7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Former government agent Raymond "Red" Reddington has eluded capture for decades. But he suddenly surrenders to the FBI with an offer to help catch a terrorist under the condition that he speaks only to Elizabeth "Liz" Keen, a young FBI profiler who's just barely out of Quantico.
Starring: James Spader, Megan Boone, Diego Klattenhoff, Harry Lennix, Hisham TawfiqMystery | 100% |
Crime | 83% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English, English SDH, French
Blu-ray Disc
Five-disc set (5 BDs)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Spoiler alert: This review assumes familiarity with the three prior seasons of The Blacklist
(reviewed
here, here and here). If you haven't seen all of
them, proceed at your own risk.
The Blacklist began its fourth season on unsteady footing, as the show's creative team struggled
to gather up the narrative strands left dangling by the whirlwind of revelations that concluded
Season Three. With the death of Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) revealed to be an elaborate hoax
engineered by Keen and her husband, Tom (Ryan Eggold), and designed to separate their lives
and their newborn daughter from criminal mastermind Raymond Reddington (James Spader),
how could the series return to its original format? Could Keen's friends and colleagues on the
FBI Task Force welcome her back to the fold after she had forced them to endure such a
wrenching farewell? Would Reddington ever again trust Liz? What revenge would he take on his
long-time cleaner and trusted confidante, "Mr. Kaplan" (Susan Blommaert), for helping the
Keens execute their deception? Is the Russian oligarch (Ulrich Thomsen) who kidnapped Liz
and her baby in the Season Three finale really her father as he claims? And what does he want
from his putative daughter (and infant granddaughter)?
The writers' task was complicated by the demands of the series' short-lived spinoff, The
Blacklist: Redemption, which required them to create a pretext for Tom Keen to disappear from
the original show for much of the season. The result was a wobbly start, as the weekly search for
criminal "Blacklisters" alternated uneasily with the resolution of leftover subplots. By the
season's second half, however, The Blacklist had regained its balance and returned to top form,
with Red once again defending his empire from sustained attack—only this time the enemy was
even more formidable than Season One's Berlin. The ensuing war led the series deep into Red's
and Elizabeth's murky history, and Season Four turned out to be the year when many of The
Blacklist's most stubborn mysteries were finally resolved. As in Season Three, a pivotal
episode (Episode 17, "Requiem") departs from the usual format by having a title other than the
name of a weekly Blacklister. It's a journey into the past filled with stunning revelations in one
of the series' finest and most memorable hours to date (and, ironically, most of the principal cast
doesn't even appear).
Season Four accumulates its own subplots as it proceeds, including new layers of barely
repressed attraction between Task Force members Aram (Aram) and Samar (Mozhan Marnò),
which are complicated by a new romance for Aram, and the reappearance of Donald Ressler's
(Diego Klattenhoff) eccentric former partner Gale (Enrique Murciano), with whom Ressler spent
years tracking Reddington and who is now asking uncomfortable questions about the Task Force.
Still hovering in the background is the cheerfully sinister National Security Advisor, Laurel
Hitchin (Christine Lahti), who is secretly a member of the criminal organization known as the
Cabal and whose uneasy truce with Red could end at any minute.
The five 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-rays over which Sony has spread The Blacklist's twenty-two Season Four episodes continues the studio's first-rate presentation of the show's digital photography (captured with the Sony CineAlta F-55, according to IMDb). The stylish cinematography has once again been rendered with impeccable black levels and a richly varied palette that extends from sterile meeting rooms to grimy street scenes—and everything in between, including a sepia tone (and desaturation) that washes over some of the extended flashbacks. Fine detail is equally good in both dim and brightly lit scenes. As in the series' previous Blu-ray sets, there are no artifacts or anomalies in sight, which is no doubt at least partly attributable to Sony's generous allocation of digital real estate and the discs' healthy average bitrate (for digitally originated material) of around 22 Mbps.
The Blacklist's sound engineers continue to set a high standard for immersive mixes, with a 5.1 soundtrack (encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA) that supplies the series' far-flung locales with distinctive sonic signatures, some subtly environmental and others loud and boisterous. Broad dynamic range gives punch to weapons fire and explosions, while dialogue remains consistently clear and properly localized. Discrete rear-channel effects occur frequently. Dave Porter (Better Call Saul) continues his scoring duties, but the show's soundtrack also makes heavy use of thematically appropriate songs from an array of artists, e.g., "I Will Survive" (in multiple versions) and Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walking", both of which are heard to ironic effect in the crucial episode "Requiem".
As The Blacklist enter its fifth season, the series' creative team have written themselves the
opportunity for a fresh start of sorts, as Reddington faces the daunting prospect of rebuilding the
criminal organization that has been so effectively dismantled by the end of Season Four. No
doubt, the wily "concierge of crime" will find ways to exploit the FBI Task Force in service of
his efforts, but what of Elizabeth Keen? What will her relationship be with Red going forward,
after the revelations of Season Four? How will Liz reconcile her responsibilities as a new mother
with the hazards of continuing to serve as Red's conduit to the FBI? If the season finale is any
indication, there are still more bodies buried in their collective past for Liz to discover. Still,
having finally divulged so many of the answers that the series' creators managed to withhold for
four seasons, they have their work cut out to maintain The Blacklist's distinctively twisty
ambiance. In the meantime, Season Four is recommended for its strong second half, and the Blu-rays are highly recommended for their technical
polish.
2013-2014
Red Edition with Villains Dossier
2013-2014
with T-Shirt
2013-2014
2014-2015
Red Edition | includes Exclusive Villains Dossier
2014
2015-2016
The Red Edition
2015-2016
2017-2018
2019
2019-2020
2020-2021
2014
2009
2010
2013
2002
Sherlock Holmes
1944
2011
2013
Sherlock Holmes
1945
2007
Män som hatar kvinnor
2009
1939
Seven 4K | 30th Anniversary Edition
1995
Flickan som lekte med elden
2009
2011
2007-2012
2003
2006
2014
2007