Are the recent seasons of The Blacklist worth watching from television So I’ve watched a little past that point and, to me anyway, I feel like the episodes are slowly going downhill and getting worse. But I also want to know if there any good parts worth watching in the future (but without spoiling it). Posted and paid for coverage. Took about two-three weeks to receive. Was extremely pleased with what I view as exceptionally high-quality coverage for the $50.00 fee. Serious writers know intuitively what works and doesn't work in our scripts and where we are in our own personal development and command of story craft. At a certain point it is genuinely useful to get intelligent input from a completely fresh set of eyes. My first impression: The BL evaluator actually read and focused while reading, (didn't just 20-20-10 it). Yes coverage providers, we can tell. The evaluation was 677 words long and broken into three main segments following an impressive and useful re-write of the logline that demonstrated the evaluator knew and understood the premise. The three main segments of the review: Strengths, Weaknesses and Prospects. This script scored 7/10. Average on The Blacklist according to their site is 5.67/10. I agreed with absolutely everything the evaluator stated, both with regard to the strengths as well as on the areas that need improving. The evaluator wrote in a style that provided precise clues and keywords on how to go about addressing the issues outlined. Not only were problems precisely outlined -- solutions to those problems were provided. The terminology and concise economy of ideas were truly useful; I just cut and pasted them line-by-line into a improvised worksheet format and set about writing a paragraph of narrative directly under each line I extracted. I couldn't have asked for a more helpful review -- laser-like in its precision and clarity -- written by someone with experience, a desire to help and communication skills. Good stuff. Thanks to the review, I know exactly what needs to be done to get this script to the next level. I should add that this screenplay was work-shopped extensively on a peer-review site where it placed "top-three" in January 2014. It was not a rough or first draft. All the formatting had been addressed in previous drafts through my own editing and through peer review. (As a result, there were no comments about formatting in the BL evaluation.) Recommended but with this caveat. I strongly suggest aspiring screenwriters join a peer-review forum and workshop early versions of their screenplay. Master at least formatting, (if not story craft which takes longer to develop), before plunking down cash on a site like The Blacklist. I guess what I am saying is I wouldn't start with The Blacklist and throw something up that you intuitively know is kind of half-assed, just to see if it will stick (it won't). You will know when your work is ready to be given a little more serious look. From what I have read and my own personal experience The Blacklist operates with an understanding of the industry, with genuine connections in the industry and with a strong desire to be a bona-fide conduit for good writing (not just a virtual wood-chipper for the dreams of aspiring screenwriters and their wallets). Their business model puts a solid emphasis on the former. A certain amount of the latter is probably unavoidable in the process. One last note. Though the script scored a "7", I believe I need to write "9's" consistently to achieve success in line with my own personal goals. I don't think 7's (or even 8's) cut it. Page 2Posted by8 years ago
 32 comments I'm considering submitting my screenplay to The Black List. I've read a lot of post mentioning them but I haven't heard of any success stories on here. I also hardly heard anyones raw opinion of viability of the service. Has anyone had any good experiences with the blacklist? Do you think that it is worth the money they ask for? Page 2
24 comments I hate starting a show that starts realistic but becomes absurd or grotesque, or plain boring. I watched the first episode last night and it was OK-ish, is it worth it to invest time? I know most of you probably like the show since you are here, but objectively? For a little bit of background: I didn't know what this show was about, nor who James Spader even was. It was just in my Netflix recommendations, and I figured it was worth a shot. Writing is not my strongest feat but I just felt like I needed to let this out. Tl;dr at the bottom. After watching the very first episode, I guess it seemed promising given the premises presented, the whole "only-talking-to-a-certain-agent" premise was "new" to me since I wasn't really well acquainted with crime investigation shows. What I didn't know was that beyond this was a well-written story that just leaves you actually thinking. It was enjoyable, add to it the execution of the actor who plays Raymond Reddington. Until you get past season 2. If you're still wondering why this subreddit is full of hate-watch rants about the show, I recommend that you watch until season 2 and see if its still worth watching. I dropped the series after somewhere in Season 5. Season 3 and 4 are bearable to say the least, and if you get past it I'm sure you'll get through the next seasons. If you do choose to watch it, run away from this subreddit now. It's either you see it through without a second opinion (that may make or break your viewing experience), or not. ----------[spoilers and rants]---------- I just don't understand why the writers decided to just butcher the character of Red. Somewhere along the way, it slowly felt like even Spader was tired of whatever he's gotten himself into. And his script... sometimes it feels like I'm listening to an old man repeat the same story all over again. Red sees Dembe as his friend or equal but even the writers can't seem to think of a way on how that part could've been developed. Hell, Dembe presence is always felt but they just decided to drop that story part altogether. I wish they built on that part more. The whole hierarchy of the taskforce and how they sooner or later come to be just PAINS me. It's as if slapping on another female POC is just what they needed. The actors themselves aren't the issue, it's how their existence somehow reinforces the already established stereotypes (let's save that for another discussion), which doesn't help if they're trying to be more "inclusive" in a sense. Meera's role and how she was written was nrealy perfect-- but Samar and Park's(?) background/ profile to the story doesn't do with the story much, they're just there. The writing of their relationships were solid during the first seasons but the next episodes just don't do the story any justice. They literally made everyone at the mercy of Keen and for no damn good reason other than being her friend. I don't think this has been said much but the music choice for the episodes went downhill along with the direction and the execution of the story as well. Some scenes were destroyed by the music choice and I just can't point it out but it doesn't even make it atmospheric anymore. All plotholes and errors in writing aside, The story still seems plausible on paper. You can literally take it apart and take some essential part together and it could still seem logically sound, maybe? This could only stretch so far and they're running out of criminal ideas as well. Season 5 would've been a good denoument-- they were able to somehow execute the "drama" side of the story, but I guess this show will probably get stuck in its falling action. I'm still hoping that they could probably do a proper overhaul in season 9, that's the only possible end game that probably still makes sense at this point. Wrap up the story nicely-- have a bit of human decency to properly plan out a season rather than making shit up along the way. This show really was promising, and I'm still gonna stick around this subreddit to see it through. ---------[end of rant]---------- |
