The Endgame is Blacklist-esque without star power

[TMC]

https://www.tvguide.com/news/the-end...ichelle-bathe/

"The Blacklist, now in its ninth season, is long in the tooth, and NBC is probably hoping The Endgame can serve as a replacement for The Blacklist whenever The Blacklist ends," says Liam Matthews. "But The Endgame lacks the thing that has kept The Blacklist going as long as it has: star power. The Blacklist wouldn't work without James Spader's incredible charisma as crime boss Raymond Reddington. People keep tuning in because they like hanging out with Red Reddington and want to see what he'll do next. Major cast members have come and gone around Spader, and the show has kept going. Morena Baccarin and Ryan Michelle Bathe — longtime supporting players getting starring roles in a large-scale series for the first time — do not feel irreplaceable, and the show's clunky, obvious writing doesn't give them much to work with as they try to win our collective attention."

• Unlike The Blacklist and many network crime dramas, The Endgame proceeds on a densely serialized path: "For now, The Endgame makes enough of the right moves to inspire curiosity about where this intricate scheme ultimately leads," says Brian Lowry. "While it doesn't tell you much about its endgame, as this sort of exercise goes, that's a good place to start."