The Blacklist season 3


The third season of the American crime thriller television series The Blacklist premiered on NBC on October 1, 2015, and concluded on May 19, 2016. The season consisted of 23 episodes. The season was produced by Davis Entertainment, Universal Television, and Sony Pictures Television, and the executive producers were Jon Bokenkamp, John Davis, John Eisendrath, John Fox, and Joe Carnahan.

Premise

The third season sees Liz and Reddington on the run from the government and the Task Force. The first part of the season explores The Cabal's efforts to capture Liz and Reddington and their efforts to clear Liz's name. The Cabal is represented by the ruthless Director of Operations|Director] of the CIA's National Clandestine Service Peter Kotsiopulos. The season also introduces private intelligence contractor Susan "Scottie" Hargrave, the mother of secret agent Tom Keen, mercenary Mattias Solomon and ex-United States Navy officer Nez Rowan, key characters for the spin-off series The Blacklist: Redemption, focusing on Tom and Scottie Hargrave. The final episodes of the season also introduce a new series antagonist Alexander Kirk, AKA Konstantin Rostov, a businessman with aplastic anaemia, who claims to be Liz's father and will stop at nothing to protect her and win her loyalty. An important subplot for the season is Liz's pregnancy and Reddington's cleaner Mr. Kaplan's efforts to protect Liz and Tom's daughter from Reddington.

Cast

Main

Production

, who plays Red's body man, Dembe Zuma, was promoted to series regular beginning with Season 3.

Spin-off

Episode 22 was written by Bokenkamp and Eisendrath and directed by Michael Dinner as a potential spin-off of the series. That spin-off, titled The Blacklist: Redemption, was announced shortly after the airing of Episode 22, and was aired on NBC from February to April 2017 before it was cancelled with only 8 episodes due to low ratings.

Reception

The third season of The Blacklist received positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 93% approval score based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The consensus reads: "The Blacklist is back in top form with fresh dangers that put Red on the ropes while giving James Spader room to shine".

Ratings