It’s also hard not to notice that the focus on Liz’s mother, who turns out to have been a Russian spy, bears at least a passing resemblance to the later seasons of “Alias,” where the espionage gene passed from mom to daughter. Still, the program largely remains somewhat schizophrenic, alternating between the familiar trappings of a procedural and something more lively, funny and unpredictable whenever Spader occupies center stage. To its credit, the series, under showrunner Jon Bokenkamp, has deftly kept incorporating such twists, enabling it to keep Reddington’s motives shrouded.

(Red’s dumbstruck reaction upon seeing Liz with blonde hair, apparently reminded of her mother, was another one of those nicely played if rather creepy moments.) Beyond that, there’s the little matter of the ruthless conspiracy whose operatives are bold enough to tell the powerful head of a shadowy government agency (played by David Strathairn, terrific as always) that “every breath you draw is at our discretion.”Īs played in the premiere, though (and SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t watched), the hairpin escapes and dealings with shady characters felt like killing time until that final, clever moment when Liz took refuge at the Russian embassy, capitalizing upon a birth mother she didn’t even know about until Red came into her life. The plot writhes to maintain interest, but never quite wriggles away from cliche.Putting Liz on the run – and having partner Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff) charged with tracking her down – theoretically sets up a nifty game of cat and mouse. In one credulity-testing scene, Keen thrusts a pen into Red's carotid artery, with almost no consequences. Her seemingly idyllic home life appears to consist of her husband repeating the word 'family' to her as if teaching her how to pronounce it.įlimsy characters aside, the episode plays out like a Michael Bay film, with crashing cars, gunfights, explosions and more than one gory stabbing. We get repeated references to her troubled childhood, absent criminal dad, and a burn mark she likes to rub when anxious. Keen's mysterious past is forced down our throats. The central question is: why her? But the troubled young hardarse is drawn in such broad brushstrokes that it is difficult to care. Red is a hero turned whistleblower turned mastermind, back after years on the run, wheeling and dealing with the world's worst, and now ready to turn them all in – but refusing to discuss it with anyone except rookie criminal profiler Elizabeth Keen. This top-10 troublemaker is devilish anti-hero Raymond 'Red' Reddington, a Moriarty figure with the ostentatious sophistication of Hannibal Lecter, played with a gleeful superiority by James Spader.

The blacklist ratings season 3