Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

The Blacklist: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Wanted Dead or Alive

Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 10, 2016

Ever since Lucille Ball gave birth at the same time as her fictional counterpart on I Love Lucy, producers of episodic TV have had their imaginations challenged by the pregnancy of a female lead. When the creators of NBC's The Blacklist learned that star Megan Boone was expecting, they concocted one of the riskiest solutions since The X-Files had Dana Scully abducted by aliens (thereby giving actress Gillian Anderson a break for motherhood). The arc of Boone's tormented FBI agent in Season Three kept fan sites buzzing for weeks, but rest assured that it will not be revealed here.

As if Boone's pregnancy weren't enough of a storytelling challenge for an action heroine, The Blacklist's producers upped their degree of difficulty by undertaking the creation of a spinoff series, for which the final episodes of Season Three serve as a covert pilot. Centering on Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold), the duplicitous husband of Boone's character, The Blacklist: Redemption is set to debut later this year. But between preparing for an imminent birth and laying the groundwork for a new series, The Blacklist may have taken on too much in Season Three. While the production values and acting flair remain undiminished, the series seemed to be idling by mid-season, without the propulsive forward momentum that fuels its suspension of disbelief. Even James Spader's Raymond Reddington seemed to be losing his edge, although he regained it by the season conclusion.

Spoiler alert: While the key developments of Season Three are not revealed below, events from prior seasons are freely discussed. If you aren't caught up with the first two seasons of The Blacklist (reviewed here and here), proceed at your own risk.

The twenty-three episodes of Season Three divide into three distinct "acts". The first (episodes 1-10) deals with the fallout from the previous season's conclusion, when embattled FBI Agent Elizabeth Keen (Boone) became a fugitive after publicly executing the U.S. Attorney General in what amounted to self-defense. The second act (episodes 11-18) turns on Elizabeth's discovery that she is pregnant by estranged husband Tom, necessitating a re-evaluation of her life in general and specifically her ongoing association with the notorious "concierge of crime", Raymond Reddington (Spader). The season's final act (episodes 19-23) follows the birth of Elizabeth's child, and all that can be said without spoilers is that it sends The Blacklist in such an unexpected direction that her initial flight from justice, with her former FBI colleagues in hot pursuit, seems tame by comparison.

Blacklist episodes continue to be titled with the name of a villain-of-the-week, but in Season Three Reddington is no longer the exclusive source of these so-called "Blacklisters". At least one appears by chance; another is discovered by Aram (Amir Arison), the technical expert in Elizabeth Keen's FBI unit headed by Asst. Dir. Harold Cooper (Harry Lennix); and a third is actually an ally recruited by Reddington in his ongoing war with the criminal organization known as "the Cabal". Yet another is an ambiguous figure who turns out to be essential to the foundation of the Redemption spinoff.

A noteworthy aspect of Season Three is the change in Reddington's function after he learns that Elizabeth is pregnant. Still unwilling to reveal what he knows about her background and the reason for his singular devotion, "Red" now finds himself relegated to the sidelines, as he repeatedly implores Elizabeth both to reject her former husband and to give up her child for adoption. For several episodes, the investigation of "Blacklisters" effectively takes a back seat to Red's monotonous nagging, robbing The Blacklist of the energy that the series usually draws from the criminal mastermind's unflappable elan.

Still, the pregnancy machinations do allow The Blacklist's creative team to experiment with the show's format, of which the most notable example is episode 19, "Cape May", which is unique among Blacklist episodes for being titled after a place instead of one or more persons. "Cape May" provides both a new perspective on Reddington and further clues about the dark past that connects him to Elizabeth Keen. Still more clues appear in the final episodes of the season, which are an uneasy mixture of emotional drama and dense exposition. With the appearance of a reclusive Russian oligarch named Alexander Kirk (Ulrich Thomsen), The Blacklist seems poised to answer at least some of the questions that have remained hanging since Reddington first walked into FBI headquarters in the pilot episode. Only time will tell whether this latest twist is the beginning of a new era for the series or just one more misdirection.

The Blacklist: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The five 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-rays over which Sony has spread The Blacklist's twenty-three Season Three episodes continue the studio's first-rate presentation of the show's digital photography (captured with Sony CineAlta F-55, according to IMDb). The series' 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. 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: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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. 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., Johnny Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down" and James Brown's "The Payback", both of which charge up the soundtrack for the mid-season climax in episode 10.

The Blacklist: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentaries: Series creator Jon Bokenkamp joins producer Brandon Margolis and writer Kat Goodson to discuss two of Season Three's pivotal episodes. Their discussion provides useful insight into the complexity of the group effort required to create successful series TV.
• 9. "The Director": With Jon Bokenkamp, Brandon Margolis and Kat Goodson (disc 2).
• 19. "Cape May": With Jon Bokenkamp, Brandon Margolis and Kat Goodson (disc 4).



• Deleted and Extended Scenes: The scenes have titles, but no other information is provided.
• Disc 1
• 1. The Troll Farmer (3:30)
• Patience
• Stick Shift
• You Let Her Go
• 5. Arloch Cain (2:37)
• The Bounty
• Broken Glass
• Disc 2
• 6. Sir Crispin Crandall (0:37)
• Lawyer
• 8. Kings of the Highway (1:40)
• Protecting Karakurt
• 9. The Director (0:30)
• Into the Cell
• Disc 3
• 12. The Vehm (1:02)
• Budget Cuts
• 13. Alistair Pit (1:18)
• Anger
• 14. Lady Ambrosia (4:36)
• Death Certificate
• Watching Ethan
• Access to Ethan
• No Hard Feelings
• Speech
• Duct Tape
• Finding the Children
• Happy Reunions
• Disc 4
• 16. The Caretaker
• Gathering Information (3:30)
• 17. Mr. Solomon (0:41)
• Mara
• 18. Mr. Solomon: Conclusion
• Masha's Dead (0:22)
• 19. Cape May (15:07)
• On the Beach
• By the Fire
• Away from the Window
• Breaker Box
• Axe
• Have You Ever Killed Anyone?
• Finding the Keys
• Through the Kitchen
• Just Me
• Disc 5
• 20. The Artax Network (0:25)
• Private Security
• 22. Alexander Kirk (3:53)
• Rooftop
• Red & Tom
• Getting to Kirk
• 23. Alexander Kirk: Conclusion (1:08)
• The Switch



• Capturing the Stunts: Script to Screen (disc 4) (1080p; 1.78:1; 11:10): Bokenkamp and an assortment of cast and crew discuss how stunt sequences are developed from script ideas, with emphasis on episodes 9 ("The Director") and 17 ("Mr. Solomon"). An additional deleted scene from episode 9 is included, featuring a fight between Tom Keen and FBI Agent Donald Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff).



• All About Aram (disc 4) (1080p; 1.78:1; 10:49): A portrait of The Blacklist's resident tech expert and chief expounder of exposition.



• From the Shadows: The Villains of Season 3 (disc 5) (1080p; 1.78:1; 14:21): The highlight of this overview of Reddington's latest crop of adversaries is James Spader's participation. The featurette concludes by replaying the provocative moment in episode 17 when a car window rolls down and Mr. Solomon (Edi Gathegi) addresses the unseen occupant: "And who might you be?"



• Outside the Box: Making The Blacklist Comic Book (disc 5) (1080p; 1.78:1; 8:42): Staff writer Nicole Phillips talks about creating the Titan Comics series that parallels and "teases" the series, with contributions from producers and cast.



• Red's Gems: Favorite Lines from Season 3 (disc 5) (1080p; 1.78:1; 7:05): As selected by members of the creative team.

The Blacklist: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Blacklist's inventive premise, slick writing and talented cast led by James Spader have allowed the series to bank a sizeable reserve of goodwill with its fans. Season Three drew down on that reserve, as the show's creative team labored in service of multiple goals that often appeared to be incompatible, but by season's end, the show seemed to have regained its equilibrium, and I eagerly await both Season Four and Redemption, if only to see what's next. Highly recommended on its technical merits, but be prepared for a different kind of Blacklist.