{"id":297117,"date":"2026-02-18T09:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T09:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/297117\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T09:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T09:11:09","slug":"why-the-blacklist-aged-well-in-the-streaming-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/297117\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The Blacklist Aged Well in the Streaming Era"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Spader\u2019s 10-season crime drama The Blacklist<\/a> is getting even better in the streaming age, because we don\u2019t get long-running procedural shows like this anymore. Spader has a long history with procedurals. He originated the character of Alan Shore<\/a> on The Practice, and later reprised the role as the lead of Boston Legal.<\/p>\n

Throughout his impressive career in television, Spader has had guest roles in Seinfeld and Frasier, he was the saving grace of The Office\u2019s eighth season as Robert California, and he\u2019s about to bring back his Marvel villain Ultron in the upcoming series VisionQuest. But Spader\u2019s most iconic TV role is Raymond \u201cRed\u201d Reddington in The Blacklist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Blacklist Has Aged Well Thanks To The Streaming Era<\/p>\n

\"James
\n James Spader in The Blacklist<\/p>\n

The Blacklist ran for 10 seasons<\/a> from 2013 to 2023, comprising a whopping 218 episodes, and that\u2019s precisely why it\u2019s aging so well in the streaming era. These kinds of long-running procedural thrillers used to be a staple of the TV landscape, but they\u2019re becoming a thing of the past in the age of streaming.<\/p>\n

In the streaming era, studios want to make short seasons that air years apart, so they can retain subscribers for as long as possible for as little cost as possible. Even the procedurals on network TV have to compete with a lot of other things these days, so most won\u2019t ever reach as many seasons as The Blacklist (besides the already established franchises).<\/p>\n

Why There May Never Be Another Show Like The Blacklist<\/p>\n

\"Liz
\n Liz pointing a gun at Red in The Blacklist season 8 finale<\/p>\n

The Blacklist sees Spader in a sort of Hannibal Lecter role, playing a notorious criminal who reluctantly agrees to assist law enforcement in catching other notorious criminals. Red is one of the FBI\u2019s Most Wanted fugitives, and throughout the series, he helps the FBI track down other criminals on his eponymous \u201cBlacklist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadly, we may never see another show like this. The Blacklist has an episodic format. In each episode, Red helps the FBI find another criminal on his list. Today, the streamers prefer serialized shows that feel like a long movie, so they\u2019re unlikely to greenlight a case-of-the-week show like The Blacklist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Procedural Thrillers Shouldn’t Become A Thing Of The Past<\/p>\n

\"Ron
\n Ron Perlman as Luther Braxton biting his lip in The Blacklist season 2<\/p>\n

It might be tempting for streamers and networks to just let the procedural disappear into obscurity and become a thing of the past. But there\u2019s a lot of value in shows like The Blacklist. The ability to drop in on any given episode and follow a self-contained mystery storyline is great for audiences. Serialized shows string you along, but procedurals give you the satisfaction of closure in every single episode.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Spader\u2019s 10-season crime drama The Blacklist is getting even better in the streaming age, because we don\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,411],"class_list":["post-297117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}