The Blacklist: The Complete Eighth Season - DVD Review

[Michael Scott]

The Blacklist: The Complete Eighth Season



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Yup, The Blacklist is still going. A feat that I’m actually surprised they were able to pull off. Now 8 season into the show and a 9th already contracted, I’m starting to fade just a little bit. Not saying that I don’t enjoy the show, but the constant mistruths and “from a certain point of view” reveals about WHO Raymond Reddington (James Spader) really is, and who he is to Elizabeth Keen (Meghan Boone) has worn thin. Dembe, Red and crew are still fun to watch as a spy “police” procedural, but the story has gotten a little long in the tooth, and the fan theories about who Red is has gotten more and more outlandish (to the point where they’re now theorizing that Red is actually her mother who changed genders to watch over Elizabeth).

As usual with a show that’s lasted some 8 seasons, there will be some minor spoilers ahead from previous years. Elizabeth Keen is no longer an Ally. She finally figured out that Red wasn’t who he said he was, and that her mother Katerina was basically killed by him. The end of last season has her turning on her mentor and becoming a criminal mastermind in order to hunt down and destroy him and his blacklist site. To make matters more interesting, she’s on the path of a spy known as N-13 this year, and using all of her wiles and abilities to hunt him down in order to bring Raymond down.

However, I’m not spoiling too much by saying that the comings and goings of this season are pretty much the same. Elizabeth hunts down blacklist entries in order to attain her goals, the FBI is searching for her, and Raymond Reddington has his own agenda. Pretty much rinse and repeat from years past. The big reveal will come in the identity of N-13, as well as the realization that this is Meghan Boone’s last season as Elizabeth Keen (she opted out of her contract due to personal reasons in her life). Most people saw the writing on the wall for the season 8 finale when that was announced, but some might have hoped for a happier ending. All that to say that Season 9 is going to pick up where we left off, sans Meghan Boon AND series creator Jon Bokenkamp from behind the scenes.

In some ways I’m kind of glad. Elizabeth Keen’s story line has gone on for too long, and Bokenkamp ended the season with one of the worst finale’s I’ve seen in quite some time (and I’m not alone, as the internet has blown up over it). Bokenkamp has been keeping identities secret and using misdirection the entire show, and while it was fun for a few seasons, the constant realization that whatever you learned last season could have been a complete lie (or partial lie) has gotten old fast. And to make matters worse, the finale ends with a massive blow to the team, and once more Blokenkamp gleefully thumbing his nose at the audience by not revealing any answers to all of the questions that were set forth in the season. At least from the audience point of view as Red whispers something to Elizabeth in the final moments of the show, but who knows if we’ll ever find out. Being that Red has permanently been outed with his real identity (supposedly this time for real according to the writers), fan theories are literally blowing up online. The main one being that Red is actually her mother Katerina, just after having a sex change.

Personally I’m feeling very distinctive “Red John” vibes from The Mentalist, or endings from How I Met Your Mother in store for this show, even though I really hope not. By that I regale you with the infamous Red John debacle from The Mentalist. Red John was the incredibly mysterious super villain from the show. A serial killer with near unlimited influence and manipulative abilities. The end of season 3 revealed him, but series creator Bruno Heller walked it back the first first episode of the next season because he felt that he’d be killing the golden egg. Then we spent another 4 years or so hinting and teasing, and building up WHO Red John was, and when the big reveal came out it was a puff of dusty air as the person it ended up being was a joke, and it was obvious that they just shoehorned him in at the last minute. The same was said for How I Met Your Mother. The show supposedly had the ending planned out from the begging, but the show lasted 3-4 seasons past it’s expected end date, and as the show progressed the show runners created new plot points of out mid air to the point that when the actual expected ending was revealed, it no longer made any sense. That same vibe is hitting me hard and heavy with The Blacklist. So much has been done to misdirect the viewer each and every year that by the time the series ends next year (by all accounts next year is the final year according to the ratings as well as Megan Boon and the show creator leaving this year) we may not really care, or the ending may not make any sense. I certainly hope I’m wrong, but as much as I’ve enjoyed the show (and this season), I think the writing is on the wall.




Rating:

Rated TV-14




Video:

Well no, being that this is the first time I've reviewed a DVD set of The Blacklist (so far I've only watched the Blu-rays in my reviews and this year Season 8 only got a DVD release for the stores, and the Blu-ray was given to their MOD department, and since Sony doesn't send out screeners for MOD releases we're doing the DVD this go around) so I have no idea if this is the norm for the show, but the encode for season 8 is mediocre at best. The show still looks very cleanly shot and low noise levels with a nice neutral look. But holy cow the compression artifacting. I'm watching on an 85 inch Sony x950h so it is a bit large for DVD, but the artifacting is pretty impressive this year. Not a scene goes by without copious amounts of macroblocking around characters and backdrops (especially in overhead shots of the city where they show up like swarming blocks), but there 's a TON of haloing around every object (faces, outlines of text, buildings etc). I wouldn't say it's a train wreck, but every single minute of every single episode has at least SOME artifacting in the show. It still can look good, but very problematic at the least. Average bitrate hovered around 2.8-34 mbps (which is painfully low for DVD), and even though we got spikes into the 6 mbps range it never really improved in those scenes. All in all, it's watchable and not HORRIBLE, but certainly not ideal by any stretch of the imagination.





Audio:

Luckily the audio still sounds great, even if it’s not the lossless DTS-HD MA that I’ve come to expect from the Blu-ray releases. The show maintains its impeccable record of energetic action sequences with front heavy dialog stretches as the spy thriller unfolds. Guns are punchy and powerful but never overly bassy, and car chases and the score fill out the surrounds a good bit. Like usual long stretches of time are spent in the main 3 channels at the front of the room, and dialog is crips and clean. It's a little empty in some ways compared to the dynamics of the lossless track, but the 5.1 448 kbps lossy DD track is still quite superb.







Extras:

• Deleted Scenes
• Blooper Reel
• Elizabeth Keen's Story

Final Score: ​

Season 8 is a solid season, but is definitely stretched past it’s limits in many ways with a less than satisfactory ending due to Boone requesting that this be her last year (she was missing from 8 of the episodes this year due to personal reasons, so the writing was on the wall). I’m curious how they are going to wrap up the show next year with its final season (by all estimations. If this gets a 10th I’ll be shocked). The DVD looks rather “meh” though, and the extras extremely limited. The Blu-ray release this year is MOD (although still pressed discs, not burnt by all accounts) due to the low sales numbers of the previous few years Blu-ray release, so I can’t be at all certain if it will look as great as previous years. Still worth watching for fans, but getting long in the tooth. Entertaining watch.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: James Spader, Megan Boone, Diego Klattenhoff
Created by: Jon Bokenkamp
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, English, French
Studio: Sony
Rated: TV-14
Runtime: 814 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 11th, 2020

Recommendation: Entertaining Watch

 

[Shimei]

I began really enjoying this series but grew tired of the drama queen Liz as well as her easily manipulated nature while Red exploits her w/ the carrot of the past over her head.
This show ended up turning my stomach the last few years as the characters all developed into corruptible people in whom justice, morality, ethics etc were twisted enough to no longer be recognizable.
I realize our wives need be offered something while viewing man shows but I'm glad the drama queen Liz was offed.
I really hope Reddington doesn't come out of the closet and reveal himself as Liz's biological mom.
I wouldn't be surprised if this occurred ------ simply another message of the times.

 

[Michael Scott]

I agree with Liz. She was long overdue to leave.