Raymond Reddington , You Are No Hannibal Lecter
NBC aired it's first episode of "The Blacklist" on Monday. The show features a criminal mastermind (and ex- government agent) mysteriously turns himself in and offers to help the FBI capture all the lowlifes he's ever worked with. There is one tiny condition. He will only speak with a novice agent (Elizabeth Keen) for some unknown reason. If this all sounds familiar, it's the same basic premise as "Silence Of The Lambs".
Reddington says a general's daughter is about to be kidnapped by one of his protégés named Zumani. Elizabeth personally escorts her but (in the best scene of the episode) they are ambushed and the girl (Beth) is taken. How much firepower do they need to take one little girl ? Talk about overkill! Keen later returns home to find out the baddies are torturing her husband Tom. Looks like someone is having a REALLY bad day.
Next Liz finds Red and attacks him (wouldn't ya normally get fired for something like that?). He is sent to the hospital but escapes. He meets Zumani who tells him that he visited Keer's house (just as Red asked) and that he stabbed her husband (just as he asked). The plot thickens.
Next we see the general's daughter is at the zoo with a bomb in her backpack. Zumani is shot and killed before he can set it off. Now who is going to deactivate the bomb before the little girl is blown to kingdom come? Luckily Raymond has planned for just such an emergency. He apparently keeps a bomb guy on retainer. The guy runs off with the bomb because Red told him he could keep it Problem solved till next time.
Raymond then tells the FBI (Copper, Keen, etc) that he has been keeping a "blacklist" for 20 years and Zumani was just a small fish on that. Oh good, now we know what the show title is about.
And at the end of the episode Elizabeth finds Tom has been keeping secrets of his own. There's money, a gun and lots of fake passports in a box under the baseboards. Doesn't everyone keep their stash there? I know I do.
In summation:
- Raymond "Red" Reddington (played by James Spader) = Hannibal Lecter
- Elizabeth Keen (played by Megan Boone) = Clarice Starling
- GMonster = slightly bored (played by me)
Questions to ponder:
- Why did Raymond turn himself in?
- Why will Raymond only work with Liz?
- What relationship is he to her (is he her father)?
- What is Liz's husband Tom up to?
- Am I the only person who thinks Liz was miscast?
Grade: 2 1/2 Monsters (out of 5). I'll watch it again but so far it's not living up to all it's hype.
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