If timing is everything, this Monday’s series premiere of “The Blacklist” is a perfectly synchronized metronome.
I say this because the series, headlined by a riveting James Spader — and stuffed with nail-biting tension and interesting plot twists — reminds me, in a very positive way, of “Homeland,” Showtime’s Emmy winner returning for its third season Sept. 29. Mix in some elements of “The Silence of the Lambs” — and its returning TV spinoff, “Hannibal” (more on that later) — and “The Blacklist” is one of the juiciest picks on fall’s prime-time menu.
Spader plays Raymond “Red” Reddington, one of the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” criminals who decides, for reasons of his own, to come in from the cold and get himself arrested at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC.
Reddington has been a thorn in the agency’s side for over 20 years, a rogue security threat leaking classified documents while using a variety of aliases to stir up trouble.
“Reddington’s only allegiance is to the highest bidder,” says FBI agent Donald Ressler, who’s in charge of the case and is played by Diego Klatenhoff — aka Mike Faber on “Homeland” (so there’s your first connection to that show).
Reddington insists on talking to only one person at the FBI: Elizabeth “Lizzie” Keen (Megan Boone), a four-year agency vet in her first day as a newly minted profiler. It’s no coincidence.
Lizzie, who’s in the process of adopting a child with her scruffy husband, Tom (Ryan Eggold), has never met Reddington. But he seems to know every intricate detail of her life, which he gleefully recounts in their face-to-face encounters a la Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter dissecting Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling in “The Silence of the Lambs.”
Those similarities are complemented by the cage (here it’s glass) in which Reddington is kept following his arrest. The only thing he’s missing is the leather face mask.
Without giving too much away, Reddington knows about a “Homeland”-style terrorist plot, the details of which he’ll divulge only to Lizzie.
Spader’s performance is terrific, and his theatrical tics and quirkiness — honed during his triple-Emmy-winning turn as Alan Shore in “The Practice” and “Boston Legal” — are on full display here. He’s magnetic, chewing on the scenery so much that you can’t look away from him.
Boone is fine if not overly memorable — but there’s still a long way to go — and the supporting cast includes Harry Lennix, who you’ll recognize from his many TV roles (“ER,” “Dollhouse,” “24”). Check this one out. I highly recommend it.