“The Blacklist” takes a much darker turn and the relationship between Liz and Reddington will never be the same. “The Blacklist: The Complete Fifth Season” is recommended!
TITLE: The Blacklist: The Complete Fifth Season
FILM RELEASE: 2017-2018
DURATION: 22 Episodes (944 Minutes)
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, 1:78:1 aspect ratio, English, French 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Subtitles: English, English SDH and French
COMPANY: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
RATED: Not Rated
RELEASE DATE: August 14, 2018
Directed by Michael W. Watkins, Andrew McCarthy, Donald E. Thorin Jr., Bill Roe, Terrence O’Hara, Michael Caracciolo, Christine Gee, Solvan Naim, Cort Hessler, Paul Holahan, Bethany Rooney
Written by Jon Bokenkamp, Brandon Margolis, Brandon Sonnier, Taylor Martin, Marisa Tam, Lukas Reiter, Dave Metzger, John Eisendrath, Carla Kettner
Produced by Timothy Silver, Douglas Rowell, Tony Salama, Trever Stewart
Co-Producer: Alex Cuthbertson, Matt Fusfeld, Timothy Silver
Executive Producer: Lukas Reiter, Tristram Shapeero, Jaes Fino, Joe Russo
Associate Producer: Zee Hatley
Music by Dave Porter
Cinematography by Michael Caracciolo, Saade Mustafa, Arthur Albert, Peter Reniers
Edited by Chris Brookshire, David Post
Casting by Zoe E. Rotter
Production Design by Nicholas Lundy
Set Decoration by Shelly Barclay
Art Diretion by Bradley Schmidt
Costume Design by Christy Bean
Starring:
James Spader as Raymond “Red” Reddington
Megan Boone as Elizabeth Keen
Diego Klattenhoff as Donald Ressler
Ryan Eggold as Tom Keen
Harry Lennix as Harold Cooper
Hisham Tawfiq as Dembe
Amir Arison as Aram Mjtabai
Ryan Eggold as Tom Keen
Rachel Brosnahan as Jolene
Mozhan Marno as Samar Navabi
Susan Blommaert as Mr. Kaplan
Baz as Baz
Adriane Lenox as Reven Wright
Feeling surprisingly unencumbered, Raymond Reddington (James Spader) is back, and in the process of rebuilding his criminal empire. His lust for life is ever-present as he lays the foundation for this new enterprise – one that he’ll design with Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) by his side. Liz finds herself torn between her role as an FBI agent and the temptation to act on her more criminal instincts. In a world where the search for Blacklisters has become a family trade, Red will undoubtedly reclaim his moniker as the “Concierge of Crime.”
Liz aids Reddington in finding the next blacklister. Meanwhile, what happens when Tom returns with a suitcase with a skeleton inside? And tragedy hits Liz very hard!
All this and more for season five of “The Blacklist”!
What is “The Blacklist” about?
In 2013, the series “The Blacklist” starring James Spader (“Boston Legal”, “Stargate”, “Lincoln”), Megan Boone (“My Bloody Valentine”, “Step Up Revolution”), Ryan Eggold (“90210”, “Queen”, “Trophy Kids”), Parminder Nagra (“Bend It Like Beckham”, “ER”) and Harry Lennix (“Man of Steel”, “Ray”, “The Matrix Revolutions”) became a breakout hit for NBC.
“The Blacklist” revolves around former government agent and one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives, Raymond “Red” Reddington (portrayed by James Spader) surrendering at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Because of the terrorist threats against America, Reddington offers to help the FBI under one condition, he will only work with one person in the FBI, rookie FBI profiler, Elizabeth Keen (portrayed by Megan Boone).
For Megan, she looks at her new job as a great paying job that she and her husband Tom (portrayed by Ryan Eggold) can finally start having a family. But in the first case to capture the terrorist, her husband was captured, tortured and nearly was killed.
And as she continues to work with Reddington, it is unclear why he chose her and why he knows so much about her. But he appears to also know something about Tom and that he may not be the man that she thinks he is…or is this part of Reddington’s way of getting closer to her?
And after the first case of capturing the first terrorist, Reddington reveals that there are more criminals with the intent to do great harm and he can help the FBI neutralize them, as he has created a “blacklist” of criminals/terrorists worldwide. Especially those that the FBI are not aware of.
Thus forcing FBI Special Agent Elizabeth Keen to work closely with Reddington. But what is he hiding?
Since that first season, Reddington is now a confidential informant for the FBI, Liz’ husband Tom is revealed to be a covert operative and it was revealed that Reddington may be Liz’s father.
But now a man named Alexander Kirk has come and captured Liz, her husband and her baby, Agnes. Alexander wants revenge against Red for taking his wife (Liz’ mom) and his child (Liz) away from him.
In season five, believing that Red is her father, she aids him in trying to find more blacklisters. And as this is featured in the first half of the series, a tragedy hits Liz and she wakes up 10 months after being in a coma and what she learns and discovers after the coma, will take Liz to a much darker path.
The main characters of “Blacklist” are:
- Raymond “Red” Reddington – A former government agent and FBI fugitive who aids the FBI in capturing criminals/terrorists worldwide. While a master criminal, he is now a confidential informant for the FBI and may be FBI Special Agent Elizabeth Keen’s father.
- FBI Special Agent Elizabeth Keen – An FBI special agent who had a tragic childhood. Married to Tom Keen and recently gave birth to a baby girl named Agnes.
- FBI Agent Donald Ressler – An FBI special agent and Acting Director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division.
- Tom Keen – A covert operative married to Elizabeth Keen.
- Aram Jobtabai – An FBI computer specialist.
- Agent Samar Navabi – A Mossad agent working with Cooper’s FBI team.
- Assistant Director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division, Harold Cooper – Always watching over his agents’ backs but trying to figure out why Reddington is so interested in Elizabeth Keen.
- Dembe Zuma – Reddington’s bodyguard.
- Mr. Kaplan – A former associate of Red with a mysterious past.
VIDEO:
“The Blacklist” is presented in 1080p High Definition (1:78:1 aspect ratio). For the most part, television shows on Blu-ray can often exhibit noise and artifacts but this latest Blu-ray release for “The Blacklist” looks very good. Close-up details are good, black levels are nice and deep and picture quality is very good.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“The Blacklist” is presented in English and French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and features crystal clear dialogue and music.. While surround channels capture environment ambiance and action sequence.
Subtitles are in English, English SDH and French.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“The Blacklist” comes with the following special features:
- Audio Commentaries – Disc 2 has audio commentary for “Ian Garvey (no. 13)” with John Eisndrath and “Ruin” commentary with Jon Bokenkamp, Sean Hennen and Orlando Machado, Jr.
- Deleted and Extended Scenes – Note: You need to highlight episode in “Episode Selections” and hit right to see if there are any additional features such as deleted scenes. But there are deleted scenes in disc 1, disc 2, disc 3 and disc 5.
- Like Father, Like Daughter – (9:52) A featurette about Liz and Reddington and how things change in season five.
- Gag Reel – (3:11) With most episodes, under episode selection, you can access deleted scene(s) for each episode.
- Celebrating 100 Episodes! – (4:30) The cast discuss celebrating 100 episodes for “The Blacklist”.
EXTRAS:
“The Blacklist: The Complete Fifth Season” comes with the Blu-ray and an UltraViolet HD code.
For the past four seasons, there are a few things that have remained constant. Liz has been looking for answers of why she was separated from her family when she was younger. And who is her true father? While, Red is the cunning criminal turned confidential informant of the FBI still doing things his own way.
Also, Liz’s husband’s past has always been mysterious and Red was trying to make Liz believe he is her father. And add a mysterious element surrounding Tom.
With the fifth season, each story is well-written but the season had a different vibe as the first half featured Liz assisting Reddington and Tom returning back with a bag of bones.
The second half revolves around a tragedy, Liz being in a coma for 10 months and a storyline revolving the mystery of a skeleton inside a duffel bag.
It was an interesting situation because we saw Liz and Red becoming close, as she begins to accept him as her father. While Red has lost his business and is no longer the wealthy person he once was, he’s now trying to take back what is his.
But some situations happen due to a major death and Liz changes and the series takes a new turn.
It’s an interesting dark turn that I never expected to see happen with this series and I suppose we will see where it takes Liz in season six.
But what a surprising turn of events and I know I’m being quite vague but I have to say that the writers were clever and this was all planned since the beginning of the series. And I’ll leave it at that.
As for the Blu-ray release, picture quality is very good, lossless audio also very good. And you get several audio commentaries.
Overall, “The Blacklist” takes a much darker turn and the relationship between Liz and Reddington will never be the same.
“The Blacklist: The Complete Fifth Season” is recommended!
