The Blacklist has always been a show that has capably balanced villains of the week with an overarching mystery regarding Red and Lizzie's relationship that should keep viewers tuned in over the long haul. Now, heading into its third season over at NBC, the show does have plans to change up the formatting a little bit. Recently, executive producer John Eisendrath revealed that The Blacklist has plans to serialize the story a little more than usual when it returns for Season 3.
The hunt for Red and Liz... is a slightly more serialized story than we've told in the past.
Procedural-type stories are still popular on the networks, but fans often favor the shows that include a little personal drama along with the case of the week, like Criminal Minds or The Blacklist. The Blacklist has always been ahead of the game with this hybrid of serialized and non-serialized plotlines, and it looks as if the show will take things a step further when it returns to the schedule later this month, although Eisendrath isn’t revealing any details about what that will entail.
However, if you were hoping to finally learn all of the details regarding Red’s relationship with Liz, you are likely to be sorely disappointed. The executive producers also told TV Line, that The Blacklist will really focus on the present upon its return.
In the course of 22 episodes, we will of course give more answers about the past. But at the moment the season opens, we are focused entirely on the present.
We last left Liz and Red following a crazy set of events in Season 3. Lizzie learned her mother was actually a KGB operative. She also determined she was being framed by The Cabal and her whole team was threatened, including the likes of Cooper, Ressler, Aram and Samar. She and Red went to confront Tom Connolly, who had been pulling the strings for a while, and in the process of trying to protect the team, Lizzie straight-up decided to murder the man. Now, she and Red are on the run.
Because I’m not sure how the show could reset quickly after such a crazy season-ender, I’m not really surprised the show will focus on more of an over-arching story when it returns. In fact, I’m really excited to see how this wild plotline continues to play out when The Blacklist returns to the network. The show used to be a show about using a criminal to catch other criminals, but when your "hero" technically also becomes a criminal (by killing another baddie, but still), the lines get a whole lot blurrier.
We won’t have too much longer to wait to see how The Blacklist kicks off Season 3. The show will return to the schedule on Thursday, September 24 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC. You can find out when the rest of your favorite shows are returning with our Fall TV premiere schedule.
