Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a new action star.
Blindspot recently premiered on NBC to a lot of fanfare, especially since it has a lot going for it moving into the fall season. Sure, it has a lot of star power and well-crafted advertising, but is it a great show? Is it one of those pieces of television that could make you want to come back again and again?
You’d better believe it is.
The Characters
Welcome to Network TV, Mr. Stapleton. You glorious bastard, you.
Sullivan Stapleton and Jaimie Alexander dominate the show as FBI Agent Kurt Weller and Jane Doe, respectively. Given the fact that it is network television, the two of them do a very good job at building up a contrast between this show and their previous roles. Alexander, in particular, portrays what a damn fine actress she is by illustrating the vulnerability and later badassery of her mystery woman. I could easily understand why she was promoted as a female Jason Bourne, but I think that this show has the capacity to go even deeper into the themes that could be derived from using amnesia as a MacGuffin.
Stapleton, too, draws an admirable contrast between Agent Weller and his previous role as Sergeant Damien Scott in Strike Back. Whereas Scott was a lovable rogue who got laid to the point of absurdity, Weller demonstrates Stapleton’s potential for commanding the screen. I was looking for a little bit more character development in the pilot, but I am confident that the writers will do a good job at pointing out how strong this guy really is.
The Threats Are Simple
She’d let the cat out of the bag, but she was afraid of pissing off the network censors.
An unidentified and heavily tattooed woman is discovered in a duffel bag in the middle of Times Square. No one knows who she is or why she has what appears to be a set of clues across her body. The FBI interviews her and tries to figure out what was going on, and what do we get at the end of it all?
An attempt to bomb the Statue of Liberty.
This actually works in the show’s favor, believe it or not, because it reduces the need for the audience to suspend disbelief over what is going on and creates a show that is a fit for the times we live in. You can go along with the show because the threat that they are going to have to stop is plausible, which is where other shows tend to fall flat on their face and make the good guys almost incompetent. One key example was 24. That show suffered from a problem where the protagonists would have to stop WMDs, so you would have to turn your brain off to prevent yourself from asking questions that would bust the narrative.
The writers avoided that problem. Well done.
The Flaws
This guy has charisma in spades, but…
While the show is good, that is not to say that it is completely without flaws. After all, no show on the face of the planet is perfect.
First, the supporting cast is just there. They are neither cardboard cutouts or fully fleshed out characters. They are just there to get the job done and end the episode. I would have liked to see a little bit more humor or an explanation behind who these characters are.
Second, there were some plot issues that could have been cut from the episode with a minor correction to the script, namely because they are a time sink. In a few instances, Agent Weller has to go in to secure a building with his team, but he tells Jane Doe to stay in the car. This would be okay if it were not for the fact that they knew that they were chasing a Chinese national and that Jane already demonstrated expert proficiency in the language in a previous scene. They shouldn’t have her barging in with them, but they shouldn’t have her stay in the car, either. If nothing else, it helps to move the plot along a little bit faster.
Lastly, the scene where Jane Doe demonstrates how much of a warrior she is could have been handled better, especially since it was based around a situation of domestic violence. We don’t know these side characters and they were never mentioned again in the show, so I felt like it would have been better if the bad guys that Jane fought were tied to the plot. It would demonstrate her abilities, reinforce her relationship with the team, and explain a little bit of reasoning behind how there seems to be a larger plan in play.
Conclusion
You owe it to yourself to check out Blindspot. It has great potential, so don’t miss it.
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