the outbreak is connected to Tom, and ask if her anger towards him (Red) is above putting lives at risk. Liz agrees to work the case, but declares it her last. Red is certain that the Cullen virus is part of a plan to kill him, as well as being capable of creating a widespread epidemic. Red and Liz meet with Dr. Sanders (John Glover), an expert on the virus, who is also a mental patient. The conversation gets loony when Dr. Sanders speaks of Space Agent UD-4126 and omens of the Cullen virus leading to the apocalypse. Liz storms out, accusing Red of using the visit as a diversion to change her mind about quitting. Meanwhile, Cooper is given an ultimatum by his superiors: if Liz walks, Red no longer has immunity and the task force is no more. Liz learns that Dr. Sanders had created an antidote for the virus and the team suspects that he was working with another doctor from outside the mental institution. Liz pays Dr. Sanders another visit and noticing the nurse's ID badge number, it turns out that UD-4126 leads to a Dr. Vogel. Once he's arrested, he refuses to talk to Liz, except with the warning of Berlin's coming. Liz had injected the virus he created into his drinking water, and uses the antidote to blackmail him into talking. Using Tom's code book--which Red had given to her earlier as an “olive branch”--Liz discovers connections among several members of Red's Blacklist, deciphering that he knew someone was targeting his interests, but not specifically who it is. He's been using his relationship with the FBI task force to systematically eliminate his enemies. Dr. Vogel gives up the names of 5 people involved in a prison plane transport, all airport employees infected with Cullen. Liz begins to have a change of heart about leaving, but Cooper tells her it's too late. She finds Red and warns him about the FBI's pursuit and his immunity. She begs him to run, but he refuses, wanting to know about her sudden change of heart. Liz goes on to tell Red how much she wants to kill him for ruining her life, but that she also needs answers from him. He tells her that he needs things from her also, and that nothing is worse than losing her. It becomes apparent to both that they are stuck with each other. As Red surrenders himself, the prison transport plane files overhead and crashes. The war has begun. (Disc.5) 1.22 Berlin: Conclusion (No. 8) - It is revealed that some passengers on the plane were killed in the crash, some are in the hospital, and a few are at large. The members of the task force start being targeted. Agent Malik is killed, and Cooper is strangled and placed into a coma. A guard (Peter Stormare) that was severely injured on the crash is questioned and tells a story of a man in prison whose enemy sends him parts of his dead daughter, one by one, until he managed to escape. Liz and Red continue to try to hunt down Berlin. Red encounters a man believed to be Berlin and tortures him for information. Tom, who was revealed to be working for Berlin, drags Liz into the room with a gun pointed to her head, imploring Red to give himself up. Red kills Berlin and inches closer to Tom. Tom shoots Red in the shoulder, prompting Liz to break free. Liz and Tom scuffle and he is shot by her. With his dying breath, Tom whispers something to Liz. Red says that he realized the man he had just tortured and killed is not Berlin, who is instead revealed to be the injured guard the FBI questioned in the hospital. As Cooper recovers under Ressler's watch, Liz and Ressler discover that Berlin escaped his room and is at large. When agents investigate the room where the bodies of Tom and the fake Berlin should be, Tom's body is gone. Liz meets with Red and says that Tom told her that her father is alive. Red assures Liz that her father definitely died in a fire. Berlin walks the streets carrying a pocket watch with the picture of a little girl, and we see that Red has the same picture (the same picture taken from the Stewmaker). The season ends with Red removing his shirt to treat his bullet wound, revealing scars on his back, presumably from being burned. (Disc.5) ------------------------------Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown, August 11, 2014 -- The Blacklist is the latest in a long line of formula-driven series to air on NBC, each one indulging in more plot twists and gotcha cliffhangers than the last. But here's the real twist: it gets really good. Not decent-good. Not eh, it's worth DVR'ing-good. Not there isn't anything else on-good. Legitimately good. Addicting. Fun. Surprising. Willing to do whatever it takes to keep you guessing. The kind of show you mildly enjoy for a few episodes, reeled in each week by a single hook -- in this case, once-and-future scene chewer James Spader -- only to realize you're craving more and more, week in and week out; getting excited for each new episode, each new revelation, each new twist and each devilishly delicious bit of villainy the showrunners deliver. The Blacklist may be a formula-driven series, but it does what the best of its ilk do: bravely taking the paths least traveled, turning left when all signs point right, turning right when all signs point left, and switching up that oh so precious formula until everyone watching comes to understand all options are on the table, everything is possible and anything can happen. It's not a perfect series by any means. Everyone who's not Raymond Reddington, or some of the more memorable criminals-of-the-week, suffers in the shadows of first-class character actors, each of whom are clearly having a blast being as bad as they can be. (Alan Alda as a shady villain in a tenuous business relationship with Spader's Reddington? Yes please.) The FBI's brightest boy scouts and most devoted girl scouts are a bit too straight-laced early on, and the main cast's job seems to boil down to reacting to the assassins, serial killers and masterminds pushing the heroes into action. Give The Blacklist time to work, though, and you'll find that criticism begins to fade rather quickly. Death, betrayal and sinister agendas are the series' lifeblood, and it's the time spent focusing on the criminal element that helps set this network procedural apart from the many, many others littering the airwaves. If Season Two continues to break down walls, sacrifice characters and retain its sharp element of surprise, The Blacklist has nowhere to go but up. Even with a somewhat rocky start, Season One proves itself more than capable. Here's hoping audiences continue tuning in and keeping this little gem alive. Raymond "Red" Reddington (Spader), one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives, surrenders at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He claims the FBI and he have the same interest: getting rid of dangerous criminals and terrorists. Reddington agrees to co-operate, but insists he will speak only to Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone), a rookie FBI profiler. Keen questions Reddington's sudden interest in her, despite his claim she is very special. After the FBI brings down a terrorist with his help, Reddington reveals that this terrorist is only the first of many. In the last two decades, he's made a list of criminals and terrorists he believes matter the most; a blacklist of politicians, mobsters, spies and international terrorists. He promises to help catch them all... with the caveat that Liz continues to work as his partner, whether she wants to or not. The Blacklist isn't the next must-see HBO drama or the second coming of the network procedural. It's heavy on formula and brimming with plot twists, just like every disposable show on television. But... but... it isn't disposable television. Quite the opposite. Led by a series-defining performance by a scene-stealing James Spader, it's an addicting, smartly written villain-of-the-week thriller that defies convention, knows how to build tension and develop suspense, has a knack for drawing out a good mystery, and has plenty of surprises up its sleeve. Sony's 5-disc Blu-ray release delivers too, with a terrific video presentation, strong DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track and a decent selection of extras Recommended. ------------------------------Cast Notes: James Spader (Raymond 'Red' Reddington [22 episodes, 2013-2014]), Megan Boone (Elizabeth Keen [22 episodes, 2013-2014]), Ryan Eggold (Tom Keen [22 episodes, 2013-2014]), Diego Klattenhoff (Donald Ressler [19 episodes, 2013-2014]), Harry Lennix (Harold Cooper [19 episodes, 2013-2014]), Parminder Nagra (Agent Meera Malik / ... [18 episodes, 2013-2014]), Hisham Tawfiq (Dembe [17 episodes, 2013-2014]), Amir Arison (Aram Mojtabai [15 episodes, 2013-2014]), Deborah S. Craig (Luli / ... [9 episodes, 2013-2014]). IMDb Rating (07/28/15): 8.2/10 from 77,540 users IMDb Rating (11/29/14): 8.2/10 from 55,004 users IMDb Rating (04/21/14): 8.2/10 from 32,892 users
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