Blacklist (2019)

What a mess

No. Just. No. Please don’t give Dan Worrawech any more directing jobs, please!

My expectations when starting this series were very low already. Admittedly, the story was better than I expected; it was still a very obvious “The Gifted” rip-off, but the plot development was for the most part unpredictable (which is also due to the fact that it was so random, though). Looking back, there were quite some truly thrilling moments (in the middle of the overall mess). Therefore I must admit that the screenwriters did an okay job – but what Worrawech made out of the material is below my worst expectations. Sadly, not one of the actors was able to show off their acting qualities. Only Ohm managed to save some parts; but Nanon and many others seemed to find themselves back in acting class throughout all the ridiculous sequences of scenes. The two main bad guys were somewhat better than the rest of the cast, but that might be because their characters were much better written than the others.

How can you throw in so many serious topics like drug use and trafficking, gambling, child abuse, kidnapping, attempted and actual murder, bullying and attempted mass shooting, and make it become such an unbelievable mess? There was not a hint of an underlying “message” (like in “The Gifted” or “A Gift to the People You Hate”), the motives of the characters (both good and bad guys) were unconvincing, plot holes everywhere, cringeworthy dialogues, fake dramatic moments (how often do you want to stamp your foot or push a chair just to show everyone that you are angry?) and unnecessary romance with no chemistry. Oh, and let’s not forget the 12-part commercial: it was actually well done (unlike the series), but who thought it to be a good idea promoting this kind of drink after a storyline dealing with the negative effects of recreational drug abuse? Yes, Mr. Worrawech, you have truly outdone yourself!

I don’t want to keep ranting; I know from the comments that many people somehow managed to enjoy the series, so apparently there’s an audience for it somewhere out there. Good for you. But try for a moment to imagine the same storyline done by a director who knows what they are doing – it could have been so much better! Since it kept me watching, I won’t rate the series as low as my review may sound like. But generally speaking I wouldn’t recommend watching this to anyone.

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I went into this show after watching The Gifted, which is basically everything this show tried to be. There are a couple of the same characters and a pretty similar concept, minus the supernatural aspect. I thought "this can't possibly be that bad" since it seemed so similar. Oh, I was wrong.

My first and BIGGEST gripe is the fact that they had to give EVERY character a love interest. Not only was this pointless and made the characters dull, but it confused the fuck out of me. I couldn't remember a single name because we have like twelve students being introduced back to back to back. I ended up calling them all by names me and my boyfriend made up! The romance was super forced and mostly involved the man saving the "helpless" girl. It seemed like they had to be in a relationship to be interesting, which is not true at all! I think this seriously took away from the story. I'll admit, there were a few couples that were necessary to advance the plot, such as the main Teacher and the female teacher (see, can't remember their names and I just finished it ten minutes ago). I also think the relationship with the principals niece and the nerd was also good for the plot! Otherwise, the girls were really pretty useless. I don't even remember how the guys met half of them! That's how ridiculously fast they introduced them all.

The story was interesting in the beginning, then got way too convoluted. There were about five different villains in a thirteen episode show. The plot twists were super predictable, my boyfriend said "Oh, the female teacher is evil??" In an early episode and guess what, that was the big plot twist! The aspect that drew me in was their "special abilities" but you better believe you hardly get to see them ever. What's the point??

The ending was rushed and unsatisfying. We get the image of all the couples living happily ever after and then the teacher making the same mistake he'd already made and sending the students out AGAIN to do secret missions. LIKE WHERE ARE THE POLICE? WHERE IS THE FBI? HELLO? I also want to let you know that the woman who pushed a student off of the roof of the building, had sex with a student, held another hostage in her house and then tried to poison her when she escaped then sent someone to kill her in the hospital. Yeah! THEY COMFORT HER. SHE ONLY MADE ONE MISTAKE THEY SAID. JESUS.

What a disappointment. So god awful in every way. It had potential to be a great show, but they tried far too hard and ended up ruining it.

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