With an IMDb score of 8 and 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, the American crime thriller television series The Blacklist just got over with the seventh season, which was premiered on NBC on October 4,2019, which was initially planned to consist 22 episodes but was cut short to 19 episodes, due to the pandemic ordeals, thus severely compromising the post-production work.
The show calls attention to Raymond “Red” Reddington, a former US Navy Officer turned high-profile criminal, who volunteers to the FBI and surrenders that he has got hold of a list of the most dangerous criminals in the world and is willing to inform about the operations, but in exchange for immunity and prosecution. He also demands to exclusively work with Elizabeth Keen, a rookie prolifer, newly assigned to Harold Cooper, FBI assistant director in Washington DC.
Every episode features one of the global criminals and Reddington assisting the team tracking and apprehending the malefactors. The rank and name or alias of the featured criminal on the list is displayed at the start of every episode, with few exception.
This time, the very technology-advanced creation and gift,animation, saved The Blacklist from it’s massive downfall. Apart from the shortening of the latest, from 22 to 19 episodes, the show ended with a graphic-style animation, by a previs company Proof, known for it’s work in Spiderman: Far From Home and Logan.
Co-show runner John Eisendrath says:
“The comics really were the springboard thinking about this and it felt very organic to our show because The Blacklist is in many ways sort of a graphic novel. A larger than life anti-hero, a rogues gallery of bad guys, very dark and heightened, a bit of an alternate universe, Spader and the hat, the gun and the silhouette.”
Fate played by since the show runners knew nothing about animation but yet took the unwanted, unpredictable risk. Fortunately, Proof had animators available, thus, giving birth to the perfect aestheticism deserved by the show.
James Spader played Reddington, whereas, Megan Boone played Elizabeth, Diego Klattenhoff as Donald, Harry Lennox as Harold Cooper, Amir Arison as Aram, Hisham Tawfiq as Dembe and many more.