The Blacklist - Season 2 [Blu-ray] [Region Free]

James SPADER is the best actor ever and this is the BEST SIX SEASONS YOU WILL EVER WATCH. How did they make such an amazing series? I am in shock at how how good James Spader is and the storyline. Stop watching whatever you are and watch every season of THE BLACKLIST. Its the best thing I will ever watch. Pure genius. I downloaded it and am going to watch in 4K. OK I admit the rest of actors and actresses on this are nothing short of remarkable especially Susan Blommaert. This series will never ever be beaten by anything. It deserves a million stars.

I know this won't be poplar but I'm starting to have minor problems with The Blacklist - it's still a good show and has much to offer but I didn't find this season as consistently interesting or thrilling as the first. James Spaders still easily the best thing in it but you likely know that already. It's never quite as good when he's not around - the rest of the characters simply aren't as compelling as the awesome Raymond Reddington.There's still the blur of nefarious criminals this year - from rogue surgeons to serial killers to mad scientists and everything in between. It's all slowly being stitched together into a greater whole with ongoing plot lines bubbling along in the background. The Red/Lizzy back story deepens alongside some political machinations, a dangerous and mysterious Cabal and a big fat macguffin called "The Fulcrum". You may have thought the Lizzy/Tom tale was told but nope, it's still going on and on (and on).It still has fantastic moments and lends itself easily to binge watching so you can race through it all in no time at all. The final developments here twist things a little and fire up some interesting possibilities for Season Three. Fingers crossed.

If you're watching Season 2, chances are you've already seen Season 1 and so the basic features of the episodes will be very familiar - a range of bizarre villains, plots full of holes and ropey acting, sometimes papered over with an over-reliance on gore but almost always rescued by James Spader's acting.Aside from Spader's acting, the other thing done very skillfully in Season 2 is the managing of the story arcs. The main two story arcs from Season 1 - the mystery enemy Berlin and what the connection is between James Spader's character and FBI agent Elizabeth Keen - are both, pretty much, wrapped up during Season 2, as is the main Season 2 arc of a battle with the mysterious Cabal organisation. It's a neat balance pulled off by the end of the final episode both leaving the viewer feeling they've had the stories rounded off and also leaving enough new departure points for future seasons.All fun stuff, although by the end of Season 2 also feeling a little formulaic and predictable.

This is a truly fantastic series - so much so I cannot wait for season 3. Essentially the story has been evolving over the last two seasons. Season 1 first episode began when a master criminal called Red Reddington walks in to the FBI office, and hands himself in. Having done so, he will only talk to one individual - who happens to be a criminal profiler on her very first day in the job! Since then there have been many twists and turns. The series backdrop being the relationship between these two individuals (if there is one?); and each week Red giving the FBI information leading to the arrest of a criminal - who happens to be on the "blacklist". Absolutely first rate drama and highly recommended.

So - this is binge watching. (What? I had a cough. I needed TLC. Or Spader.) I was gripped. Some plot twists I could see coming (albeit just seconds ahead of the Big Reveal), but most took me by surprise.I also wonder if the writers were having a bet as to whether they could include leylines as part of a serious plot. Well-played, writers. I liked the tiny details like the smily face on the sticking plaster at the beginning of Episode 22. I loved the name of the lipstick that Red named. And the Russian tango.The writers have a good grasp of complex issues. Not just in terms of plot twists, although they're pretty darn good at those. Also in terms of the words they put in the mouths of their characters. I almost understood the logic of the "conservationist" who was secretly part of a wildlife poaching organisation - despite the fact I vehemently disagreed with him.I was bowled over by Red's speech about the human cost of wildlife poaching. The last time Spader had a chance to deliver such an impassioned speech was in his "Boston Legal" days. (Red's little aside about waterboarding was a throwback to those days.) That's all Spader needs to shine: brilliant writing and a feisty brunette. (Almost all his memorable work relies on his having a feisty brunette co-star. Sometimes, other hair colours suffice, but he has seldom done good work where the female lead is underwritten.) He very clearly revels in playing a character with such moral ambiguity. Whenever Red does something nice for people (and he does seem to have a soft spot for dogs and underdogs), there's almost invariably something in it for him.The rest of the cast doesn't hold him back. And, although accents aren't my area of expertise, I liked Ryan Eggold's German accent.I have a couple of minor quibbles and one really big one. The tiniest quibble - when I thought that the guy with the most piercings Red had ever met didn't really have as many facial piercings as a couple of people I've seen in real life (also, why would Red complain about tattoos? I thought we established that he had some). A bigger quibble - Agent Ressler has been in so many road traffic collisions that surely he should be signed off work with whiplash by now? The episode with the flashbacks - good for new viewers to catch up, gives the actors a rest, but is it wise for a character to comment on how improbable the plot is?I don't know if this is a plot hole or not - but there is a scene early on in the series where Red indicates that he knows that another character is seriously ill. You might think that it might be to his advantage to get his experts to help the character to ensure that character's absolute loyalty to Lizzie (who seems to have given up on asking Red if he is her daddy). But Red does nothing and events would probably have unfolded better for him had he intervened.There was a big plot flaw in "The Front". People who kvetch about humanity being a plague on the face of the Earth either don't get pregnant or don't get to the "7 months pregnant" stage.And the biggest problem of all. The really, really bad first aid. You do not tell whether someone is alive by spending a couple of seconds feeling for a pulse. You do not just do a couple of chest compressions, yell at someone that you want them to breathe, and magically bring them back. The lack of attention to detail in this matter is disappointing.I've given this 5 stars, but I'm very cross that the writers are still getting this wrong. Every time that they ignore how the human body actually works, they make it impossible to suspend disbelief and enjoy the story.