History YMMV / TheBlacklist

* HarsherInHindsight: "The Cabal", also known as "The Fulcrum" InUniverse, who appeared in Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6, seemed like a subject of {{Satire}} of a world government in 2014, but as of 2020-2021 UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic and the conspiracy theory of "The Great Reset", with QAnon-type conspiracy theorists believing that a cabal engineered the COVID-19 Pandemic and the "You will own nothing and be happy in 2030" theory, this now seems a lot darker than when it was around 2013-2014 and 2015-2017 in the series. Made especially more shocking by the fact that conspiracy theorists online are spreading this misinformation and theory quite a lot across social media.

** Stewmaker. Despite being a hired corpse-dissolver for various criminals, he still doesn't kill any of said victims himself -- and even when he eventually does attack someone ([[spoiler:Liz]]) directly, at least there's still no real indication that he's going to actually dissolve her '''''antemortem'''''. [[spoiler:Therefore, some fans can't help but agree with Liz's YouMonster reaction to Red ultimately dissolving Stewmaker '''''alive''''' in his own acid, which is supposed to come off as a KickTheSonOfABitch moment instead.]] It also doesn't hurt that Stewmaker is genuinely AffablyEvil, has an ObliviouslyEvil mindset regarding his reputation on the Blacklist, and literally invokes PetTheDog toward his -- well -- dog.

* EpilepticTrees: The rather bizarre theory that spawned on Tumblr that Tom Keen and Donald Ressler are actually each other. The theory goes that Tom has a secret ear piece that he uses to communicate with Ressler, and that many of his lines are actually Ressler talking. According to the people who created/believe the theory, this makes [[spoiler: Agnes Keen Ressler's daughter instead of Tom's and Liz is actually married to Ressler.]] There is little to no evidence in the series to support any of this, and the theory is quite widely disputed by other fans on the Internet.

* FanPreferredCouple: Lizzington (Red/Liz) is the most popular ship in the fandom, mostly thanks to the chemistry between Creator/JamesSpader (Red) and Creator/MeganBoone (Liz), as well as the fact that much of the show is focused on their dynamic. It even surpasses the canon Liz/Tom pairing in terms of popularity, despite repeated hints that Red might be Liz's father (and is eventually revealed to have been her [[spoiler:mother]]).

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: "The Cabal", also known as "The Fulcrum" InUniverse, who appeared in Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6, seemed like a subject of {{Satire}} of a world government in 2014, but as of 2020-2021 UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic and the conspiracy theory of "The Great Reset", with QAnon-type conspiracy theorists believing that a cabal engineered the COVID-19 Pandemic and the "You will own nothing and be happy in 2030" theory, this now seems a lot darker than when it was around 2013-2014 and 2015-2017 in the series. Made especially more shocking by the fact that conspiracy theorists online are spreading this misinformation and theory quite a lot across social media.

** Season 6: [[PsychoForHire Bastien Moreau]], aka "[[WesternTerrorists The Corsican]]", is an assassin, No. 20 on the list, who forces surgeon Hans Koehler to give him a brand new face. [[HeKnowsTooMuch Murdering Koehler and his team]], then [[BadBoss his own subordinates]], Moreau intends to murder a diplomat by bombing the UN and killing everyone present even if it goes against his ideas of anti-globalism at the core, so he can keep the image. Moreau has a long history of terrorist attacks in the name of nationalism, murdering a German diplomat before realizing he is being used and attempting to turn on his employers and Reddington at the end.

* WhatAnIdiot: In "Anne", Reddington warns the officers in the Cottonwood Falls police station that not sending him out to be given to Neville Townsend will get them all killed. Naturally, one of the officers named Brandt [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere tries to leave without his sidearm as he doesn't want to be seen protecting a known spy and criminal]], but [[CopKiller Townsend's men kill him anyway]].

* CriticalResearchFailure:
** The LHD vehicles seen in "Alexander Kirk".
** The episode "Esteban" shows that the setting was in Cuba, but pay attention to the background and you'll see modern vehicles like Hondas and Fords driving by, something that Cuba doesn't have due to years of sanctions.
** The existence of a ruling Montenegrin Royal Family. Montenegro is a democratic republic, and has only been a kingdom for 8 measly years in its entire history (before, it has been a prince-bishopric first and then, from 1858 to 1910, a principality).
** When Tom gets his makeover to pose as a German neo-Nazi, he gets a bunch of appropriate tattoos, including a pretty famous slogan that would best be translated as "Germany to/for the Germans"... except that it was translated quite literally to "Deutschland für Die (sic) Deutschen". Which - apart from the grammar mistake - would look pretty suspicious since the actual slogan is "Deutschland ''den'' Deutschen" (dative case plural).
** Almost everything having to do with biology, especially the Black Death. There is no reason modern antibiotics wouldn't work on a medieval strain of ''Yersinia pestis''; in fact, they'd be ''more'' likely to work because such an old disease wouldn't have had the chance to develop any kind of antibiotic resistance. The science in "The Alchemist" is also suspect—there's no way to change an individual's entire genome to resemble a different person's to the point where the two are genetically the same.
** Marie-Antoinette's execution, referenced by Reddington in ''The Third Estate'', has nothing to do with the Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana; not only was she sentenced under the laws of the First French Republic, the Constitutio was no longer even enforced in Austria itself, having been abolished in 1776 along with all forms of torture.

* FanPreferredCouple: Lizzington (Red/Liz) is the most popular ship in the fandom, mostly thanks to the chemistry between Creator/JamesSpader (Red) and Creator/MeganBoone (Liz), as well as the fact that much of the show is focused on their dynamic. It even surpasses the canon Liz/Tom pairing in terms of popularity, despite repeated hints that Red might be Liz's father (or mother).

* FanPreferredCouple: Lizzington and Keenler (Red/Liz and Ressler/Liz) are both far more popular than Liz/Tom, to the point where Liz/Tom doesn't even have an "official" ship name listed on this wiki. Lizvabi (Liz/Samar) has its fair share of shippers, too.

* IdiotPlot: In the ''Mr Solomon'' two-parter the titular PsychoForHire is hired to [[spoiler: kidnap a heavily pregnant Elizabeth Keene ''alive and unharmed'', yet he goes about this by bringing along a team of heavily armed mercenaries and engages her and the rest of the cast in gunfights and car chases, nearly killing the baby and (seemingly) even actually killing Liz. At no point is it brought up that it would have been smarter and safer simply to grab her ''after'' she has delivered her child, especially since nobody even knew she was a target until the end of that first episode.]]

** Tom and Elizabeth Keen, and their entire romance. A portion of the fanbase immensely dislikes the story lines regarding the Keens' domestic troubles, believing that they're a side-show which distracts from the main plot and Reddington. Liz in particular is very contentious, largely due to her NiceJobBreakingItHero moments and [[SugarAndIcePersonality love-hate relationship]] with Red. Megan Boone's performance as Liz is also a massive sticking point; a significant portion of the fanbase believes she's a inexperienced, wooden actor who doesn't match the formidable James Spader during their scenes together, while the other portion disagrees and thinks she needs more time to settle into the role.
** The FBI task force in general. Many fans believe that the members of the task force are boring and the FBI is incompetent, while others believe that certain characters are woefully underutilized. Donald Ressler is especially disliked because of his perceived {{Jerkass}} tendencies.

* RelationshipWritingFumble: Lizzington (see PortmanteauCoupleName above) is easily one of the most popular ships in the fanbase, despite early hints that Red is Liz's ''father.''

* EvilIsCool: Red.

* FanPreferredCouple: Lizzington and Keenler (Red/Liz and Ressler/Liz; see PortmanteauCoupleName below) are both far more popular than Liz/Tom, to the point where Liz/Tom doesn't even have an "official" ship name listed on this wiki. Lizvabi (Liz/Samar) has its fair share of shippers, too.

** Dembe, Red's bodyguard, may be the quiet one, but he has a loyal fanbase.

** "[[Recap/TheBlacklistS1E13TheCyprusAgency The Cyprus Agency (No. 64)]]": Owen Mallory, formerly [[ConArtist Michael Shaw]], is No. 64 on the list. He runs a supposed adoption agency called the Cyprus Agency. Initially believing that the Agency kidnaps children just to sell them towards the wealthy, when FBI task force led by Elizabeth Keen delves into the agency's darkest secrets they find out the truth is far worse. Instead of kidnapping children, the agency kidnaps women all over the world regardless of age and puts them into comas, where [[SerialRapist Owen himself would rape them]] so [[MandatoryMotherhood they can produce children]], even injecting sedatives to prolong the comas and the process. He has done this to many women, and if some of the women die he simply has his employees dispose of them. He also [[BadBoss isn't very good to his employees either]], as such when he has his employee kidnap a college girl and said employee makes a mistake, Mallory callously shoots him. When Elizabeth finally catches him she sees how many [[BreedingSlave women he kept in comas and raped]], which is in the dozens, and those are just the women still alive. When she asks him why he did all this, he says that as a child in the adoption system he felt that [[ThePerfectionist he wasn't perfect]], and by kidnapping all these women to rape, they could make his children, thus "[[ItsAllAboutMe ensuring his legacy]]" and making it so he won't feel that way anymore.

** When Tom gets his makeover to pose as a German neo-Nazi, he gets a bunch of appriopriate tattoos, including a pretty famous slogan that would best be translated as "Germany to/for the Germans"... except that it was translated quite literally to "Deutschland für Die (sic) Deutschen". Which - apart from the grammar mistake - would look pretty suspicious since the actual slogan is "Deutschland ''den'' Deutschen" (dative case plural).

** Matias Solomon, the Cabal's gleefully sadistic pet sociopath, was so well-received that he not only survived both Tom Keene ''and'' Red, he got top billing in the spin-off series, ''Blacklist: Redemption''.

* NarmCharm: The show runs on it. Campy super villains, not so stellar special effects, the FBI are a bunch of blundering pawns and the main protagonist is a charismatic, wealthy, well dressed AffablyEvil AntiHero who is almost constantly successful at manipulating American law enforcement into doing what he wants.

** Samar after Liz [[spoiler: faked her own death.]] When [[spoiler: Liz returned to the task force, almost everyone welcomed her back with open arms, save for Samar, who was infuriated with her to the point of requesting a transfer off the team. The other characters are mildly annoyed with Samar for this, since Liz had understandable reasons for doing what she did. But Samar was devastated by Liz's apparent death to the point where she [[CryIntoChest broke down sobbing upon hearing the news,]] and later served as a pallbearer at her fake funeral, making it easy to see why she was so angered by the deception—she mourned Liz for days, only to find out that none of it was real. Of course, [[StatusQuoIsGod Samar eventually forgave Liz and decided not to transfer,]] but Liz's perceived ingratitude for Reddington and the task force has always been a major reason why she's such a BaseBreakingCharacter, and the incident put a bad taste in many viewers' mouths.]]

* {{Adorkable}}: Aram. He's a trained FBI agent who rides his bicycle to the black site, plays hacky sack with his computer nerd buddies on the weekends, stores cat videos on his work laptop, and is the [[TinyGuyHugeGirl the tiny guy]] in his relationship with [[StatuesqueStunner Samar.]]

** [[spoiler: The Director falls under this as well, unsurprisingly. Despite the fact that he's been the audience figurehead of the Cabal and the primary mastermind, he isn't the type to get his hands dirty, and once the Cabal cuts their ties with him Reddington callously tosses him off a plane.]]
** [[spoiler: Similarly to the Director, Laurel Hitchens. She’s a major thorn in the task force’s side for multiple seasons, but Ressler winds up killing her almost by accident—furious about Revan Wright’s death and Hitchens’s SmugSnake attitude, he strikes her in anger, causing her to crumple to the ground and hit her head hard against the wall. She dies of the ensuing head wound moments later, without ever putting up a serious fight.]]

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Basically the case in "The Mombassa Cartel," which is at times comes close to being a PSA about the illegal poaching and animal trading industry.
** In two different episodes, during a hostage situation, some idiot tries to be a hero and pulls a gun. Both times, the guy in question gets shot and, as he drops, fires his gun and hits a little girl, who nearly dies.
** "Gordon Kemp" is one for anyone doing straw purchase of firearms in America and reselling them to the underworld.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Some people felt like this in relation to [[spoiler:Anslo Garrick, who was quite an interesting and fearsome antagonist killed way too early]]. Subverted, however, with Berlin (the first blacklist name who was still loose ''after'' his AntagonistTitle episode ended), and also with [[spoiler:Fitch, in hindsight - he dies in his title episode, but we didn't ''know'' he was on the Blacklist - thus, his {{Arc}} got some decent mileage and development, building it up until its intended conclusion]].
** One episode featured beloved character actor William Sadler as Liz's adoptive father, but he died in that same episode. There is always the possibility of flashback though.

** When Tom gets his makeover to pose as a German neo-Nazi, he gets a bunch of appriopriate tattoos, including a pretty famous slogan that would best be translated as "Germany to/for the Germans"... except that it was translated quite literally to "Deutschland für Die (sic) Deutschen". Which - apart from the grammar mistake - would look pretty suspicious since the actual slogan is "Deutschland ''den'' Deutschen" (accusative case).

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Liz Keen and her actress Megan Boone is the major one among fans. A strong, sensitive character or an incredibly incompetent, hysterical weak fool who only gets by courtesy of Reddington? As for Megan Boone, a significant portion of the fanbase consider her inexperienced, wooden and hopelessly out-matched by the more experienced James Spader while some believe she is settling into the role.

* FriendlyFandoms: Strangely enough, with ''Series/DoomAtYourService,'' a fantasy romance K-drama. This is because ''Doom At Your Service'' has a character called Kim Sa-ram, and the [[PortmanteauCoupleName ship name]] for Samar/Aram is also Saram, so the two end up in one another’s tags pretty frequently, and it’s not uncommon for Blacklist fans to stumble across K-drama content and vise versa. They’re usually good sports about it, leading to this trope.