The Blacklist, Season 1, Episode 14: “Madeline Pratt”
Directed by Michael Zinberg
Written by Jim Compolongo
Airs Mondays at 10pm ET on NBC
Constant negativity and pessimism is seldom a good thing. Even in the worst that the world has to offer, there’s a sliver of something well done or praiseworthy or, at least, not outright terrible. That’s where The Blacklist comes in. It’s not a completely terrible show. If it was, writing these reviews would be much easier. The fact of the matter is its quality is incredibly nuanced and is hardly ever constant. Sometimes it’s up and others it’s agressively down. It’s a show that few would hesitate to define as “bad”, but its positive moments still abound, perhaps not plentiful, but enough for notice.
Perhaps the most interesting, and disappointingly unexplored, aspect to “Madeline Pratt” is the revelation/tease that Keen (Megan Boone) has a criminal record that not even the FBI knows about. In the effort of capturing Red’s (James Spader) former lady friend/Blacklister Madeline Pratt, who requests Red’s, and- by extension- Keen’s, help in stealing a rare antique that may or may not have US intelligence ramifications. Keen is sent off to steal the antique, but nothing shy of a possibly made up anecdote is ever given in regards to her mysterious past. Keen being a former thief is a great twist on her character and one that the audience couldn’t have seen coming. It’s a shame, though, that the episode didn’t spend more time fleshing that plot element out more.
Continuing the line of things this episode does right is the FBI top dog Harold Cooper (Harry Lennix) finally fed up with Red doing whatever he darn well pleases and starts to investigate him in the disappearance of Diane Fowler. Too often Cooper and the rest of the FBI blindly looks away at whatever insanity Red involved in and that can’t go on forever. True, Red is a valuable asset to the FBI, but police never let assets do whatever they like just because they have useful information. Often times the police would rather bust an asset than let them continue unchecked. Granted, Cooper was rewarded at the end of the episode with the FBI equivalent of a cease-and-desist order. However, it’s just good to know that he’s willing to go down that route.
A quick observation/prediction: we’re clearly on a bus headed straight for Affairville and can we just not? It seems like such a cliched road for the show to go down and the show doesn’t need to spend any amount of time on a hackneyed storyline like that.
Also, this episode tried to wedge in some interactions between Keen and Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff), just like it did last episode, and it still does not feel earned in any way, shape, or form. It’s not believable for even a moment that they have a working relationship like that.
Another episode of The Blacklist come and gone and it’s certainly improving in some ways, but the show still doesn’t feel like substantial or noteworthy television that anyone should be devoting time to.