With the fall TV season starting, I will be reviewing some of the currently airing TV shows that I watch. There are quite a few promising TV shows this season.
First one up: Blindspot, or Jane’s no good very bad day++ (get it?)
No good very bad stuff #1:
When you crawl out of a duffel bag sans pants (and a shirt) in the middle of Times Square, you’re not having a good day. Really? Whoever’s behind this went through all those trouble and couldn’t throw in some tee shirt and yoga pants? Uncool.
No good very bad stuff #2: Having FBI case files tatooed on you
If you complained about TSA body scanner at the airport before, now is a good time to put things in perspective. Every tatoo is a piece of a puzzle to some FBI case…and there are a whole lot of tatoos. At least whoever designed it had better sense to turn those cases into a cool tatoo pattern. Why the FBI is not interviewing every tatoo artist is beyond me.
No good very bad stuff #3: Memory loss
At which point the viewers are cued in that Jane can’t. remember. anything. Except for all those foreign language skills, hand-to-hand combat skills, marksmanship skills, and general badassery skillz. Those skills are enough for her to be employed(ish) by the FBI, with housing benefits (sort of). Don’t worry, she still gets shot at every so often to remind us that someone really doesn’t like her.
No good very bad stuff #4: Office drama / conspiracy / shadiness
These FBI special task force people have zero life outside of work, so they hang out together a lot, which inevitably results in some drama. Of course, almost everyone has some kind of baggage or shady past (or present, for that matter).
As an upshot, this calls for some character development, so we’re not watchig the same one-dimensional character solving crimes every week. My favorite aside fron Jane has got to be Patterson – the resident geek. There’s definitely a hint of Kirk-Scotty thing going on with Weller (the really broody dude heading the task force thing) and Patterson that makes you chuckle every week. (I got a geek bias, though)
No good very bad stuff #5: Jane has no clue who’s on her side
Everyone has some agenda. If you’re Jane, you’re never quite sure who’s telling the truth (unless your name is Kurt Weller, aka worst lier on Earth). It’s like you’re stuck in a real-life CLUE, where the players are allowed to give you BS information all the time. Paging Dr. Lightman…
And that’s just first few episodes. The beginning of first season may feel like it’s dragging on at times with “tatoo of the week” and not much advancing of the plot. Just hang in there and you’ll be rewarded with a whole lot of crazy towards the end of the first season.
Blindspot is currently on its second season, and if anything, this show is getting better and better. If you like puzzles and drama that makes you think, this is for you. With every question that is answered, you get a few new questions to be answered.
Bonus supergeek feature: Each episode title is an anagram, and all episode titles in a season makes up a secret message. Of course, someone on internet has already decoded them, but if you don’t want to spoiler yourself, stay clear from Wikipedia and try to crack the code yourself.
Hey, I said supergeek.
Stay tuned for the next review…
*All images are taken from Blindspot Wiki