Courtesy of NBC

After taking a week off for reality TV singing competitions , NBC’s saviour of Fall 2013 returns with the first of a special two part event. We’re counting down the pros and cons of ‘Anslo Garrick, Part 1′.

Let’s bitch it out…

Pros

• Lizzie (Megan Boone) goes into action heroine mode: Sure it would have been more impressive not to hear her mumble “Remember your training” repeatedly, but the makeshift silencer and general Alias-lite meets Die Hard/Under Siege is kinda cool
• Spader soliloquies: Red’s speeches are either indulgent messes of purple prose or velvet elixir breathed from the serpent’s tongue. His “I wanna live speech” is actually a pretty decent bucket list (points detracted for the saccharine musical accompaniment that makes this evocative passage play like a 5-hanky tearjerker)
• Ressler (Diego Klatenhoff) is (hopefully) fatally shot: If the gods of TV are just, this character will contract sepsis and expire. If the gods of TV are merciful, his incinerated leg wound will go gangrene and his body will fall apart. If the gods of TV act like they normally do, this lame-o character will miraculously survive long enough to escape from the plexiglass prison and go on to further ruin the show. Tune in next week!
• Joe Carnahan’s direction: Gosh you can tell when a director knows their way around an action scene, can’t you? Tension, atmosphere and well-executed action go a long way to making this show look like the big deal it aspires to be. Compare this to the atrocious chase scene in the Isabella Rossellini episode if you dare to see just how much more impressive this is

Cons

• “Red” shirt sacrifices: Of all of the characters on the show who deserve a bullet in the back of the head , Red’s two henchmen were at the bottom of my list. These were essentially non-characters because the writers could never be bothered to do anything other than write “black bodyguard or hot asian bodyguard walks behind Red”. And now we’ll never know what made these people the best people in the world to protect him… because both just got executed. It’s so aggravating that potentially interesting characters are killed while 2D paper cut-out characters continue to exist. Grrr!
• Police ineptness: I appreciate that “The Wild Bunch” (ugh) are meant to be specially trained soldiers, but the fact that the FBI can’t take down a single one of them in the initial attack is beyond dumb. Yet Lizzie manages to take out several of them without breaking stride
• Kessler’s backstory: Hopefully, as some commentors are suggesting, Kessler’s sudden backstory info-dump will spell his doom. The whole “I hunted you for five years; you broke up my engagement” crap is just that: garbaggio. I suppose I should appreciate the attempt by the writers to rescue this character by providing him with some actual background, but I just can’t…because I don’t care. Sepsis, gangrene, death – do it up!
• Finally, Lizzie’s shoes: She can’t get out of the elevator, so she takes off her heels. She then spends the rest of the episode in combat mode in bare feet?! Maybe in Part 2 she’ll get shot in the foot or step on a hot bullet casing?

Your turn: am I being overly snarky? Think this was the best episode since the pilot? Do you wish that Red’s henchmen had survived? Do you think Kessler is a goner? Were you aware it was a two-parter or did the sudden ending catch you by surprise? Hit the comments below

The Blacklist airs Mondays at 9pm EST on NBC