The Blacklist took the world by storm with its fascinating premise and top-notch acting. This is one of the biggest reasons why it ran for nine seasons, and is on-topic to reboot for a new season. While there has been a debate over which may be the best season of the show, one cannot deny that each season had engaging crime thriller narratives with highly memorable scenes. Various seasons of the show mainly focused on finding the bad guys, while others wanted to explore Elizabeth “Liz” Keen and Raymond “Red” Reddington’s relationship. Here is a list of all The Blacklist seasons, ranked.
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9 Season 7
Sony Pictures TelevisionNBC
It mainly focuses on Reddington when he discovers himself stranded in hostile terrain after being kidnapped by Katarina Rostova, unsure of whom, if anybody, he can trust. This season has some very memorable episodes, such as Dr Lewis Powell, Twamie Ullulaq, and Cornelius Ruck. Although many may rank this season the worst out of all, it is still remarkable how they managed to film the show till the finale, as it was produced when the pandemic hit the entire world. This may surprise many, but because of COVID, production had to end early. Rather than making the watchers wait for the situation of the world to get normal, the crew and cast improvised. They made a creative decision to use animation to complete parts of episodes that were not filmed.
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8 Season 9
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This season took a different approach, which might be the reason why many viewers didn’t like it much. Unlike how seasons often pick up stories right from where they last ended, this season is set about two years after season eight ended. Two years following Elizabeth Keen’s death, viewers are placed in a setting where Raymond and all the members of the Task Force have been disbanded. All of their lives have changed completely. There is so much to unpack for viewers, such as a tragic anniversary, which is yet to come, or how Aram signs up for a mind-bending therapy. Despite it, all this sudden shift was highly jarring to fans. This wasn’t an approach people foresaw, especially how certain characters ended. This is why many fans rank it as pretty low, as it couldn’t live up to the mark of other seasons.
7 Season 8
Reddington finds himself up against his most ferocious foe yet: Elizabeth Keen. Liz has to decide how much further she is ready to go to learn why Reddington came into her life and what his true objectives are. Fans also see Reddington and Keen falling out, which will have disastrous repercussions for everyone, including the Task Force they helped establish. Unfortunately, the ending of this season did not sit really well with fans. One of the main reasons is that Liz is abruptly killed. While it may be heartbreaking to watch for fans who cherished Reddington and Liz’s relationship, many also felt disappointed as it all happened suddenly for them. Most fans even felt like the show changed its writer as characters were acting very differently from how they were in past seasons. It also felt like they dumbed the season down a lot, which was disappointing as it ruined the nuisance of the show.
6 Season 6
Elizabeth Keen is conflicted between both the bond she has grown with the man she believes to be her father and her determination to uncover years of secrets and falsehoods in the wake of the shocking discovery that Reddington is really not who he claims to be. Throughout the meantime, Reddington expands his empire while eradicating his competitors by pointing the FBI toward them.
The entire season, the audience is hooked as Liz and Reddington play a tense game of cat and mouse wherein boundaries will indeed be breached, and the absolute truth may come out. This is one of those seasons where a lot was happening, and it mainly focused on the family drama more than the FBI in their action. This might have been what put off some fans, as the crime thriller elements of the show are what kept them tuning in again and again. This was one of those seasons that started off very strong but somehow, in the second half, got a bit too formulated, which put off many fans.
5 Season 5
In this season, Raymond Reddington has returned and is trying to reestablish his criminal enterprise. Meanwhile, Liz struggles to balance her duties as an FBI agent along with her desire to pursue her more psychopathic tendencies as she deals with the fact that Reddington is her real father. This is one of the most exciting seasons as it focuses on unveiling lots of things which both Reddington and Liz were trying to hide. However, since this season was renewed by Netflix, many saw it as having the staple Netflix element in it. Many of the choices the characters took didn’t feel fit in line with the character. The season also included forced phrases that ham-fisted this narrative that modern media really likes, making it gimmicky.
4 Season 4
The season focuses on how a mysterious man claims to be Liz’s real father. At the same time, she is trying to uncover the enigma of her lost childhood. As a result of Liz’s resurrection, the Task Force is in disbelief, and various relationships are strained. Reddington’s moral code seeks justice after being betrayed by his closest people. This season was full of secrets and suspense that kept the audience hooked until the end. The amount of intensity kept getting higher and higher with each episode. While it has several pros, many fans also felt that its dialogues were relatively flat and didn’t have the same impact as previous seasons.
3 Season 2
In this season, Reddington now works with the FBI as he compiles a blacklist of worldwide politicians, terrorists, spies, and mobsters. Whether Liz intends to or not, Reddington will help her see how to “look at the broader context” and think just like a criminal in order to achieve that. This season will drive fans insane with anticipation of what will happen next. It has even higher secrets and mystery than season one, which will keep everyone on the edge of their seats. The performances in this season are mind-blowing, especially those of James Spader.
2 Season 1
Season one starts with Raymond Reddington, who is a former government official, and now has been on the FBI’s Most Wanted list of fugitives for many years. However, things take an interesting turn when he inexplicably turns himself in to the FBI with an incendiary proposition. In exchange for speaking exclusively with Elizabeth Keen, he will aid in the capture of the most elusive criminals in the world. Not every day, viewers get to see such a unique premise of the show, but the Blacklist did that! It took viewers by surprise and kept making them guess his true intentions. The Blacklist’s first season is an incredibly engrossing, stop-and-go affair, with some outstanding performances interwoven throughout.
1 Season 3
In the third season, viewers find Liz being a fugitive with criminal mastermind Reddington and both are now on the run. This season mainly focuses on the uneasy relationship between Reddington and Liz. The task force is doing whatever it can to find them, as they are far more dangerous together than apart. The stakes being this high and the show takes up a notch in the thriller aspect, which engrosses fans even more than in earlier seasons. There are so many twists and turns that no one will see coming, making it one of the best seasons of them all in all aspects, from writing, direction, and plot to performances.
