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ambergembr · 2 years

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Why do I still watch “The Blacklist”? Maybe I’m a dreamer hoping for the best...

I've said it before: The blacklist has become my guilty pleasure.

The series has a lot of incongruity, but I still watch it for two main reasons:

James Spader /Reddington 🥰– He's great as an older version of himself from the start, but no less enigmatic and sometimes selfish and ruthless. An individualistic character, a lone wolf who, after Liz's death, sort of found the pack to which he belongs in the task force.

I think now, in addition to using the FBI for his own plans, he wants to use the power and influence he has to protect Task Force members and himself.

Diego Klattengoff / Ressler😍🤩 – The guy is good! He's also presenting a more seasoned version of that Ressler from the beginning of the series, with the pain and mistrust that only someone who's been through everything the character has gone through could have.

But the series has disappointed me with some things, which I pretended not to see at start, but are getting very uncomfortable now.

Don't get me wrong, I'll keep watching, but I won't pretend I am not noticing these details.

Dembe: Dembe has no role this season! When season 9 started and Dembe went from being Reddington's henchman to being a member of the FBI (which I found very weird). I thought he was going to take Liz's space as Reddington's liaison with the task force, but that's not what happened and so far no one has explained what was in the box he opened as proof that he had disconnected from Reddington...or did I miss it at some point? It’s still a loose end.

He's become an absolutely underused character, and it seems like he's just there to do numbers. I don't even have much to say about him, because he just hasn't been relevant until now. A waste of an amazing character and actor! 😓

Park: Honestly I can't connect with her. And I really tried!

At the beginning of the season, I was even enjoying her interaction with Ressler, first as his confidant and second when she confronted him on the issue of drug use, because he was an idol to her and suddenly he fell off the pedestal she had put him on, and he wanted to recover the image he had for her. But after that it just went downhill.

She did not develop her conflict with her husband, nor her anger management problems, nor did she suffer any consequences from the loss of the baby. She didn't develop as a character at all.

Worse, she ended up opening up Ressler's drug secret to the entire team, a secret that Liz, as selfish as the character was at times, literally took to her grave. It seems like a character you can't trust, because, as far as I know, Ressler was dealing with his addiction (he said he didn’t fell off the wagon, despite thinking about it). I thought it was an exaggeration from her part with something so personal to him, especially since it was never shown that Ressler was so intimate with the other members (maybe with Aram, but not Dembe), for her to make that decision.

She is a character I really don't care about.😡

Weecha: When she appeared as Dembe's replacement and in some of the action scenes I was like “Wow, it's a female version of John Wick!”😎 (John Weecha … that was horrible, but I don’t regret, ha ha) but then she disappeared. Today she has no action scenes and the role of voice of reason – which was once Dembe's – in the moments when Reddington reaches the limit has not been explored. Damn it! Even Park has already given Reddington a solution (when she tells him to locate the last transmission from the tracking device that was on Liz's body!).

I even thought something was going to happen between her and Aram after that episode where Aram wonders if she remembers him when she goes to the Reddington’s trailer. It would be too cool (maybe I'm the only one who thinks that, lol).

Speaking of Aram...

Aram: I love Aram, he's kind of a comic relief at times with the rambling and babbling, and he that had moments of development.

In the first few seasons he had his moments of disappointment, especially in relationships with two of the women he got involved along the series: the cyber criminal who used him to hack the post office through his computer, then the homicidal madwoman he had met in the episode of “les fleurs du mal”. His best relationship of all times was with Samar.💔

Here goes a quick comment: Samar is my Goddess! In The Blacklist she was ex-girlfriend of Agent Shur from Mossad (played by Oded Fehr), had a one night stand with Ressler and dated Aram in the series! Go girl!!! Looking forward to see her in future episode.🤩🤩

Then he had the turning points, like the time he stole all of Reddington's money, and when he wanted to confront Cooper about the information regarding Liz's murder, and best of all so far: when he outmaneuvered Reddington and gave the order to arrest Helen Maghi in episode 9x16.

But when he was put in charge of the task force, he just disappeared! He's become an insecure character, shy when it comes to leading, distributing tasks and making decisions, he's letting Cooper take over everything, even though he knows Cooper has other personal concerns.

Aram isn’t an inexperienced agent, he's been with the task force since the first season of the series, there's no reason for him to behave like that.

I say one thing from experience: when you have to lead a team, whether you do lead or you do not, there is no middle ground.

Yes, I know that all of them, without exception, respect Cooper and have in him the figure of the natural leader. Even Ressler, when he lead the task force at the time of the Cabal conspiracy, went to Cooper to vent, but in the end of the day, the decisions, good or bad, were his.

Aram isn't doing that, and he's not facing the enemy face-to-face inside the post office like Ressler did back in time.

I really hope the writers give Aram some really hard decision for him to make on his own, to redeem themselves for turning the character into an administrative coward after so many displays of courage he's already shown throughout the series.

Here goes another (not so) quick comment: Okay, I'll admit that my rejection of Aram in the leadership position over Ressler has a lot to do with my personal experience. The frustration of seeing someone less prepared than you assuming a more responsible position instead of yourself, and then having everyone on the team turning up to you instead of the leader, because that person is not able to solve problems for whatever reason is aggravatting.

And seeing Aram being less competent than I expected him to be bothers me a lot.

Let's be honest, everyone has some personal issue that have already identified in a series, movie or soap opera we watch and can relate to, that's why we watch!

Cooper🤔 : He has changed a lot in the first few seasons. I remember that, in the first episodes, he was a character who demanded 100% commitment to the work from the members of the task force, especially Meera Malik, then he evolved into someone more sympathetic to the team's personal problems, he always led the team and weighed the consequences of each action.

I wasn't surprised that he was trying to solve his problem in season 9 by himself, but I think it's OOC that he choose Aram to lead the task force.

Cooper has always been a balanced and competent character who wanted the best for the Task Force based on the importance of it’s work, and as much as I like Aram, he's not the best available. Ressler is, and Aram himself recognizes this when he says that Ressler is the “top in the hierarchy”.

In my opinion, Cooper discarded all the effort Ressler made to get rid of his addiction and regain his position as an agent, but Cooper didn't appreciate it properly, and that disappointed me a little.

I think (but nobody asked my opinion), on one hand, that it would have been a lot better if Ressler had taken the position and had the whole team supporting him at that moment, like they do with Cooper, because, again, I think (but nobody asked that too) that Ressler was wronged the first time he took charge. He couldn't count on Cooper, Aram was against him at first, Samar ended up betraying his trust when he helped Liz behind his back, and he was facing the Cabal inside their office. He was alone most of the time.

But, on the other hand, after whatching 9x16 ending I gave grace he wasn’t in charge, because it would have killed the character, by showing him as an naïve leader. But we’ll get there.

Ressler: I'm a fan, so I'm pretty partial in my opinions about him (Who coul tell?🤨 ). I know! He has everything to be one of the best characters with all that Reddington-hunting background, but he also let me down a little bit too. The animosity he displayed against Red when Cooper asked him to return to the task force simply faded.

There are occasional pissed-off and snarky comments, but this has always been there. I really hoped that Ressler would become Red's enemy within in the task force, someone who, by expecting the worst of him or wanting revenge, would be more perceptive of the obvious moves, who would somehow become an adversary at some point.

But when I saw the end of 9x16 I was disappointed! I expected more from the task force and Ressler and Dembe, especially. O hopped at least one of them could predict that Red could trick them with fake agents. Fuck, I predicted that myself by the moment I saw the guys!

Ressler hunted the Red half his life as an agent and the other half he worked with him, and couldn't foresee such an obvious move?! What about Dembe?! He worked with Red his whole life and didn't foresee this?

Honestly, innocence doesn't suit their profession. It borders stupidity. I am mad AF .🤬

It was not funny. Funny was when Vesco tricked Red with the gold bars story (and Red poses for the picture looking like an idiot alongside with Dembe). Someone misled the misleader for once!

That was fun. The end of 9x16 was just disappointing!

Whenever we watch a movie with FBI characters, they’re always intelligent people who can anticipate the opponent's movements after some time being beaten by them.

But this Task Force, even after NINE seasons, is still making themselves idiots 🤡! Holy crap!

It's hard to understand how they are still so innocent in dealing with Reddington.

In the past I thought Liz was a good opponent for Red for being unpredictable. But looking back at season 8 a while ago, I’ve realized she was actually just a reckless person who did things without thinking about consequences, being innocent to the point of blindly believing in people who were liyng (Kirk, fake Rostova), as she didnt’ knew that in their world “everybody lies” (Thank you House M.D. / Hugh Laurie, for the quote and for the life lesson!)

She was limited, self-centered and selfish, who Red had to protect himself from, but who he wanted also to protect at the same time.

He had to control Liz but not destroy her. And she ended up destroying herself, precisely because she was reckless and naïve.

So far I'm trying to figure out how, or why, she swallowed the tracking microchip... because it wasn't so small as to go unnoticed. So I think she has got it from someone she trusted, or to pass information to someone she trusted. And at this point, only Ressler comes to mind.

But with the impending resurrection of Mr. Kaplan I don't know anymore.

As for Reddingtons enemies, Susan Hargrave was a good character with a story that ended quickly. Robert Vesco, Mr. Kaplan and the fake Rostova were Red's best opponents so far.

I keep watching to see where the rabbit hole goes, because, despite everything I said, I still like it.

Guilty pleasure rules baby! 💚💛

#The Blacklist #donald ressler #dembe #aram mojtabai #alina park #Harold Cooper #elizabeth keen #Raymond Reddington #Samar Navabi #guilty pleasure #mad af

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