Discussion Series / TheBlacklist

Trope for the throwback in S05E11 "Abraham Stern" where Liz looks into the case files from S01E04, "The Stewmaker," to reuse his technique?

Am I the only one who thinks Red it a Marty Stu? I'm not saying he's a bad character, but I'm rather surprised he didn't have an entry on YMMV. I fully admit I'm not a fan of this show, I only watched the first three episodes, but in each one I thought Red had to have magical powers to be able to do everything he does. I know the FBI in this show is rather dumb (at least at first) but for them to end up wrapped around Red's fingers without even realizing they were, while he's still able to outmaneuver every single villain in the show, and manipulate everyone he talks to, strikes me as rather Sue behavior. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of smart characters, but without seeing how he does it I feel like he's constantly pulling Deus Ex Machinas out of his pockets. I don't even dislike him, I just don't find him interesting for these reasons and one of the definitions of Mary Sue is "so perfect they're boring". Everyone seemed to fall in love with him instantly though, and I really don't get why.

Wanted to move this to Discussion:

• Men Are the Expendable Gender: The show seems to treat killing off female characters with kid gloves. So far, most of the men featured on Red's titular blacklist have been killed off (the exceptions being The Freelancer, General Ludd, Wujing and Owen Mallory), while only one of the women on it have been. In addition, as of March 27th, there have only been six on-screen female deaths, all of whom have been killed by villains or antagonists (three were killed by Red; two of them definitely deserved it), and only one of whom was herself a villain (Jolene). While the show isn't afraid to kill off major female characters (Luli), it treats the act as far more heinous and unforgivable than killing male characters. Jolene's death also happens to be Tom Keen's first on-screen kill, and undeniable proof that he is the monster Red claims he is.

I had a problem with this example to begin with- as I see it, the example wants to argue that female characters don't get killed in the show, so it basically tries to argue that all these examples of female characters being killed "don't really count".

In addition to these examples, we can know add Mira. Honestly, I'm kind of inclined to say the show follows Anyone Can Die- I don't really think there's any pattern or for that matter a prejudice in favor of sparing female characters. While there's probably been way more male characters killed if you are looking at mooks, among named characters, women seem no "safer" than male ones. I'd say the only safe characters are Liz, Red, and the FBI team, but even that isn't really the case.

Recap page? What recap page?

Shouldn't there be a trope for when someone finds a box filled with multiple passports, cash and a gun?