There are obviously a lot of changes with s9, but I think the loss of the shows creator is probably the most noticeable.
No matter how I feel about the writing, characters, or the dragging out of the central mystery for way too long, I believe Jon brought a feel to TBL that left with him.
There was a darkness to both the blacklisters and the humor that I believe came from him and is noticeably absent. And although the perfection of the music (one of my favorite things about the show) has been lacking in recent seasons, it is completely gone now.
Weather good or bad, is JBβs departure noticeable to anyone else?
so here we go
PC: That is so great!
TC: So, I do get to have a little input. I am a foot soldier and James to me is the General. Whatever he tells me to do, I will do it. And there have been times whereβ¦ You know, I donβt want to be disparaging of anybody but directors are like myselfβthey are hired guns, they come, they go. Some of them, like the script supervisor Christine Gee, direct an episode here and there. They work for a month, they do a week of prep, a week of post-production, and they will shoot for two weeks. So I remember doing a scene with James in the episode where I had the headphones on and James reminded me βRememberβ¦ Teddy, your character, talks loud.β We did a rehearsal with a new Director Iβd never seen before, and he gave me a note. And he said, βToo big, way way too big. Bring it down a little bit, bring it down.β I said, βOkay, I will bring it down. But in every episode I do James reminds me that my character talks loud.β He still insists that I bring it down a little, and I say βok, whatever.β I did almost the exact thing in the next rehearsal, and he said, βThatβs better, thatβs better.β So my point is that James is the general, but he doesnβt act like it. Heβs not around cracking the whip or anything, and Iβve never ever ever seen him upset on a set. He is the best. He treats me like weβve known each other since Kindergarten.
PC: Every single person I have interviewed who works on The Blacklist β whether itβs cast or crew βΒ has nothing but nice things to say about him.
TC: I was there one day when we were having a problem. There was an episode years ago where we were trying to work with a goat, and the goat
was adamant β it would not move. You couldnβt pull it or push it. So finally they had to cut the goatβs scene because it just wasnβt working. They had to rewrite the whole scene to make it completely different and James didnβt lose it. He is just wonderful.
Before Covid, every time I would say goodbye to him he always kissed me on the cheek and hugged me. He always asks me about my grandchildren. Itβs funny because we had a running gag. Every season Iβd come back and Iβd have another grandchild. At one time it was 4
https://mobile.twitter.com/wendywales/status/1405898630582652932/photo/1
Credit to u/Ikishtili for originally posting this months ago. u/IntrovertAdaptable and u/RedarinaTheorist also know the source from a FB group and can vouch for her credibility.
Now that S9 is approaching, itβs probably time for us to move on from mysteries that have already been answered and focus on the new storylines in the show instead.
Instead of writing an actual plot, he just crowdsourced it from the fans. Who could've seen that coming 8 years ago?
He posted to Twitter a couple hours ago officially letting everyone know heβs leaving, right after Boone.
So he pretty much Fβd us over for the season finale then just decided to leave.
ruins a great show refuses to elaborate leaves
I haven't seen anyone talk about this so I thought I'd post it.
>Red: When all this began I was such a different person. Blinded by passion and inexperience. What we built β It's been fulfilling in ways that I cant even begin to describe. Its been a wonder, thrilling and challenging, a blessing and a curse. Whatever it's been, it's become who I am. But at some point it became clear to me that wasn't really in control of any of this. I thought I was. At times I feel like I am. But I am not. No matter how much I try or care or give of myself. I have no control of how any of this ends. And that is crushing if I think about it too much. So I don't think about it. I ignore it, deny it, and try to convince myself that I can keep Elizabeth safe, Agnes safe. Which is why I feel I have to do this. I have to believe that I can help. Because the alternative is β it's just...
>Dembe: I understand.
>Red: I know you do. Hands letter to Dembe Only when I'm gone. Give it to Elizabeth but only when I'm gone.
>You ready?
>Dembe: No
>Red: Me neither.
Iβm not the only one who thinks Redarina is a terrible ending. The writers think the same. What they did this last episode, was just a perfect tease. They made it seem like Redarina fits perfectly to the story. But thatβs not the case. Next episode will blow all of your minds.
It seems that not everything has been smooth for the writers' team. Yesterday's finale sparked a whole damn war on the media. I won't elaborate here on my opinion about last night's episode, I've already made a post about this and you're welcome to argue with me there.
SO, SO many things went wrong yesterday. SO, SO many situations could've been handled more tastefully by the writers and last night's finale could've ended with me (and many other viewers, I suppose) crying of joy and not frustration and disappointment. (I mean cmon, the series protagonist died without getting the answers the WHOLE POINT OF THE SHOW was about, what's left now?)
The way I see it, Bokenkamp left and took the show with him. He says "the show is still full of life", I call bull.
For some reason, years ago, my friends and I ended up watching a whole bunch of Cinema Noir films. Some forgotten and some well known like The Killing, well at least to Cinema Noir fans I guess. The essential plot of each is that what ever the lead character gets into (strange town, picks up a hitch hiker, caper, etc.) everyone around him dies off or gets caught by police and eventually he ends up that way or totally isolated and abandoned, if not dead himself.
It seems everyone who gets into Red's inner circle ends up dead. And his plans end up totally screwed up and he ends up alone and abandoned. Even Dom told him so; that mess he made of things. Which gets really pointed out by Carla/Naomi; miserable housewife and does all she can, for her and Jennifer, to stay away from Red. It appears she knew from the start she was safer under Garvey than Red. Now that Jennifer is dead, we have to assume Carla is so too. (Though, it is possible she could come back but then why would she if her daughter was?) Bokenkamp has killed nearly every living person who might know who Red is, total Cinema Noir plot at least to my mind. Unlike Hitchcock, where only the criminal ends up dead, I think many will agree that if JB is such a Hitch fan why does he execute his story arc in a total Cinema Noir manner?
(Side note: Also, years ago in my life as an Insurance Adjuster, there were people who could never get insured because of the life they led. Whether deep sea diver, test pilot, PI or Botanists who crawls all over inhospitable places, it seemed like anyone close to them ended up dead or hospitalized or financially ruined but they were still walking on their own two feet. And the insurance companies would never insure them. This is what Red has become, a threat to his enemies and ones he cares about too!)
Iβm late to the party but boy oh boy do I hate the last episode π©
I will go as far and just say it, the awful animations kinda ruined the entire show for me. First off I donβt wanna see any behind the scenes stuff or messages from the actors, leave that part for the blacklist Instagram account instead! It kills the vibe.
Secondly the animation was so horribly done that it was a disgrace for the show.
And to have such important conversations between Red and Liz through animation is what annoyed me the most.... For 7 seasons the writers have been dragging out this convo behind liz and red and now Iβm done with it. They took it too far, for the first time I donβt care who red is.
It would have been 1000 times better to leave the previous episode as the last episode of the season. And in the end of that episode, they could have done a voiceover by James. Something similar to what they do on riverdale with Cole sprouse. And he could have summed up his thoughts like a cliffhanger, while showing a distant view of the blacklist office or somewhere else thatβs more scenic. Thatβs one of the best parts about riverdale, Cole sprouse voiceovers.
But nahhh they went ahead and ruined the series like this. Canβt believe Jon Bokenkamp dropped the ball like this. Wow.
(PS feel free to use this post as a collective place to rant about the season finale lol)
This latest episode is awesome, I can easily picture this storyline in an open world sandbox like GTA
Now that youβre in the midst of negotiations, itβs time for an intervention. Itβs time to make Season Six be the showβs final season and finally tell the incredible story you set out to tell from Season One. Itβs time to stop spinning your wheels and move forward full speed ahead. I firmly believe there is an amazing back story in there. Time to tell it.
http://collider.com/the-blacklist-season-6-jon-bokenkamp-interview/
part from it ...guess weΒ΄ll see how true this is :PP
It seems like Liz and Jennifer (Fiona Dourif) are still really getting to know each other and feel each other out. How different from each other are they, and how similar are they?
BOKENKAMP: Itβs interesting, remember Elizabeth Keen and Jennifer are half-sisters. They have different mothers. Elizabeth Keenβs mother is Katarina Rostova and Jenniferβs mother is Naomi Hyland, so they have different mothers, but they share a father. They are both the daughter of Raymond Reddington. They both realize that this man who theyβve come to know as Raymond Reddington is not Raymond Reddington. Liz being the FBI agent who has come up through the law, approaches things out of instinct, which is very different from Jennifer who came up in the witness protection program, hiding from the most wanted man in America. Her mother died because of some incidents that went down because of Reddington. They come at this story from very different perspectives, and yet they are united and bound together, in the most fundamental way. That makes for a very unexpected and emotional story.
---
According to Jon Bokenkamp the show has a definite mythology. Is it true or a beautiful bluff? I have a hunch that Reddington's identity line was improvising on the fly. The plot changed, the script was rewritten. I give some examples:
1x01 "Pilot/Ranko Zamani".
The FBI has all case files. Prints right and left hands. Viewer can consider carefully the inscriptions. Date processed: 03/25/1989. There's more. Π‘lose-ups show an old photo of Reddington (Spader).
Cooper: We confirm it's actually him?
Ressler: It's him all right. PRINTS MATCH. Tattoos.
1x10 "Anslo Garrick Conclusion".
Cooper: He (Reddington) was there. Lab tests CONFIRM the blood was Reddington's.
WHAT???!!! The lab has his blood sample??? And you did a DNA test???
3x11 "Gregory Devry".
Liz: He claims he's Reddington?
Samar: Yes, and we can't disprove it with DNA, because there's nothing on file from 1990 when Reddington disappeared.
Ressler: Well, in the five years I hunted Reddington, we had one photo of him. It only had a passing resemblance to the man we've been working with.
I'm completely confused. What nonsense are they saying? They had his quality photo.Many photos. And there was James Spader.
4x22 "Mr.Kaplan Conclusion".
Cooper: The blood on this shirt from Raymond Reddington has been sealed in an evidence locker for over three decades. I procured a sample and submitted it for a DNA profile. I submitted the sample and your profile to a private lab. They'll have the results within 24 hours, so you'll finally know whether or not Raymond Reddington is your father.
I'm speechless. Why would Copper do that? He already has a sample of Reddington's/Spader`s blood (Look 1x09).
6x01 "Hans Koehler".
Liz: "Raymond Reddington" is a fraud. An imposter who took our father's place over 30 years ago. The FBI can trace this Reddington forward from '95. And I know for a fact that our father died five years before that. The night of the fire.
Liz says the files in red's case since to 1995. But we've seen the early files. March 25, 1989.There are many such examples. What do you think about it? The writers have a mythology?Or they change the road a lot of times? I'm starting to think that since the middle of season three, they've been pushing a Rederina.
https://preview.redd.it/mw26vyruicr31.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fbe81d99e1e4b4f75313833ee0421fc574e5aa5b
His answers are much more definitive on the bones and Liz's relationship to them and Fake Red than what I expected. Definitely worth a read if you haven't read it...
'The Blacklist' Creator Breaks Down the Bone-Chilling Finale Twist (Exclusive)
Original post by u/NoSidesOnlyPlayers
I thought this post by NoSides would be appreciated by members of our sub, too, so I brought it over here (with permission) for discussion. Do you guys think we are feeling the absence of JB is s S9? Below is the text from the original post.
"There are obviously a lot of changes with s9, but I think the loss of the shows creator is probably the most noticeable.
"No matter how I feel about the writing, characters, or the dragging out of the central mystery for way too long, I believe Jon brought a feel to TBL that left with him.
"There was a darkness to both the blacklisters and the humor that I believe came from him and is noticeably absent. And although the perfection of the music (one of my favorite things about the show) has been lacking in recent seasons, it is completely gone now.
"Weather good or bad, is JBβs departure noticeable to anyone else?"
