Blindspot, one of NBC’s new fall dramas, premiered on Monday night and its pilot wass one of the better dramas this fall season has to offer. Led by Jaimie Alexander and Sullivan Stapleton, Blindspot revolves around a woman who wakes up naked in a bag in Times Square, covered in tattoos and with no memory of who she is.
This was certainly an enjoyable pilot to watch. I felt that things moved along at the right pace as we slowly learned more about Jane Doe. A show like this needs to keep things moving to avoid becoming stagnated but equally, it needs to avoid moving too quickly. I’m not the type of viewer that always needs instant gratification for plot lines, and this isn’t the type of show that needs it. Were Blindspot to provide explanations in virtually every scene, it would lose a lot of its intrigue and become difficult to keep up with what’s going on. That said, the show needs to avoid being too much like The Blacklist, where answers are so few and far between that it’s difficult to watch.
Alexander was excellent in the lead role, particularly early on in the episode as Jane Doe stumbled around, with no clue what was going on. Her scenes later on as she inspected her tattoos were equally as powerful as she breaks down upon seeing the full extent of what has happened to her body. Alexander elevated her role beyond what could have been a pretty mundane performance and instead allowed us to immediately feel for her character.Stapleton was equally as good as Kurt Weller; he brought a certain level of anger to the role that needed to shine through. This is clearly a man who hates not knowing or being in control of something and Stapleton ensured that was the case.
As you might expect from a pilot, the larger mystery is already being unravelled as we caught two glimpses of Jane’s past. The first was memories of her completing an outdoor shooting course and being told to do it again by an unknown man (played by Johnny Whitworth, recently of The 100) because she didn’t complete it perfectly. The second was a glimpse at her last moments before being injected with the drug that erased her memory - we discovered she was willing to let it happen.
This development was an intriguing one because it wasn’t one of Jane’s returning memories, but simply one in the mind of the earlier man. A big question I have moving forward is whether or not we’re going to continue to see the blanks filled in from both sides or if this was just a one-off occurrence. The cliffhanger towards the end of the episode that Bethany Mayfair of the FBI was involved in some sort of case surrounding embezzlement and murder, and the case file number is one of the tattoos on Jane’s body. It’s certainly an interesting twist and I’m excited to see how much more there is to Mayfair.
One of the biggest problems that Blindspot will face is ensuring that each of the clues on Jane’s body lead to a case that’s interesting to watch. The case of stopping a bomb that we saw in the premiere was exciting, if not a little overused in these types of shows. My hope is that we don’t see too many more of these types of cases during the season. The other problem could be ensuring that it stays as grounded to its material as possible. A story about a woman who has Special Forces training and who can speak Chinese even after losing her memory is far from realistic, but it’s if the show introduces concepts even more implausible that it could begin to lose its edge.
Blindspot has gotten off to a solid start, however. It’s an exciting, well-acted drama with potential that treats its outlandish premise smartly (unlike another NBC drama starting this week). Should it keep up the quality of the pilot, I think we can expect great things from this show.
What did you think of the pilot? Will you be watching more? Let me know in the comments below.
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