Review: Blindspot

Show: Blindspot
Network: NBC

Welcome to the new standard in hour-long TV procedural cop dramas: a cop/government agent is forced to reluctantly partner up with a civilian who has a unique talent that helps the cop solve crimes. The Backlist, Numbers, The Mentalist to a lesser extent Sleepy Hollow (being of the same style, but with the supernatural element and less about solving a weekly murder) and now shows like Minority Report all follow this same format. And those are just the ones that I know about. I’m sure there are plenty of others. These are all nothing more than the derivative model of Sherlock Holmes’ character who is a consulting detective. Some of the better shows use this model and put the investigator’s partner in a career field where their skill is beneficial to the case instead of any-old-Joe.

Pros:

The one shining element of this pilot episode was the overall action. The show didn’t feel like it was an hour long because it was packed with things happening. They used practical effects, or at least did a good job masking the digital ones, and the fight scenes were fluid and appeared to be natural reactions instead of choreographed moments.

Another thing this show did well was creating a unique take on the civilian who assists the authorities. She has tattoos all over her body and they all indicate a crime. So, not only do the investigators have to solve the mystery of this woman, but they also have to solve the crime they have uncovered from the clues on her body.

Cons:

This whole concept is flawed—and one that is actually brought up many times in the show The Blacklist. In the real world, investigators seldom rely on civilians due to the dramatic propensity for misinformation. Eyewitnesses often relate contradictory information, even just moments after the events have taken place. That’s because the general public has no training for information retention and recall. That said, Hollywood has taken the steps to ensure these issues are negated by having the “partner” character imbued with certain attributes that move the story forward, or hold it back, depending on the character. In the case of Blindspot, the woman with all of the tattoos has a mysterious background shown in flashbacks where she is training with weapons and agrees to a procedure that will wipe her memory. So the writers have forced a mystery that could have been kept a mystery until much later, but they decided to prime the well by offering up memory flashes that indicate she has an ulterior, and probably counterproductive, motive to the protagonists. Which is really cliché by this day and age.

Is it worth your time?

There is definitely a market for this kind of show, and there are plenty of people who enjoy convoluted mysteries with forced character chemistry. And I am far from being judgmental on those individuals—heaven knows that I have my fair share of guilty pleasures. It’s just that, while writing this short piece, I realized that shows like this exist because of humanity’s hunger for the unknown, for the mystery that is right under their own nose.

Will I keep watching?

I’ll probably give this show another few episodes to gel, but if it is still rife with ambiguousness and forced character drama, then I’m going to drop it. After all, there are shows like Major Crimes and Doctor Who out there that I can watch.