A 10-year run on NBC ends in the dumbest way possible
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Managing Editor
It’s been a few weeks since the end of NBC’s The Blacklist” which at one point was one of the more intriguing programs on network television. Helmed by James Spader for its entire run, the show’s resilience cannot be understated; it was moved around the schedule constantly and NBC largely stopped promoting it at all after mid-2021. Quite possibly the only reason it stayed on air is due to its popularity on Netflix.
The hard truth is that “The Blacklist” should have ended years ago. Season 8 of the show was not its finest by a long shot, but it was arguably the last season that felt like it had a purpose. The overarching mythology of the show, and by default its female lead, Liz Keen (Megan Boone), is largely resolved, and Keen even learns the true identity of the man viewers know as Raymond Reddington, albeit off screen. But then she was killed off, and so was the mythology.
But there were still unanswered questions that remained lingering, and while Season 9 of the show serves as a tremendous epilogue to that story despite some early stumbles, none of those questions mattered to the remaining characters anymore.
Season 10 of the show was undoubtedly its weakest. Large parts of it felt like filler, especially after a storyline concerning former ‘Blacklisters’ returning for revenge is resolved. A congressman finds out about the task force, and actually gets it shut down for good. But it’s boring and not the finale this show deserved.
And none of those lingering questions are ever directly answered (a throwaway line during Red’s time in Spain sort of confirms a long-held theory concerning Red’s true identity, a theory which I have believed since the fourth season and was later confirmed by a show writer on social media and another show staffer on The Blacklist Exposed podcast). That’s inexcusable. “The Blacklist” is not “Twin Peaks.”
“Twin Peaks” could get away with doing that, as they did during their incredible genre bending third season, because “Twin Peaks” is high art. For every Reddington monologue and every amazing story they told, that’s not what this show is.
And then in its final scenes, the final kick in the chest. And the head. And probably some other body parts. Reddington meets his end not by the hands of the Task Force, law enforcement or even another criminal. He gets gored to death by a bull.
10 years and he dies because of a GCI bull. That’s a bunch of bullcrap.
Admittedly, this scene was set up/hinted at during a conversation with another Task Force agent a couple of episodes before the finale. But even still… it’s an extremely bad and unsatisfying ending to what once was must-see television. Everyone who watched it deserved much better.
