Blacklist TV Show

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Acey

Broadcast pilots don't have that luxury, generally... they need to do a decent job of showing what the series will be like on a weekly basis.

Which is a damn shame because what sustains the audience is not kaboom! kaboom! but rather gradual revelation. Excellent drama requires time to set up big moments. You lay the foundations, set up the audience to speculate X is going to happen when, as a writer, you know all along it's really all about Y. And gradual revelation for characters and plots, a hint here, a misdirect there, the very build up itself, is what makes the big moments so great.

The dreck on TV these days? Boom! right from the start. You know that old show biz axiom that "you never open with a show stopper"? There's a reason for that. Because after that y'got nothing.

[Barnes]

Second episode was worse then the pilot. The special effects were brutal. The helicopter flying into Washington and train crash in particular.

James Spader's French was also cringe worthy. This show is terribly put together.

[PsYcNeT]

My wife likes it, I'm pretty indifferent to it, though I've always like Spader.

There's a huge amount of disbelief required to even watch the show IMO, but it's just mindless popcorn. I don't think anyone tunes into network TV to see taut drama, and if they are, they need cable/Netflix.

That said, I was happy to see Isabella Rossellini, she's always a treat.

[Acey]

Networks need to realize there's too many good shows on TV now to just cast an attractive female lead and expect people to be hooked.

[PsYcNeT]

Not to crap on the hate train (because lord knows a lot of the show needs work), but The Blacklist is soundly beating other Monday night shows pretty badly with a 3.6 rating this past Monday.

Seems people *will* tune in to an attractive female lead + James Spader.

By comparison, the Simpsons premiere the day before pulled a 2.8, and the Family Guy premiere pulled 2.6.

[Acey]

Yeah. ABC's V debuted to a 5.2, and dropped off significantly for a run of only 22 episodes. We'll check back on the ratings in December. Tons of int'l nets have bought Blacklist, so it's sticking around regardless.

Simpsons/Family Guy are of zero relevance, I'd rather look at the ratings of heavily promoted dramas with well known leads that have debuted in the last few years.

[PsYcNeT]

No reason to do that, the only criteria a network sets a show against is it's current time slot.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

I just finished the first's two episodes. I like James Spader, I think the female lead is cute. I like the premise, but the self contained episodes for a drama doesn't do it for me.

I want an overarching storyline for the series, another for the season, and the episodes take you from point A to point B to eventually get you through the story.

they catch a bad guy every episode? C'mon.

[To Be Quite Honest]

Originally Posted by Maritime Q-Scout

I just finished the first's two episodes. I like James Spader, I think the female lead is cute. I like the premise, but the self contained episodes for a drama doesn't do it for me.

I want an overarching storyline for the series, another for the season, and the episodes take you from point A to point B to eventually get you through the story.

they catch a bad guy every episode? C'mon.

No, it's bigger than that. They catch a terrorist every week. USA's are in love with ists of terror.

[Acey]

No surprise here.

NBC has picked up the back nine episodes of The Blacklist, extending the freshman drama's season to 22 episodes.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...by-nbc/207022/

[GGG]

I enjoy watching it. I like spader and as long as you accept that this is a universe where Spader is smarter than everyone else its reasonably plauasle. Its certainly better than The Killing which I wasted a year on and better than the last season of Dexter. I think we praise the premium channels a little too much in that we dismiss their failures because their successes are so good. The only reason they are better is they dont do monster of the week, and they limit scope to 12 orless episodes. If the networks followed this format tey too could produce good dramas again.

I hope the blacklist ends up developing like Fringe did where Monster of the week slowly turned into larger and larger season arcs. Its a keeper for me in a lot of crap this season.

[Displaced Flames fan]

I don't think it is as bad as some have made it out to be. In fact, I thought episode 4 was pretty good. But then again, I like bizarre characters.

It is not a perfect show by any means but some of the comments in here make it sound like a review for Ishtar.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Displaced Flames fan

I don't think it is as bad as some have made it out to be. In fact, I thought episode 4 was pretty good. But then again, I like bizarre characters.

It is not a perfect show by any means but some of the comments in here make it sound like a review for Ishtar.

The show has improved and I do like the story about her husband and who he really is. That's interesting.

But it still has no hook or suspense like SHIELD has.
She's tied to a chair and a knife to her neck. It's episode 4, she's not going to die. So the scene is blah. Plus since every case is different each week, there's no continuity.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

The show has improved and I do like the story about her husband and who he really is. That's interesting.

But it still has no hook or suspense like SHIELD has.
She's tied to a chair and a knife to her neck. It's episode 4, she's not going to die. So the scene is blah. Plus since every case is different each week, there's no continuity.

I agree with all of that.

I guess that's why Game of Thrones is probably the best television show currently in production. You can't be sure of ANYTHING.

[Bobblehead]

I still like Blacklist more than Shield. There is the "who is the husband?", "what are the FBI hiding from her?" and the, "what is Reddington's end game?" angle.

Yeah, it is tough to believe she is in any real jeopardy, but that is true in a lot of shows.
I'm not sure ow long they can sustain it though. Then again, lots of procedurals are successful for very long times.

[To Be Quite Honest]

The Blacklist has great production, but the angle and hook are boring because everything is so standard and stale. Like many procedural dramas. It comes down to characters and writing... again. Now I don't mind the show, but I tend to do something while I'm watching it because some scenes don't grab me. Why? We have seen most of these characters before. They are all machines with no humanity. Usually, you would use humor to assist in building a rapport with an audience but this show is very serious and dry and makes it more difficult to attach to the character. Especially when the commercial time slots get bigger and the writers can't put in that extra minute to build that.

[Bobblehead]

If you start factoring in DVR numbers, the Blacklist is still gaining viewers week over week.

“The Blacklist” has set a new record for biggest “live plus three day” increase in U.S. television history in total viewership, with the Nov. 4 telecast growing by 5.427 million persons (from 10.337 million viewers in “live plus same day” to 15.764 million in L+3). The 53% lift is the biggest percentage increase to date for “The Blacklist” in total viewers


Blacklist now has 5 of top 6 biggest L+3 increases in U.S. broadcast history in total viewers.


In L+3, “Blacklist” is up week-to-week in total viewers for each of the last three weeks. Its L+3 viewer increases are also up week to week for each of the last three weeks.

Hopefully this means they can get some more money to improve their incredibly cheesy effects.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...-to-l3/214475/

[SebC]

I find it funny that they've already switched from naming the episodes with villain nicknames to using actual names. I guess they realized the weren't going to come up with 100 good nicknames.

[Hells Bells]

Originally Posted by SebC

I find it funny that they've already switched from naming the episodes with villain nicknames to using actual names. I guess they realized the weren't going to come up with 100 good nicknames.

Or perhaps they never expected such a terrible show to last very long.

I kid.

[Bobblehead]

I thought the show really progressed. I liked the season finale. A good mix of procedural with an over-arching storyline.

Next year it starts off in the same timeslot but mid year it is scheduled to shift to Thursday nights.