The Blacklist

Seasons 1–8

Raymond "Red" Reddington, an ex-US Naval Intelligence officer who had disappeared twenty years earlier to become number 4 on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, surrenders himself to FBI Assistant Director Harold Cooper at the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C. Taken to an FBI "black site", Reddington declares he wishes to help the FBI track down and apprehend the criminals and terrorists he has spent the last twenty years associating with. They are the individuals who are so dangerous and devious that the United States government is unaware of their very existence.

He offers Cooper his knowledge and assistance on two conditions: immunity from prosecution and cooperation only with FBI Special Agent Elizabeth Keen, a rookie criminal profiler recently assigned to Cooper's task force. Keen and Cooper are suspicious of Reddington's interest in her, but he will only say that she is "very special". After Cooper tests Reddington's offer in locating and neutralizing Serbian terrorist Ranko Zamani in the first episode, Reddington reveals that this man was only the first on the "blacklist" of global criminals that he has compiled over his criminal career and states that he and the FBI have a mutual interest in eliminating them. The COVID-19 pandemic halted filming of the seventh season finale, leaving it incomplete. To finish the episode, the creators used graphic novel-style animation to complete key scenes.

The mysteries of Reddington's and Liz's lives, and his interest in her, are an ongoing theme as the series progresses. She digs into her family's past, the question of his real identity and their connection, while he desperately tries to hide them. Each season, the danger to Liz caused by his reemergence intensifies, and Reddington uses Cooper's task force to protect her. The storyline ends with season 8, when Liz is murdered by a hitman seeking revenge for Red's killing a crime lord at the end of the season. The explanation of Reddington's identity and his interference in Elizabeth's life are never given.

Seasons 9–10

Following Liz's death at the end of the eighth season, Cooper's task force has disbanded and Reddington has fled the country. After an absence of two years, however, Reddington returns to help his former bodyguard, Dembe Zuma, who has in the interim become an FBI Special Agent with the assistance of Cooper, when a modern pirate named the "Skinner" nearly kills him. Red promises to retire and move to Cuba with his girlfriend once the Skinner is neutralized. However, when Red begins to take over management of the remains of his empire, he breaks his promise and decides to stay in charge of what he can still control.

Red and Cooper come to an agreement to resume his deal with the FBI and continue hunting down global criminals on his "blacklist" in honor of Liz's undertaking. Cooper manages to find the old task force members and re-create their division. The secret Red kept from Liz becomes irrelevant, and the story now centers on not only Red but also Cooper and the field agents Liz used to work with. Now, the task force must confront new criminals as well as familiar ones who have returned in order to take revenge on Red for his betrayal.

After the threat of the former Blacklisters is neutralized, the task force faces a new threat in the form of ambitious Congressman Arthur Hudson who suspects them of rogue behavior and works tirelessly to uncover their many secrets. They also contend with Red making unexpected moves by using them to shut down several central parts of his criminal empire for unknown reasons. It all comes to the point of no return when Reddington closes his operations center responsible for the blacklist and after a legal investigation is launched against the task force, Cooper must arrest Red to avoid prosecution against him and his task force. Reddington evades capture but is fatally gored by a bull in Andalusia, where Ressler discovers his body.

Main cast

• James Spader as Raymond "Red" Reddington: an ex-US Naval Intelligence officer and a master criminal turned FBI confidential informant. During seasons 1–8, Elizabeth and the task force's effort to uncover his true identity is a major ongoing narrative. During season 9, his main concern is ferreting out a traitor within his organization. During the final season, he faces off against former Blacklisters looking for revenge for their downfalls, and an ambitious congressman looking to take down the task force and, by extension, him.
• Megan Boone as Elizabeth "Liz" Keen (seasons 1–8): Born Masha Rostova, Keen is an FBI special agent and profiler on Harold Cooper's task force. Her presence is part of Reddington's deal with Cooper for no apparent reason until her connection to Reddington becomes obvious.
• Diego Klattenhoff as Donald Ressler: an FBI special agent on Cooper's task force.
• Ryan Eggold as Tom Keen (seasons 1–5): Born Christopher Hargrave, later taking the adoptive name Jacob Phelps, Keen works as a covert operative and is Liz's husband.
• Parminder Nagra as Meera Malik (season 1): a field agent with the CIA who worked with Cooper's FBI task force.
  • Nikita Tewani as young Meera Malik (guest season 10).
• Harry Lennix as Harold Cooper: the assistant director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division who uses Reddington to expose and stop people on his blacklist.
• Amir Arison as Aram Mojtabai (recurring season 1; main, seasons 2–9; guest season 10): an FBI special agent and cyber expert on Cooper's task force.
• Mozhan Marnò as Samar Navabi (main seasons 2–6; guest, season 9): a Mossad agent who works with Cooper's FBI task force.
• Hisham Tawfiq as Dembe Zuma (recurring seasons 1–2; main, seasons 3–10): Reddington's bodyguard and confidant, who separated from him and turned FBI special agent with the help of Cooper in season 9.
• Laura Sohn as Alina Park (recurring season 7; main, seasons 8–9): an FBI special agent who previously worked in Anchorage.
• Anya Banerjee as Siya Malik (season 10): Meera's daughter and an intelligence officer with MI6 who comes to work with Cooper's team.

Recurring actors

• Teddy Coluca as Teddy Brimley: Red's interrogator who uses extravagant methods (usually involving various animals) to make his victims talk.
• Susan Blommaert as Mr. Kaplan: born Kathryn Nemec, Kaplan is Red's cleaner. She has also been a nanny for Liz and therefore is feared for her collaborations with Reddington (seasons 1–4; guest, season 8).
• Clark Middleton as Glen "Jellybean" Carter: Reddington's tracker "with a twist" (seasons 2–7). He has frequently let Red down but never loses his credibility despite criticism from other members of the team.
• Lotte Verbeek as Katarina Rostova (in flashbacks): the former KGB spy and biological mother of Elizabeth (seasons 3–8). She has been hunted worldwide after the establishment of The Townsend Directive. The question of her fate and location is one of the main storylines in the first eight seasons.
• Deirdre Lovejoy as Cynthia Panabaker: a United States senator from Virginia, formerly a White House counsel who operates the legal aspects of Cooper's taskforce (season 3–10). She always tries to act as the law says, bringing trouble to Reddington's illegal cooperations.
• Fisher Stevens as Marvin Gerard: a shadow counsel whom Reddington hires as his attorney (seasons 3–9). He manages most of the empire's dealings, and, being very proud of his achievements, stands up for the benefit of it.
• Brian Dennehy (seasons 3–7) and Ron Raines (season 8) as Dominic Wilkinson: Elizabeth's grandfather who knows some unexpected information about Reddington's past.
• Various actresses (seasons 3–8) and Sami Bray (season 9–10) as Agnes Keen: the daughter of Elizabeth and Tom who reflects after any major event occurring to Liz.
• Aida Turturro as Heddie Hawkins: Reddington's financial manager and an owner of a smuggling corporation (season 5–10).
• Jonathan Holtzman as Chuck: Reddington's hitman who works alongside Morgan and usually replaces his bodyguards (season 5–10).
• Genson Blimline as Morgan: Reddington's operative who usually accompanies Chuck on their missions (seasons 5–9).
• Fiona Dourif as Jennifer Reddington: the elder daughter of Reddington, adopted as Lillian Roth (seasons 5–6; guest, season 8). She helps Liz investigate Reddington's true identity and their shared past.
• Laila Robins as Tatiana Petrova: an operative in Reddington's organization. Assigned as a body double of Katarina Rostova meant to draw suspicion away from her, she ends up on the run instead. She manipulates Liz to get to Reddington, the only man who is aware of the true Katarina's location (seasons 7–8; guest, season 6).
• Alex Brightman as Herbie Hambright: a quirky cyber expert who previously worked for Reddington (season 10). He joins the Task Force as Aram's de facto replacement.
• Toby Leonard Moore as Arthur Hudson: an ambitious US Congressman with a passion for exposing government corruption (season 10). He begins to dig into secrets about Cooper's FBI Task Force after noticing the extraordinary amount of funding they receive.

Development

The first mention of The Blacklist appeared on August 13, 2012, when Jon Bokenkamp came up with the idea of an international crime series introduced to him by John Fox, his fellow producer^[14][15] The same day it was revealed that NBC had bought rights for the series from Sony.^[14] John Eisendrath from Universal Television, John Davis and Fox had already signed a contract as executive producers.^[14] NBC ordered a pilot for the series on January 22, 2013, along with three other dramas.^[16] Deadline Hollywood reported on March 13, 2013, that the pilot was written by Bokenkamp and directed by Joe Carnahan.^[17] On May 10, the series was picked up by NBC for the 2013-14 television season.^[18] During an NBC upfront presentation in May 2013, it was announced that The Blacklist was NBC's highest-testing drama for the last 10 years.^[19] The official trailer for the series was released on May 12, 2013.^[20] Originally, a 13-episode first season was planned, but after the premiere reached 12.3 million viewers,^[1] NBC ordered nine additional episodes on October 4, 2013, bringing the season's episode count to 22 episodes.^[21]

All four showrunners signed a deal with Sony before the premiere; first, Eisendrath on June 7, 2013,^[22] then, Bokenkamp on July 16,^[23] and both Davis and Fox on July 29.^[24] Additionally, in November 2013 J.R. Orci became a co-executive producer.^[25] In 2015, Michael Watkins also became co-executive producer.^[26] On June 24, 2021, a day after the finale of season 8 was aired, Bokenkamp revealed that he would not return for future seasons while Eisendrath became the sole showrunner.^[27] However, Bokenkamp remained credited as creator in future seasons.^[28] On March 14, 2022, Eisendrath prolonged his deal with Universal Television for three additional years.^[29]

In February 2018, Watkins was fired over alleged harassment involving a camera assistant. He claimed that there was no reason for firing him and blamed his colleague, Laura A. Benson, for using him as a way to rise in her career. Then, he sued Sony, Laura Benson, and another of his colleagues, Bill Roe, a year later.^[30]

The series was renewed for the seventh season on March 11, 2019,^[31] and was renewed for its eighth season on February 2, 2020.^[32] The seventh season was originally set to consist of 22 episodes.^[33] However, the production suffered from COVID-19 pandemic and was shut down in May 2020.^[34] Filming of the nineteenth episode has been suspended, while episodes 20, 21 and 22 were never put in production.^[35] The producers decided to shorten the episode count to 19 episodes and put off three remaining episodes until season 8.^[33] The nineteenth episode, which eventually became the season finale, was produced using filmed material in live-action combined with animation created by Proof, a visual effects company which uses uses 3D animation software and real-time computer graphics led by Eisendrath's brother in law.^[33][36] The episode aired on May 15, 2020.^[33]

Filming for the eighth season resumed in live-action with extra COVID-19 precautions.^[37] The eighth season premiered November 13, 2020. On January 26, 2021, the series was renewed for the ninth season.^[38] The series was renewed for the tenth season on February 22, 2022, which, unlike the previous renewals, was first announced by Spader himself during his appearance on The Tonight Show, not by a press release.^[39] On February 1, 2023, it was announced that the tenth season is going to be the final of the series despite the extension of Eisendrath's contract.^[40]

The Blacklist received a panel twice on San Diego Comic-Con. The panel appeared before the show's debut on July 18, 2013, and during a remote special convention on July 23, 2020.^[41][42] On May 11, 2014, NBC decided an episode of the series would air after the 49th Super Bowl.^[43]

Casting

Main characters

The lead role of Raymond Reddington was intended to be given to Kiefer Sutherland (left); instead, it went to James Spader (right).

John Eisendrath told Collider that the casting process was difficult. In February 2013, he and Bokenkamp invited Kiefer Sutherland, Bryan Cranston, Pierce Brosnan and Richard Gere to apply for the role of Raymond Reddington.^[44] In an interview to Variety, Bokenkamp told about his intentions to cast Sutherland for the role, though he also expressed doubt about the significance of the role to all these actors.^[44] At last, three days before filming began, they contacted James Spader to see if he would be interested in playing Reddington. After a lengthy remote conversation, Bokenkamp and Eisendrath cast Spader, as they felt confident in his understanding of the character.^[13] Spader's vision was for the international criminal to be a bald or short-haired person wearing a hat. The producers rejected his idea, however, Spader insisted on trying on a fedora while screening the pilot; later, the crew felt the hat enhanced Reddington's image and agreed to keep it.^[13] In an interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Spader admitted that he had gotten into the role of Reddington over the nine seasons; he also noted that to play his role plausibly at the beginning of season nine, he spent a considerable amount of time alone and not appearing on set.^[45][46]

Although showrunners attempted to search for a more established actor as they cast Reddington, they invited more obscure performers for the role of FBI profiler Elizabeth Keen.^[13] Megan Boone got to know about the role by chance, and she instantly became passionate about it.^[47] She had taken a week to prepare for her audition as Keen and had been called back multiple times before she received the role in March 2013.^[47][48] Eisendrath recalled that he and Bokenkamp found "something specific" about Boone, and they got comfortable with her playing of the character.^[13] In 2015, Boone revealed her pregnancy which was implemented as a season 3 plot point.^[49] She was absent in a part of the season with her character killed, while her subsequent return was kept in secret from the cast.^[49] In June 2021, it was revealed that Boone would be leaving the series after season 8, which was initially written to be focused on her departure so as to close the storyline of Elizabeth.^[50]

On March 11, 2013, Ryan Eggold accepted the role of Tom Keen, Elizabeth's husband, who has previously worked for Reddington as a spy.^[17] In the middle of season 4, Eggold left the series to star in The Blacklist: Redemption, a new spin-off centered on his character, but returned later this season following the cancellation of Redemption.^[51] He was ultimately written off the next season.^[52] In a 2021 interview, he spoke about an option to return to the series, perhaps as a guest star, stating that it was "not totally out of the realm of possibility".^[53]

On March 13, 2013, Diego Klattenhoff joined the series as Donald Ressler, a law-abiding field agent working with Cooper's task force.^[54]

The next day, on March 14, 2013, Harry Lennix was cast as Harold Cooper, the leader of a newly formed task force, which cooperates with Reddington. Lennix has appeared in each season of the series; in an interview with Collider, he stated that he would be willing to continue his role into the show's twentieth season, like his favorite TV show, Gunsmoke.^[55]

On July 25, 2013, Parminder Nagra joined the cast as Meera Malik, a professional field agent who decides to help Elizabeth settle into her new job.^[56] However, she was written out of the series after the first season.^[57] Eight years after her departure, Anya Banerjee joined the series for the tenth season in a role of Meera's daughter, MI-6 intelligence officer Siya Malik.^[57]

On October 8, 2014, Amir Arison was promoted to a recurring role as Aram Mojtabai, a quirky technician and a professional computer master after he showed some extraordinary on-the-move improvisation skills in his debut episode.^[58][59] He was promoted to series regular on May 20, 2014.^[60] After the finale of season 9, Arison departed the series, but return appearances were left possible.^[61]

Hisham Tawfiq's appearance as Dembe Zuma was never presumed to exceed a one-time guest appearance.^[62] However he managed to prolong his contract first as recurring for the first two seasons, and, on March 31, 2015, earned a place in the main cast.^[63] He also admitted that producers and scriptwriters gave him permission to alter the story and the past of Dembe based on his own insight and life experience.^[64]

Mozhan Marnò joined the cast for the second season on July 29, 2014.^[65] Various news sources confirmed that the name of the character she would reprise was Tamar Kartzman, until it was initially changed to Samar Navabi.^[65][66] Samar was a field professional agent recruited by the task force Director and originally working for Mossad who develops relationships with Aram. She officially confirmed her departure on March 29, 2019, in the middle of the sixth season.^[67] She returned once, in 2022, during the show's ninth season.^[68]

On May 7, 2020, Laura Sohn was promoted to series regular as Alina Park, another new field agent taken into Cooper's task force, also previously recurring in the seventh season.^[69] She departed after the series' ninth season.^[61]

Filming

Despite being set in Washington, D.C., the series is filmed in New York. The series' Task Force headquarters are located at Chelsea Piers which was mostly used while filming Law & Order. Producer Richard Heus said they chose to film specific Washington, D.C. locations for the series, including the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the National Mall, because they were "iconic American locations."^[131] All the sets, excluding the Task Force headquarters, are either shot in different locations of the state^[b] or are filmed in special sound studios.^[136] The process of filming a single episode usually takes an average of nine days, while sometimes two episodes may be filmed simultaneously in order to save time.^[136]

The series is filmed in 4K using Sony PMW-F55 cameras that are adapted to use Panavision lenses.^[137] It is edited using Avid Media Composer, and editor Christopher Brookshire says the show has "a very distinctive look and pace."^[138] An average of three cameras are used at one time, but as many as six cameras are sometimes recording.^[139]

The final episode of the series was filmed in Nyack village in Rockland County, New York, on April 24, 2023.^[140]

Netflix deal

On August 28, 2014, Netflix signed a deal with Sony to access The Blacklist through its subscription, with an estimated price of $2,000,000 per episode, the biggest overall deal at that time.^[141]

New episode releases varied widely due to shortening Netflix rights in front of local TV networks; it was mostly based on location and local language. In the United States and Canada, the ninth season debuted on October 6, 2022, and September 21, 2022, respectively, prior to the premiere of season 10.^[142] In DACH countries and Luxembourg, the ninth season was released on June 26, 2022.^[143] In the Netherlands, the ninth season was released on December 3, 2022.^[144] In Scandinavian countries, the ninth season was released on October 23, 2022, along with Spain.^[145] In Latin America, the premiere date of season eight was scheduled on July 18, 2021, but was changed to June 1, 2022.^[146] In France and the majority of French-speaking countries in Africa, the eighth and latest season premiered on Netflix on November 13, 2022.^[147]

Some countries with domestic language voiceover did not violate any broadcaster rights and therefore were allowed to release new episodes simultaneously with NBC. For season nine, these countries included India, Israel, South Korea, Hungary, Poland, Russia,^[c] Portugal, Slovakia and Romania.^[142] Netflix also has streaming rights for all nine seasons in Greece^[148] and Australia.^[149]

The series performed well on Netflix. In almost every country new seasons scored a place in the local Top 10 and usually remained there for more than a week. The eighth and ninth seasons had most notable performances in Romania, Greece, and DACH countries.^[150]

Regional broadcasters

Critical response

The first seasons of The Blacklist received mostly positive reviews from television critics. The pilot was lauded by the critics, praising the original plot and cast performance, especially by Spader. At the time, it was usually compared with Hostages, which premiered alongside the series, and Homeland due to the mutual connection between the characters of Reddington and Nicholas Brody and the transfer of Diego Klattenhoff, comparing him to Homeland's Mike Faber. David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle said about the pilot, "You think you know this situation and how it will turn out, but there are surprising, yet entirely credible, twists throughout Monday's episode".^[181] Brian Lowry said about the second season, "At times during its first season, 'The Blacklist' felt like two series in one: The very good one starring James Spader as a ruthless criminal, and the more mundane procedural in which he had taken refuge. Thanks to the show's success, though, NBC and the producers have little reason to tinker with that formula, other than having Spader's 'Red' Reddington assume an expanded role within the premiere, while tapping some fine new actors to join (temporarily, perhaps) the program's extended company".^[182] Canadian television critic John Doyle from The Globe and Mail wrote a glowing review on the third season, praising Spader's performance, the soundtrack and the plot. He called the series "outstanding and inventing" and wrote, "Network drama isn't dead as long as something like The Blacklist can be created and thrive".^[183]

Criticisms of the series mostly arose starting the seventh season. Brian Lowry panned the eighth season, despite previously responding positively to the series. He criticized the mystery of Red's identity, claiming it has been running for too long without a revelation and ended up not being provided. He wrote, "Like any network drama steeped in mythology, the procedural case-of-the-week format lost its luster as the clues and red herrings piled up, until The Blacklist went from a hit to (mostly) an afterthought, certainly in terms of its declining ratings".^[184]

Ratings

• Note: The ninth episode of the second season, "Luther Braxton", aired on a Sunday at 10:38 p.m, with Super Bowl XLIX as its lead-in.

Accolades

Publications

Titan Books released an official comic book series based on the series, written by Nicole Phillips and illustrated by Beni Lobel. The series' crew is working in the project as well. The series' editor, David Leach, stated that the comic was "a true extension of the television series".^[217] Issue #1 was launched on July 22, 2015, in both comic book and digital stores.^[217] The comic series ran across two major storylines and introduced new criminals that were never featured in the series before. The first one, The Gambler, was introduced under the number 148 and ran across the first five volumes in 2015, with the final collection appearing in stores on April 5, 2016.^[218] The second one, entitled The Arsonist (No. 123), also continued for five volumes, all of them published through 2016, with the final compilation released in September 2016 for sale.^[219] The visual style of the animated scenes for the season seven finale was loosely based on the comics.^[33]

There were also two novels based on the series, also introducing new criminals, focusing entirely on their capture. The first one was written by Steven Piziks under the title The Beekeper and was published worldwide by Titan Books on November 29, 2016.^[220] The second one, The Dead Ring, written by Jon McGoran, was published on March 28, 2017, also by Titan Books.^[221]

Games

Spin-off

In March 2016, NBC began developing a spin-off series, created and produced by the crew of The Blacklist, with the official announcement regarding the cast and crew given on March 29, 2016.^[227] Ryan Eggold was set for the lead role, playing Tom Keen, with a family relations buildup similar to what seasons seven and eight of the original series introduced. The series follows Tom leaving Washington, D.C. for New York City, where he discovers the secrets of his past and learns the truth about his mother, Susan Hargrave (née Halsted), and his father, Howard Hargrave, who was presumably dead. As Tom works at Susan's security firm, he leads her to the truth about Howard being alive, which develops into a rivalry between Susan and Howard, forcing Tom to choose his allies.

Famke Janssen and Terry O'Quinn were cast as Susan and Howard Hargrave, respectively. Janssen joined the cast since the beginning of developing, reprising her role from the original series,^[227] while O'Quinn was cast on December 12, 2016.^[228] Edi Gathegi, Tawny Cypress and Adrian Martinez also reprised their roles from The Blacklist as Mathias Solomon, Nez Rowan and Dumont, respectively.^{[227][229][230]} With all supporting cast appearing through the third season of The Blacklist, episodes "Susan Hargrave" and "Alexander Kirk" served as a backdoor pilot for the series, to that date unnamed.^[227]

On May 14, 2016, an eight-episode pickup for the series, which was entitled The Blacklist: Redemption, was announced by NBC.^[231] David Amann joined as a fifth executive producer alongside Bokenkamp, Eisendrath, Davis and Fox.^[232] It aired in the same Thursday slot as The Blacklist while the original series took a break.^[233] It premiered on February 23, its final episode aired on April 13, and was canceled after one season due to low ratings.^[234][235] Eggold, who left the mothership series for the spin-off,^[233] continued his role on the fifth season of The Blacklist.^[236] Despite low ratings among audiences aged 19–49, it received generally favorable or mixed reviews from critics, with no score on either Rotten Tomatoes^[237] or Metacritic.^[238]