With Season 2 having just been released on DVD and Blu-Ray today – and with six episodes of Season 3 now having aired, I caught up with two of the creative minds behind the popular series The Blacklist – creator Jon Bokenkamp and Producer John Eisendrath – to reflect on Season 2 and look ahead to Season 3. Note that this interview took place just before the first episode went to air, so there are on spoilers for Season Three – however there may be spoilers for Season Two!
How’s the day treating you?
Jon Bokenkamp: It’s winding down, which is good! The day’s good – we got some good stuff done today.
So this time of year, you’re deep into season 3, I would imagine. What’s an average day for you this time of year?
Jon B: Well this is actually where we start juggling between writing scripts, shooting scripts, and editing the episodes. Everything is kind of up and running at full speed now. We haven’t fallen too far behind yet, but I’m sure we will in short order.
Is that the normal run of things?
Jon B: Yes, it seems that we’re constantly operating in a state of panic and trying to catch up, but we’re not there quite yet!
And it’s always an interesting time, this period, as well because you’re not only working out the next season and getting that happening, but the last season is coming out on DVD, so you’re having to look back on what happened almost a year ago.
Jon B: Right, and in our case it’s the same day – when season 3 picks up it’s the same day and so a lot of the things that just happened in, what was a year ago, are incredibly relevant in the stories that we’re telling so it’s not quite as disjointed as it might be in other seasons.
So let’s talk about the end of the season, you’re setting up almost what could potentially be a series reboot, with the direction that Season 3 will head in. What prompted the direction that you took in “Tom Connolly”?
Jon B: It feels like it was an organic, natural extension of the story that we are telling over the course of the series. Take the character arc for Liz for instance. She started out so sweet, innocent and naïve, and we always thought that she would arc in a way where all the things she’s learned about herself and about Red’s interest in her would lead her to a darker space, and so the idea that the series started with Red Reddington’s face on the most wanted poster and the end of Season 2 is her face on the Most Wanted poster next to his, seemed like a natural arc for her character.
And can you give us any hints as to where that may lead us in the next season?
John Eisendrath: For starters, they’re on the run, so in that sense it’s a totally fresh energy to the show. It’s incredibly tense, the stakes are incredibly high and all of our characters have very specific opinions about what is happening, what’s happened to Liz, and how to handle it. In that sense it’s a lot of fun because the show feels adrenalised in an interesting way.
In terms of where Liz is heading, I think she’s struggling with this notion that there’s a piece within her that is criminal. Red told her in the very first episode of the show ‘think like a criminal, it may come easier to you than you may expect’ and I think that sort of haunts her, and now, even though she has whispers of a criminal past that we’ve alluded to, now that she’s being confronted with actually being a criminal, she’s had to rely on these instincts that she wants to ignore and pretend like they’re not there – and now she needs them.
So, not only is Liz forced to embrace a darker side that might be within her, we’re also getting to go out and travel with Red and to see him take the reigns and see how he operates and where he goes and stays in ways that we haven’t really seen before. Liz is going to take the audience by the hand and go into Red’s world a little bit more and learn about how he moves and operates which is going to be a lot of fun.
So throughout the seasons leading up to this, you obviously get to tell a lot of different stories about bad people and I imagine you get to have a bit of fun with that. Were there any particular highlights from the 2nd season of stories you got to tell?
Jon B: I love the character of Tom Connolly, the Attorney General and ultimately the person who Liz killed, and in many ways, is on the run because of that. I love his story with the character played by Harry Lennix, Harold Cooper, and the ongoing story of how he lied to him and trapped him and made him believe he was sick when in fact he wasn’t. He personified in intensely evil way all that is bad and how one would entrap someone as good as Cooper. I love in the end when Cooper was willing to die rather than take orders from Tom Connolly, only to realise he wasn’t sick in the first place. I think he was a great ongoing character that you didn’t understand – thought maybe was good, but ultimately knew was god-awful.
John E: I thought there was some fun just in the stories themselves, like I loved T. Earl King, the King family and the Mombasa cartel and I thought there was some fun Blacklisters that were strange and weird and dangerous and were plotting horrible things. Vanessa Cruz was one who I thought was a lot of fun, a bit of a different Blacklister for us. I think we had a lot of fun telling those different case-of-the-week stories.
When you start a new season, do you know where you’re going? Do you know where you’re ending up at the end of the season? Is that really locked in from the minute you start shooting a season?
John E: We know lots of it, a lot of it changes as we move along when we find stories that are more exciting to us. Right now we’re having a lot of fun with Liz and Red being on the run, and so that’s sort of grown a bit and we’ve embraced that, but there are definitely signposts throughout the season and then also beyond that throughout the stories that we are working toward. At times we put our foot on the accelerator to get toward them sooner, other times we slow down a bit and take a little longer to get to those reveals, but yes there is a map that we’re following and at times can shift if we feel like that’s necessary.
I wish you guys the best for the season and I hope everything goes well for you and I really appreciate your time today!
Jon B: Thanks so much for taking the time to talk!
John E: That’s great, we need to get Red down to Australia!
Fit us in somehow, you can work it out…
Jon B: We’re on it!
Blacklist: The Complete Second Season is available on DVD and Blu-Ray now. The third season screens Wednesdays on Channel 7. Head HERE for more details.
———-
