Goodbye to The Blacklist: An Insulting Farewell to Raymond Reddington
Ok, so I know I’m not Mr. On-the-Ball with this one, but, quite honestly, I’ve been hurting. Ever since The Blacklist finale, I’ve been overcome with a sense of injustice and frustration.
Ten seasons (and one failed spin-off series), that’s 218 episodes, came to an end back in July, bringing a conclusion to the Raymond Reddington story arc. Ten years of my life, I had been following the twists, turns, subterfuges and betrayals of the Reddington Task Force and its associates. And now it’s over.
But it didn’t go out with a bang, far from it. It took the most special character and flushed him down the crapper. He deserved SO. MUCH. BETTER.
The Blacklist centers around Raymond Reddington (James Spader): number one on the FBI’s most-wanted list. At the beginning of Season 1, he surrenders himself to the Bureau, offering his services as an informant. You see, he may be a bad person (a thief and a murderer), but there are worse out there. He can help catch criminals the FBI don’t even know about. They can get ruffians without a sense of decorum off the streets and into jail.
Every episode revolves around a criminal on Red’s Blacklist, harkening back to a bygone era of “villain of the week”. It was an easy watch and, with a season consisting typically of 20+ episodes, it lasted half of the year.
But it wasn’t just a procedural cop show. There was also a mystery at the heart of it. Who was Raymond Reddington? Why did he suddenly turn himself in? And what was his relationship with Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone), the FBI Agent he requested as his handler?
Ten freaking years and these questions, the very premise of the show, had not all been answered satisfactorily. Bits and bobs had been revealed each season, just enough to string you along and keep you engaged, but even now, I’m not 100% clear. I LOVE IT!
Or, at least, I did.
Raymond Reddington as a Protagonist / Antagonist
Let me talk to you about our main character, international criminal mastermind Raymond Reddington. Red for short. He is undeniably one of the best-written television characters from the last decade. He’s a classic villain. He’s a thief. He has violent tendencies. He runs an international criminal empire, the full extent of which we may never know. He manipulates every situation to his own advantage, sometimes actively working against the FBI team he informs for.
However, he’s a gentleman thief, preferring to talk through issues and only resorting to death-dealing when truly necessary. His long, drawn-out speeches conveying morals to his adversaries, teaching them the error of their ways, are iconic. Screw action sequences; when Red is sitting in a chair with a glass of scotch, that’s when you’ve got to be careful.
He’s loyal to his friends, especially members of the Task Force like Elizabeth Keen, Harold Cooper (Harry Lennix) and Donald Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff), and his friend and confidante, Dembe (Hisham Tawfiq). He’d do anything to protect them from harm, and when a team member dies, he’s distraught. These are protagonist traits, an unlikely protagonist, but a protagonist nonetheless.
All the while, he keeps his secrets, maintaining his mystery throughout.
Raymond Reddington is a f*cking all-timer. That’s what makes the ending so much worse.
