Starring:

James Spader as Raymond “Red” Reddington

Megan Boone as Elizabeth Keen

Diego Klattenhoff as Donald Ressler

Henry Lennix as Harold Cooper

Ryan Eggold as Tom Keen

Plot:

Raymond Reddington, a former government agent and one of the men on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, haply walks into FBI headquarters and turns himself in. Upon being asked the very logical question of why he did such a thing, he says he has a proposition to make. He offers to help the FBI catch a very dangerous man on one condition—he only speaks with Elizabeth Keen, who so happens to be starting her job as an FBI profiler that day. Once they catch this man—a terrorist named Ranko Zamani—Reddington tells the FBI that this isn’t a one-time deal. He has a whole list of criminals—many whom the FBI doesn’t even know exist—and Reddington will help the FBI catch these individuals. The moniker for the names Reddington has compiled—The Blacklist.

Preliminary Pro:

There is so many avenues in which this show can go because there are so many unanswered questions. Why did Reddington chose Keen? What secrets are they hiding? What made him decide to come in that day? This show has the potential to keep you on the edge of your seat the entire season.

Preliminary Con:

It’s fairly evident the show will take a new-criminal-per-week approach. What we don’t want to happen, is for the writers and production team to become lazy and just have the show go on a criminal-by-criminal basis. Fans are going to need a little bit of the bigger plot revealed in each episode—i.e. something about Reddington’s past or the reason why he chose Elizabeth. If this isn’t done, the show could get boring.

Trailer:

“The Blacklist” premieres tonight, 10/9c on NBC.