While watching one of the later seasons of Every season of The Blacklist saw Reddington and the task force going after particularly dangerous criminals who factored into Reddington's larger agenda related to his own personal interests.

Reddington's personal interests often dealt with FBI agent Elizabeth Keen The Blacklist ended with season 10, though, which meant that the show continued for two more seasons after Liz's death, and struggled to maintain the momentum it once had.

The Blacklist Season 9 Is The Show's Worst

It Had Many Issues

It did not take long for me to feel that The Blacklist season 9 was the show's worst season and that it had strayed too far from the show I knew and loved. With a two-year time jump after the season 8 finale, new characters, and the addition of fan-favorite character Dembe Zuma (Hisham Tawfiq) to the FBI task force, the show seemed to be attempting a soft reboot. At the same time, it was unable to move on from the past, and much of the season ended up being about the convoluted truth behind who really orchestrated Liz's death.

The Blacklist season 9 felt like it was torn in two directions and, ultimately, it did not succeed in either one. The mystery of Reddington's true identity, which was once central to the story, was abandoned. Spader's performance as Reddington continued to be a highlight, but too many of the show's other great characters were gone, and season 9 was where it became clear that the story would never recover. Along with Elizabeth, this included Mr. Kaplan/Kathryn Nemec (Susan Blommaert), Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold), and Samar Navabi (Mozhan Marnò).

Liz's Death Was The Beginning Of The End For The Blacklist

The Show Quickly Went Downhill From There

Liz dying in the season 8 finale fundamentally changed the story of The Blacklist for the worse. While The Blacklist had many villains and plot twists, the true heart of the show was always Reddington and Liz's relationship, the impact they had on each other, the mystery of his identity, and why he cared so much about her. Even though season 9 was still connected to what happened to her and Reddington's search for truth and revenge, this was not an adequate substitute for having her alive in the show.

Reddington was always more entertaining and mysterious than Liz, but without her, there was an emptiness to the show in season 9. In the previous seasons, Reddington and many other characters, including Mr. Kaplan, Tom, and Harold Cooper (Harry Lennix) made sacrifices to protect Liz and to help her learn the truth. Seeing her die made it feel like some of those sacrifices were now in vain and that there would be no closure to her wanting to know the full story of her past, and season 9 did not change this feeling.

It's A Good Thing That Blacklist Ended After Season 10

There Was No Reason To Continue After Season 10

Given the struggles of season 9, it was for the best that season 10 was the last of The Blacklist. By this point, the show had little in common with the many strengths of its earlier seasons. The premise of Wujing (Chin Han) and other former Blacklisters uniting to strike back at Reddington made season 10 more interesting than season 9, but it was not enough to warrant more seasons. While speaking with NBC, even Spader acknowledged that by season 10, it was time for the show to end. Read his comments below:

I think if the show went beyond this year, it would turn into a very different show. And I think that the thing that has been nice about this show was that we’ve never really had a really clear paradigm for the show. Tonally the show shifts a lot from episode to episode, and I think that even the show has taken strange turns, and I suspect that the show, if it went much further, would just become something that would be less recognizable to me.

Spader enjoyed how different many of The Blacklist's episodes felt from one another, but after 218 episodes, the series had explored countless narrative possibilities, and further exploration would not have made the show unrecognizable from what Spader and the audience knew. The nature of Reddington's death in the series finale was arguably anticlimactic, but it at least ensured that The Blacklist was truly over. Later seasons had their fair share of issues, but the early seasons are still excellent television that is well worth rewatching.

Source: NBC