The Blacklist - Season 10

All good things come to an end. For The Blacklist, it was already known before the start of season 10 that this would be the last season. But do they also know how to bring the story to a satisfying end in this season?

The story of The Blacklist should be well-known after nine seasons. Criminal Raymond Reddington (James Spader, Boston Legal), one of the most wanted criminals in the world, applies to the FBI to work with them as an informant. The aim is to track down major criminal leaders who are on a 'blacklist'. It soon turns out that almost everything Reddington does, including the fact that he cooperates with the FBI as an informant, is actually always done out of self-interest.



Season 9 ended with the escape from prison of blacklister Wujing (Chin Hang, American Born Chinese) who found out that Reddington was the one who framed him in the first season. His goal may be clear, he wants to get revenge on Reddington and also make it public knowledge that the FBI has been working with the most wanted criminal on earth for years. He goes looking for other blacklisters to tell them the truth about Reddington and take revenge with them.

In addition to a number of old acquaintances that we see returning in the last season, a number of new characters are also introduced. For example, the task force working with Reddington is expanded with Herbie Hambright (Alex Brightman, Dead End: Paranormal Park), an expert in the field of evidence, and Siya Malik (Anya Banerjee), the daughter of Meera Malik, who died in the first season, who is eager to find out what her mother died for.

The focus seems to be less on the blacklist, in fact, and more on completing the various storylines that have been laid out over the years and on the development of Reddington.

As the season progresses, it seems like the net around Reddington is getting tighter and tighter. Especially when more and more questions are asked from the American government by Arthur Hudson (Toby Leonard Moore, Billions) about the function of this highly secret task force and why such an enormous amount of taxpayers' money is spent on it. Reddington takes it all stone-faced, but where in previous seasons his stoicism often meant that he wasn't too worried about it, it now seems to be because it doesn't affect him all that much anymore.



The last season of The Blacklist was certainly not the least. It has been said before, the role of Raymond Reddington fits James Spader perfectly, he plays the role so convincingly that he is Reddington and that is no different in the last season. It's safe to say that Spader has carried the series for ten seasons and taken it to the next level.

The season itself is a bit different from the previous seasons. The focus seems to be less on the blacklist, in fact, and more on completing the various storylines that have been laid out over the years and on the development of Reddington. With him, we see a clear change in his personality compared to the previous seasons. Where he has always been a man with two faces (on the one hand the charismatic man who can turn out to be unexpectedly sympathetic and on the other hand the tough criminal) Reddington seems to lean more towards the sympathetic at times in this season.

The season and with it the series conclude with a double episode that determines the fate of Reddington and the members of the task force.

And then there is the end of the series. That always remains a tricky point, because it remains difficult to come up with an ending where you can please everyone. For me, it was not the end I expected in advance, but at the same time, I could live with it. And that's actually the feeling that dominated this entire season. All main characters from the series have had their moment, some well-known blacklisters passed by and some outstanding storylines were completed. Reason enough for me to be able to speak of a successful final season and a successful conclusion to the series.