Pilot 

Ex-government agent and one of the FBI's Most Wanted fugitives, Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader) mysteriously turns himself in to the FBI and offers to give up everyone he has ever ... See full summary »

Director:

Joe Carnahan

Writers:

Jon Bokenkamp (created by), Jon Bokenkamp

Stars:

James Spader, Megan Boone, Diego Klattenhoff

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
James Spader	...	Raymond 'Red' Reddington
Megan Boone	...	Elizabeth Keen
Diego Klattenhoff	...	Donald Ressler
Ryan Eggold	...	Tom Keen
Ilfenesh Hadera	...	Jennifer Palmer
Harry Lennix	...	Harold Cooper
Chance Kelly	...	Daniel Ryker
Jamie Jackson	...	Ranko Zamani
Delphina Belle	...	Beth
Charles Baker	...	Grey
Donnetta Lavinia Grays	...	FBI Lobby Guard
Annet Mahendru	...	Agent Rosen
Jeremy Beiler	...	Tech (Hive)
Christine James Walker	...	Cooper's Aide (as Christine Walker)
Jennifer Kim	...	Analyst (War Room)

Storyline

Ex-government agent and one of the FBI's Most Wanted fugitives, Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader) mysteriously turns himself in to the FBI and offers to give up everyone he has ever worked with including a long-thought-dead terrorist but under one condition - he'll only talk to newly-minted female FBI profiler, Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) with whom he seemingly has no connection. For Liz, it's going to be one hell of a first day on the job and what follows is a twisting series of events as the race to stop a terrorist begins.

---

Plot Keywords:

series title spoken by character | worried wife | standing on a ledge | black site | sliding over the hood of a car | 

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

---

Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [United Kingdom]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 September 2013 (USA)

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Davis Entertainment, Universal Television, Sony Pictures Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

45 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo Dolby Digital DTS (HD MA) (blu-ray)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9 HD

Did You Know?

Trivia

The birth date on the "Ten Most Wanted" poster for Raymond 'Red' Reddington is February 7, 1960, the birth date of James Spader.

---

Goofs

At the end, when agent Keen goes through the passports of her husband, there are several errors with the documents:

1.) The second passport is a Swiss passport on the outside, but identifies the owner as of German nationality (inkl. matching country code "D"). Someone probably cut the scenes together in the wrong order, because there also is a Swiss passport on the name: "David Baltis", right after the Ukrainian one.

2.) The Ukrainian one is on the name of: "Lucas Ponald", though the Cyrillic letters clearly read "Lucas Ronald". In all other occurrences on that same passport the letter is transcribed correctly as "R". Also the country code reads "D", which would be Germany, but should be UKR for Ukraine and the letter code for sex is only given in Romanic letters "M", but not Cyrillic.

The French pp. is shown again as second to last (again wrong cutting?). The red pp. after that reads "Deutschland" and "Reisepass" ("Germany" and "Passport"), but the coat of arms seems totally wrong and is definitely not German. That coat of arms is also wrong on the inside, that was shown before. The German eagle has it's feathers pointed downwards, not upwards. Maybe they used a Polish eagle for the graphics.

Further obvious spelling errors and missing diacritics: "Bundersrepublik" instead of "Bundesrepublik", "Europaische Union" instead of "Europäische Union", "Union europeene" instead of "Union européenne", "Republique francaise" instead of "République française", etc.

Finally: All passports lack the owner's signature, identification of the issuing authority and a properly integrated photo. Fake passports presented in later episodes seem to be much better in this regards, which could actually support Tom's claim, that he's being set up.

---

Quotes

[last lines]
Raymond 'Red' Reddington: You've discovered something curious about your husband, haven't you, Lizzy?

---

Connections

Featured in The Blacklist: The Freelancer (No. 145) (2013)

---

Soundtracks

State of the Art
Written by Jim James
Performed by Jim James

User Reviews

Homeland Light with a Bit of Silence of the Lambs

The Plot: x-government agent and one of the FBI's Most Wanted fugitives, Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader) mysteriously turns himself in to the FBI and offers to give up everyone he has ever worked with including a long-thought-dead terrorist but under one condition - he'll only talk to newly-minted female FBI profiler, Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) with whom he seemingly has no connection.

For Liz, it's going to be one hell of a first day on the job and what follows is a twisting series of events as the race to stop a terrorist begins.

I REALLY wanted to like this show because of all the buzz.

James Spader is very good,but the female lead is over her head. She's a weak actress who brings the action down.

Further, the story line is very derivative reminiscent of Homeland only not as good. And Spader is very much a throw back to Silnce of the Lambs without the fava beans and liver.

The show is also rather amateurishly directed.

I'm reviewing the pilot but will be giving a few more episodes a try.