I have been enjoying The Blacklist on Netflix. James Spader is excellent as arch criminal Raymond Reddington, who spends the series dobbing fellow criminals into the FBI
It requires a fair bit of suspension of disbelief. Indeed, much of it is downright silly; Agent Malik gets onto his laptop and seems to be able to immediately hack into anything automated anywhere in the world. Assistant Director Cooper listens to a few moments of explanation then growls something like: “Agents Ressler and Mojtabai: get down there, and find out what’s going on. I want these people brought in”. Moments later, agents Ressler and Mojtabai are transported from Washington to Alaska or Germany or wherever else the action is supposed to be like a pair of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, dressed in bullet-proof waistcoats and creeping round corners, pistols in both hands in front of their noses. In moments of need, they are accompanied by a team which follows them around in much the same fashion, but with machine guns instead of pistols. There is a lot of shooting (the baddies have machine guns too). Generally, the baddies die the moment they are shot, whereas the goodies (well, less bad anyway) typically recover after some touching scenes in hospital.
There are inaccuracies. Reddington wears shirts and waistcoats that look as if they have been bought from Walmart. That’s not right. Further, he has referred to his whisky as “IZZ – LAY”. He should know, of course, that it is pronounced “I’LL – a”. [1]
The great thing about it is that there is lots of it, so there is bingeing to be had galore.
[1] in fairness, Donovan also got it wrong in his album “Gift from a Flower to a Garden”:
How high the gulls fly
O’er Islay
How sad the farm lad
deep in play
Felt like a grain on your sand
How well the sheep’s bell
music makes
Roving the cliff
when fancy takes
Felt like a tide left me here
How blessed the forest
with birdsong
How neat the cut peat
laid so long
Felt like a seed on your land
It is not clear that Donovan was altogether with us in those days.
phenell 