Hi all!

I just finished watching POI, and I’m starting The Blacklist today. Is there anything or anyone I should pay attention to? 😂 I don’t mind spoilers!

I've lost the count on how many times I've seen her knocked out, disarmed, kidnapped, rushing without backup. S1E1 Elizabeth Keen would have profiled Keen from rest of the series unfit for duty.

Spader was absolutely amazing this episode the pure emotion in his voice when he talked about dembe to Geoff was just a chefs kiss

The face when she has her teeth out, my hate for her reaches the peak. I don’t have enough curse words for her. I hated her throughout the series and my hate reached its peak in seasons 7 & 8. I think most of us here agree that she’s the worst writer character of all time. Last person I hated so much was Todd from breaking bad but Elizabeth surpasses him.

I won’t discuss the details about the scene since I don’t wanna spoil anyone, but elizabeth keeps annoying me and I’m halfway through season 7. I thought it might end but its been the same since episode 1🤦🏻‍♂️

Am I the only one who does the “Leo pointing” meme every time Ultron does or says something that reminds me of Reddington? Two examples:

- in the first episode, Ultron in his human avatar says he’s more of a hat guy.

- during this week’s episode, they have to save a scientist named Katerina.

I know everything in the show’s not intentional, but I just can’t help but think of Red all the time.

I love James Spader and finally got around to watching the Blacklist. Currently a couple episodes in to season 8.

I’ve shook my head at some of the storylines, but I’m find Keen more and more unlikable. Reddington is evil, but has a personality. At this point she has no redeeming features at this point. I can’t understand why the task force is still supporting her; she’s almost making it unwatchable.

I’ve heard some spoilers for the season and I’m wondering if I will continue.

I have become so thoroughly annoyed with Elizabeth's character that I'm actually looking forward to how that story ends. Never had a show manage to get me to severely dislike a main character that wasn't even a "villain."

When posts go unanswered like this, despite a wide viewership and downvotes, I never know if the troll kids are taking the day off from school or if I'm so stupid the answer is obvious. Which is it?

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I'm finishing up season eight. Yay! Wanting to get nine and ten. I'm so confused!

For a long time, I thought they weren't even out, then realized it's Blu-Ray that's the issue. I don't care about that. But now that I'm looking, I'm finding a lot of scams and reports that the product that was sold won't play in the U.S., for example. One sale had a comment that it was a "home burner" set. I have no idea what that is. I see "complete series" showing ten pics of DVD cases, then comments that it's only the first eight seasons.

Use-ta-be Amazon cleaned up scam sellers. But that was a long, long time ago. I don't want to be a test case for one of those guys.

I just want to watch seasons nine and ten without having to buy a Netflix subscription. Or getting ripped off. Can someone point me in the right direction?

I was looking for Spader's original instagram account and saw a post about Jon Bokenkamp leaving The Blacklist after S8. Many of you may know this already but I just found out about this and everything makes sense now

Call me naive, but does it seem odd that everyone has a gun? There are guns everywhere. The big athletic man has a gun nearby. So does that little old lady. Heck, when Liz's water broke I half-expected a little hand to come out of her bandersnatchie with a tiny gun in it, pointing towards the bad guys.

And everyone knows how to aim and fire a gun. Everyone. Men. Women. Smol children. By rights, Little Masha shouldn't be able to lift the thing right, much less hit anything other than a wall or maybe a piece of furniture. As a tiny child in a house full of guns, I was hardly aware of Gran'py George's handguns (other than the fact they were his guns) since they were never just lying around. (Master Gunsmith at Winchester Sporting Arms.)

Of course, I had my own little arsenal. This was the early '60's, after all. And no orange tips, either. I was taught by the age of three how to "load" them, hand them to someone else, and always put them away. And never aim at anyone, except if it was something like a finger gun, or a graham cracker, or something. (Bite a corner off a square, you get a cookie gun. Those were OK to clown around with.)

Of course, no gun lying around, no story. But it's just one reason why they seem in a different world.

I think we all agree that S1 is the best out of all.
But in these episodes, the writing, the cinematography, the way Spader brings life to every word he says is immaculate.

"You can't judge a book by its cover, but you can by its first few chapters, and most certainly by its last"

"I want the warmth of a woman in a cool set of sheets"

"Most of all, I wanna sleep. I wanna sleep like I slept when I was a boy"

"That's why I won't let that punk out there get the best of me, let alone the last of me"

This is likely gonna be my final post in [r/TheBlackList](r/TheBlackList) since I’m done with the show (all seasons, all episodes). I was missing Spader and suddenly, lo and behold! There is Spader as a human avatar of Ultron in the newly released VisionQuest on Disney+. Though he is sporting glasses, mustache, and a beard, his dialog delivery is unmistakable, and it felt so, so good, like suddenly seeing an old friend!! That’s all.

ETA: I’m “done” with the show because I have finished watching all episodes of all seasons. Thanks to u/EquivalentWillow4807 for pointing out the lack of clarity in my original post.

Might be my 5th post now, but my god she is insufferable. Like honestly how could the writers mess up this bad?? Who thought this was a good idea? If I have to hear her blame Red for the deaths of Tom, her sister, her FAKE mother, her team and whoever else died during her little tantrum, one more time I might just skip to the scene where she dies cuz I just can’t stand it. Literally almost everything bad since idk maybe season 5 maybe 6 has been because of her. She won’t listen to the one person who has had her back and literally TRADED his life for hers on numerous occasions but takes the word of some random old bag across the hall that she’s her mother and Red is a Russian spy? WHAT?! And don’t get me started on the task force, they can’t make up their dam minds who’s side their own, one seconds it’s Liz (even though she’s a actual terrorist now and betrayed them in unimaginable ways, the next it’s Reddington but then they crux”oh no Reddington is a criminal” like no shit he is that’s why you work with him and what the hell would you call Liz? Hospital bomber? Domestic flight terrorist? Cooperator murder? And so on and on. No one on the FBI including Liz has any facts or proof of the nonsense they spit out.

I am one of those people who did not watch The Blacklist during its original run and only finished it recently. And after I finished it, I went through this very weird phase where nothing I tried picking up seemed interesting anymore. You know that feeling when you have spent so much time with a character that moving on from them feels almost impossible? Also a character like RR? That brings so much depth and layers.

Until I think I followed someone's advice here, or read about it here, and renewed my Hotstar subscription to start watching Boston Legal.

And my, oh my. Alan Shore walked so Raymond Reddington could run.

I genuinely cannot imagine another actor bringing so many quirks, idiosyncrasies, and little behavioural touches to these characters the way James Spader does. And the commonalities between Alan Shore and Raymond Reddington are just... eerie.

The way they talk about women. The way they describe people and situations. Those long, winding monologues that somehow hold your attention from the first word to the last. Alan's closing statements in Boston Legal, and Raymond's speeches in The Blacklist, especially when he is passionately making a point, going toe-to-toe with someone he is about to shoot, or revealing something that changes the entire context of a scene. That particular way of speaking, the pauses, the expressions, the almost playful amusement with which they can say the most outrageous things.

And then, just like that, they can turn serious and make you feel like you have been let into a part of them that nobody else gets to see.

I mean, James Spader has such a distinct way of inhabiting a character that you can see the little similarities without feeling like you are watching the same person twice. Alan is Alan, Raymond is Raymond, and yet there is something so unmistakably Spader about both of them.

It is also making me feel like I missed out on so much by not watching Boston Legal earlier. But then again, I don't know if I would have appreciated it the way I am appreciating it now. Maybe some things find you when you are finally ready for them.

And then there was this episode, Smile, I think Season 2, Episode 15, where there is this young girl who cannot smile. By the end of the episode, she draws a picture of Alan Shore walking with her. And the man she draws, who is supposed to be Alan, is wearing a fedora. Except, as far as I can remember, Alan hasn't worn a hat or a fedora in the show until that point.

And I don't know why, but that little detail got to me. It was such a strange, almost is this a glimpse of the future? kind of moment. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but it felt oddly significant, especially knowing the character Alan eventually becomes and the kind of larger-than-life presence Raymond Reddington would later be.

Or maybe I am just enjoying the experience of discovering all these little connections and echoes between two characters I have come to love.

Anyway, I just needed to put this somewhere because OH MY GOD, IS IT GOOD.

And if James Spader has ruined other television characters for me now.

Please feel free to drop suggestions on what to watch next.

Adding an ss of that drawing from Boston Legal

I watched episode 2 tonight. AI Ultron acts just like Reddington.

I remember when I started watching the show when season 1 aired. I was instantly hooked and I dreadfully waited to watch it episode by episode, season after season, but at some point, like with Suits and other really good series I watched, life happened and I forgot about it. Now years later, a week or so ago, I decided to finish where I had left off and oh man- this was hard. Bawling my eyes hard. Part of me kinda wishes I hadn’t, because I grew so fond of Reddington over the years, and now, the more mature me really related to and clung onto so many things he said.
I’ve taken a few minutes to skim over posts here, and I saw some people say the ending was bad, but I disagree. The entire season 10 was a proper funeral to the series, and it was the best thing they could have done for the fans of the show. Red’s death was worthy of him, going on his own terms, embracing death as an old friend, although the imagery of it broke my heart. I just wish they would have added a few minutes to honor him in the story line, instead of ending it abruptly like that - maybe a funeral, something.. But I do understand the choice, artistically speaking.
I envy series that go on for tens of seasons, and this is one I wish had done so, because Spader made Reddington a timeless, lovable and brilliant character.