Now THIS is more like it.  This is what I was left wanting for with Hostages.  This is way more of the 24 vibe I’ve been missing since it left the air.  Explosions, James Spader, car chases, James Spader, torture scenes and James Spader torture scenes and plenty of “Dammit, Chloe! There’s No TIME!” elements.  I dug it quite a bit.  I hope there’s a cool overarching story throughout and not just a Monster Of The Week thing happening.  But it’s so nice to see James Spader in this kind of role again instead of Robert California in the assy final season of the Office.

The show is like a hybrid of 24 and Silence Of The Lambs with Spader in the Hannibal Lecter role.  Our Clarice Starling this go round is Elizabeth Keen played by Megan Boon, who’s an FBI profiler about to start her first day of work.  She’s green as grass but Reddington(Spader) refuses to speak to anyone but her.  He’s done his homework on her and knows secrets about her that she doesn’t even know, as in the end of the episode we realize her husband is not the man he claims to be.  We don’t know what his deal is, but he’s not exactly a baby happy husband that he’s been playing to this point.

Red laughs at the FBI’s most wanted list calling it a “popularity contest at best”.  He knows where the real danger is, the criminals that they don’t even know about yet that are planning some heinous shit.  THE BLACKLIST!  And we aren’t quite sure what his motivations are yet, but if the FBI follows what basically amounts to as his rider(look it up), he will help them catch the most dangerous men on the planet.  This show kept my attention from front to back and left me wanting more.  Which is more than I can say for Hostages.  Hopefully its post-Voice timeslot can pull it some decent numbers because I’m tired of getting attached to shows that get pulled after five episodes.

8/10