Sunday, December 14, 2014

Everybody’s Got Mommy & Daddy Issues on TV (Part I): Blacklist’s Narrative Tease(s)



It’s a shame that Freud isn’t around to watch contemporary television because the narratives we spin for the small screen are swimming in tropes from psychoanalytic theory, such as father worship/murder/rescue.  If it’s true that we’re all awash in our own individual mommy-and-daddy issues, then television shows today are providing us with mirrors (hyperbolically) reflecting the various ways in which our childhood baggage and parental role models are affecting us.  What’s sometimes more interesting than the somewhat clichéd depiction of the wounded daughter or son, are the more nuanced depictions we now receive of the parents who are supposedly responsible for inflicting the (seemingly pre-requisite, plot-and-characterization-dependent) damage upon their children.  Case in point:  Blacklist’s Raymond Reddington (James Spader).
Spader’s portrayal of “Red” on NBC’s (rare) hit show is perhaps one of richest characters on television right now.  He joins the recent ranks of other complicated anti-heroes (e.g. Dexter) as a mix of both villain and hero – a man of strong conviction and an idiosyncratic sense of wrong and right who trespasses across all illegal territory and easily enacts violent crimes.  He is the shining star of this well done drama.  

His stellar acting aside, the show has other strengths worth noting.  The premise itself is nothing spectacular but it is executed well.  Blacklist is a crime-drama focused on a black ops division of the FBI that takes down high profile international criminals through the information provided by Red, a former government agent who spent the past decades as a high-profile criminal.  In some ways the program is quite episodic in that each episode, like most crime-dramas, is devoted to the backstory and capture of one particular criminal.  However the filmic aspects of the show and the fast-paced narrative help build suspense.  Not, however, as much suspense as the underlying personal storylines that linger beneath the program’s weekly focus on crime.

Blacklist succeeds because it provides quite a few narrative teases, almost all which center around Red’s character.  The most central concerns the relationship between Red and the other main character, Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone).  The pilot episode finds Red surrendering himself to the FBI, insisting that he will only talk to a newly hired rookie FBI profiler:  Keen.  From the get-go audiences (as well as the other characters on screen) ask why, and this becomes the driving question of the show:  what is the real connection between the two characters? 

The show purposely leads viewers to believe that Red is Keen’s father, providing evidence that points toward that conclusion and then undermining it by a firm denial from Red (a well-versed liar) himself or other seemingly contradictory plot twists.  We see numerous connections between Red and Keen’s past, dialogue and visual clues on the screen that point toward their potential familial relations, and – most of all – the unmistakable father/daughter bond that these two characters cultivate.  Despite betraying each other on multiple occasions – and despite their statuses and experiences on different sides of the law – viewers see both of them sacrificing their own goals time and time again for each other.  Viewers also see Keen so desperately wanting Red to be her father (even if she doesn’t say so directly, or even admit it to herself). 
 
During this current season, the show cleverly provided a bit of misdirection concerning this plotline.  While some episodes further developed this narrative tease (e.g. introducing Red’s ex-wife and implying she could be Keen’s biological mother), the mid-season episodes purposefully caused viewers to temporarily abandon such hypothetical musings.  Various episodes focused on Red’s hunt for a girl viewers eventually presume is his actual daughter.  Then additional episodes focused on their growing relationship as Red met with this young woman under false pretenses to win her trust as she talked about her criminal father who she hadn’t seen in years.  But, of course, the girl turns out to be the long-lost daughter of another criminal and immediately the possibility of Red’s potential status as Keen’s father is resurrected.  It’s certainly a fun little tease… although I’m not sure how long it can last.

Thankfully the show provides us with others as well.  We still know little about the backstory of the man who posed as Keen’s husband for years (although we recently learnt that he has some connection to Red).  And we know very little about the covert, high power, international leadership group that Red supposedly holds power over.  And, perhaps most intriguing of all, we still know very little about Red’s own backstory – what caused him to turn from a legitimate government agent into a criminal, what caused him to lose his family.  (With its focus on the behind-the-scenes government tactics and power struggles, the show also joins the ranks of others in providing some subtle post-9/11 political commentary.)

While Red’s charisma, eccentricities, and wry, sophisticated humor draw me in to most episodes, it’s the moments when his façade drops away that stay with me the most.  In fact, it is the scenes in which both he and Keen are the most emotionally raw and vulnerable that haunt me long after the credits roll.


There are a lot of weepy main characters on television today and as armchair psychiatrists watching at home most of us could psychoanalyze them and easily blame their parents for some of their emotional hang-ups.  These characters, by themselves, are not often all that interesting.  Keen’s character doesn’t necessarily fall into this grouping although she falls into the “damaged daughter” category well enough.  But despite avoiding the stereotypical characterizations that can come with this label, like many female government-agent/police type characters, Keen is also not a fully developed character as of yet.  What makes her interesting, quite frankly, is Red’s interest in her, in the potential backstory he provides for her.  I hope that as the show continues to do this “will they, won’t they (be related)” dance, that it doesn’t get old because the onscreen (platonic/familial) chemistry between two characters is terrific and I hope to see it play out for years to come.

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