On James Spader

RichTakes! On James Spader

The only big three network show that I’ve followed for the past ten years is NBC’s “The Blacklist”. It has a lot of things going on, even if it would work as a DC comic. It may have only run for seven years, I don’t know. I’m too lazy to do the research.

The premise is that Spader’s character Raymond Reddington is an international crime boss who is a do-gooder at heart. He is also number one on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. He somehow struck up a deal to share intel with the FBI, who created a dark team to work with him to take down some of the world’s worst criminals, which they didn’t even know existed. Over the course of years, they took out many of the criminals on Reddington’s “Blacklist”.

The other main character is Elizabeth Keene, who was the daughter of a Russian spy. She killed her father at age five during some huge incident when the house burnt down in Wisconsin. Raymond may also be Russian. He at the very least has “friends in the east”. It’s a good bet that Raymond is not who he says he is, and no one really knows who he really is during the entire series. The plot twist is that Raymond is trying to protect Elizabeth through the end. From what? Keene is an FBI “profiler” although there is not much in the show to show that.

I have over 50 episodes recorded in my DVR, but sadly lost the first twenty or so. If you can find a way to binge the Blacklist, do it.

When Spader was much younger he did a few movies which had critical acclaim, but maybe not so much box-office. 

The first was “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” during which he interviewed several women about their sex life from a completely disinterested  perspective, and recorded them on VHS.

The second was “Secretary”  which explored masochism. I’m pretty sure it did no box office at all. 

Watch both.