Raymond "Red" Reddington, one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives, surrenders in person at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He claims that he and the FBI have the same interests: bringing down dangerous criminals and terrorists. In the last two decades, he's made a list of criminals and terrorists that matter the most but the FBI cannot find because it does not know they exist. Reddington calls this "The Blacklist". Reddington will co-operate, but insists that he will speak only to Elizabeth Keen, a rookie FBI profiler.
Ratings
Curator score: 6.6/10
IMDb: 7.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Metacritic: 74
TMDB: 7.6/10
Production
Sony Pictures Television, Davis Entertainment, Universal Television
Cast
James Spader, Diego Klattenhoff, Hisham Tawfiq, Anya Banerjee, Harry Lennix
Where to watch
Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A slick, highly bingeable network procedural built around James Spader’s magnetic performance and a strong central hook. It’s at its best when each episode delivers a clever criminal-of-the-week puzzle wrapped in Red’s larger shadow game, but the mythology grows increasingly tangled and uneven over time.
Best for
Fans of charismatic antiheroes and dialogue-driven cat-and-mouse storytelling
Viewers who like procedural crime shows with a serialized conspiracy thread
People looking for an easy-to-watch, high-concept network thriller
Binge-watchers who enjoy long-running mysteries and recurring twists
Skip if
You want tightly planned mythology from start to finish
You dislike formulaic case-of-the-week structure
You prefer grounded realism over heightened, pulpy plotting
You want a show that stays consistently strong across all seasons
Overview
The Blacklist succeeds because James Spader makes Raymond Reddington feel like a force of nature: theatrical, dangerous, funny, and always three moves ahead. The premise is instantly legible and the early seasons turn that setup into a dependable engine of weekly intrigue, with enough serialized mystery to keep the momentum going.
Worth noting
Its appeal is less about logic than about style, performance, and escalation. The show is very good at introducing memorable villains, elaborate schemes, and cliffhangers, but it also leans hard into soapier twists and increasingly convoluted mythology as it goes on.
Bottom line
If you like network procedurals that are polished, propulsive, and easy to keep watching, it’s a strong fit. If you need narrative discipline and a payoff that feels meticulously engineered, the later stretch is more likely to frustrate than satisfy.
2011 · Curator 8.2/10 (209.8K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A smart, propulsive network thriller with a strong procedural engine, escalating mythology, and a charismatic central partnership that rewards bingeing.
2003 · Curator 4.6/10 (178.5K ratings) · Where to watch: Netflix, Hulu, fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, Philo, Netflix Standard with Ads
For the comfort of a long-running procedural with a dependable rhythm, team chemistry, and case-of-the-week structure.
Topics
crime thriller, procedural drama, antihero, conspiracy, cat-and-mouse, serial mystery, network TV, high-concept, moral ambiguity, bingeable