The third season of The Blacklist picks up immediately where the second one left off. FBI agent Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) is on the run with Red Reddington (James Spader) after she shot and killed the Attorney General (after already having been framed for killing a U.S. Senator). Keen’s former partner, Donald Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff) was made the new Assistant Director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division, and put in charge of the manhunt for Keen.

As Red contacts former associates and blacklisters to try to help put the pieces together to prove Liz’s innocence, former Assistant Director Harold Cooper (Harry Lennix) also begins his own effort, enlisting a highly-unlikely source, Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold), to help him track down Karakurt, the man who framed Liz. Meanwhile, members of the Cabal are also after Liz, wanting to silence her before she can reveal what she knows about them.

I really enjoyed how the series took its time with this fugitive Liz storyline. In many shows, this would have been quickly resolved in the season premiere and the show would be immediately back to the status quo. Instead, the writers spread this out across the entire run of fall episodes, and then explored the aftermath when the show returned with its exciting two-part winter premiere. During these first 8 episodes, we get to see a lot more of the Red/Liz dynamic and relationship as the two are partnered up on the run, which was a lot of fun to watch. We also get to see how Liz’s actions have affected her former co-workers and what they believe to be true about the situation.

Then, in the intense the winter premiere, The Box is back (I always seem to really enjoy any episode involving The Box, and this was no exception!), but even that may not be enough to keep Liz safe from those who don’t want her to talk. The second half of the season is just as exciting, with lots of twists, turns and surprises that keep viewers guessing as to the fate of some of their favorite characters.

The series introduces some great new characters in the third season. Edi Gathegi plays Mr. Solomon, a deadly Cabal operative who has been sent to hunt down and eliminate Red. Christine Lahti also joins the cast as National Security Advisor Laurel Hitchin, and Hisham Tawfiq, who plays Red’s body guard Dembe Zuma is a series regular for the third season. And near the end of the season Famke Janssen appears as the mysterious Scottie Hargrave, in the backdoor pilot for the Blacklist: Redemption spin-off series which will be airing on NBC early next year.

Overall, I really enjoyed this season—we got a lot of action, twists and character development. While there is an engaging continuing story, the series also gives us interesting cases/blacklisters of the week so you can still enjoy each episode on its own. The “Cape May” episode, the first episode to not be named after a blacklister, is a somewhat standalone bonus episode that was sandwiched in between the 18th and 19th scripts of the season. Instead of being a case of the week, it focuses soley on Red’s past, and his current emotional state. I really didn’t care for this Red-centric episode as the pace was much slower than a typical episode, and I’m not generally a fan of these dream sequence type of TV episodes.

That said, the Blu-ray looks and sounds really good. For the most part the video is crisp and clear. Occasionally the picture would appear a bit grainy, but I never found this distracting. The audio track makes good use of the stereo and surround channels to immerse the viewer in the action on screen while the center channel provides clear dialogue. The discs also contain a nice selection of bonus features, including 38 minutes of deleted/extended scenes, two audio commentaries, and four additional behind-the-scenes and interview featurettes that total around 52 minutes.

I found the Blu-ray’s menu system to be a little confusing and not very user-friendly. The episode number ranges for each disc are printed on the top of the discs themselves, however the menu on every disc has the same unnumbered list of all 23 episodes, so from the menu there is not an easy way to determine which episodes (by number or by title) appear on which disc—you are only told which disc to insert once you select an episode or bonus feature to watch. The menu also doesn’t make it easy to tell which episodes have bonus features—in order to find information about the deleted scenes and commentaries, you must navigate the list of episodes to the sub menu for an individual episode to see if it has any bonus features. So it takes a bit of digging an navigating in order to find and watch all of the bonus content.

The Blu-ray comes packaged in keep case slightly thicker than a regular Blu-ray case. The discs are placed in stacks on pegs on the left and right sides of the case (3 on one side, 2 on the other). Inside there are inserts for the Digital Copy code as well as an ad for the Blacklist Conspiracy mobile game. An episode guide/directory is printed on the inside of the front/back cover and can be seen when the discs are removed.

What’s Included:
Episodes: (980 min)

Blu-ray:
• All 23 Episodes of the Third Season:
  Disc 1: “The Troll Farmer (No. 38)”, “Marvin Gerard (No. 80)”, “Eli Matchett (No. 72)”, “The Djinn (No. 43)”, “Arioch Cain (No. 50)”
  Disc 2: “Sir Crispin Crandall (No. 86)”, “Zal Bin Hasaan (No. 31)”, “Kings of the Highway (No. 108)”, “The Director (No. 24)”, “The Director (No. 24): Conclusion”
  Disc 3: “Mr. Gregory Devry (No. 95)”, “The Vehm (No. 132)”, “Alistair Pitt (No. 103)”, “Lady Ambrosia (No. 77)”, “Drexel (No. 113)”
  Disc 4: “The Caretaker (No. 78)”, “Mr. Solomon (No. 32)”, “Mr. Solomon (No. 32): Conclusion”, “Cape May”
  Disc 5: “The Artax Network (No. 41)”, “Susan Hargrave (No. 18)”, “Alexander Kirk (No. 14)”, “Alexander Kirk (No. 14): Conclusion”
• 1080p / Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
• Subtitles: English, English SDH, French

Digital Copy (Redemption Deadline 12/31/19):

• Digital HD Copy redeemable via UltraViolet

Extras:
The features exclusive to the Blu-ray release have been marked with an *

• Deleted and Extended Scenes*
  The deleted/extended scenes appear under each individual episode’s menu.
  • 301 “The Troll Farmer (No. 38)” (3:30)
    Play All or select from “Patience”, “Stick Shift” &”You Let Her Go”
  • 305 “Arioch Cain (No. 50)” (2:37)
    Play All or select from “The Bounty” & “Broken Glass”
  • 306 “Sir Crispin Crandall (No. 86)” (:37)
    “Lawyer”
  • 308 “Kings of the Highway (No. 108)” (1:40)
    “Protecting Karakurt”
  • 309 “The Director (No. 24)” (:30)
    “Into the Cell”
  • 312 “The Vehm (No. 132)” (1:02)
    “Budget Cuts”
  • 313 “Alistair Pitt (No. 103)” (1:18)
    “Anger”
  • 314 “Lady Ambrosia (No. 77)” (4:36)
    Play All or select from “Death Certificate”, “Watching Ethan”, “Access to Ethan”, “No Hard Feelings”, “Speech”, “”Duct Tape”, “Finding the Children” & “Happy Reunions”
  • 316 “The Caretaker (No. 78)” (3:30)
    “Gathering Information”
  • 317 “Mr. Solomon (No. 32)” (:41)
    “Mara”
  • 318 “Mr. Solomon (No. 32): Conclusion” (:22)
    “Masha’s Dead”
  • 319 “Cape May” (15:07)
    Play All or select from “On the Beach”, “By the Fire”, “Away from the Window”, “Breaker Box”, “Axe”, “Have You Ever Killed Anyone?”, “Finding the Keys”, “Through the Kitchen” & “Just Me”
  • 320 “The Artax Network (No. 41)” (:25)
    “Private Security”
  • 322 “Alexander Kirk (No. 14)” (3:53)
    Play All or select from “Rooftop”, “Red & Tom” & “Getting to Kirk”
  • 323 “Alexander Kirk (No. 14): Conclusion” (1:08)
    “The Switch”
• Episode Commentaries*
  Two episode commentaries are provided by creator/executive producer Jon Bokenkamp, writer Brandon Margolis and post-producer Kat Goodson. (These can be found under the menu for the individual episodes.)
  • 309 “The Director (No. 24)” (42:12)
    The participants discuss putting Liz on the run this season, bringing back The Box, Amir’s emotional performance, adding Christine Lahti to the cast, and more. They also talk a lot about the visual effects and post-production process and schedule.
  • 319 “Cape May” (43:10)
    The participants talk about inserting this all-Red Reddington episode between episodes 18 and 19, the unique tone, pace and scoring of the episode, Red’s mourning, and having James Spader appear in every scene of the episode. They also discuss the decision to work star Megan Boone’s real-life pregnancy into the story.
• Creating The Stunts: Script to Screen (11:10)*
  The cast and crew talk about the show’s amazing stunt sequences, and how they evolve from what’s on the written page. Includes lots of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with creator/executive producer Jon Bokenkamp, executive story editors Brandon Margolis & Brandon Sonnier, co-executive producer Daniel Knauf, writer Dave Metzger, stunt coordinator Cort Hessler, stunt performer Derrick Simmons, and stars Diego Klattenhoff (“Donald Ressler”), Megan Boone (“Elizabeth Keen”), Ryan Eggold (“Tom Keen”), Mozhan Marnò (“Samar Navabi”), Harry Lennix (“Harold Cooper”) and Hisham Tawfiq (“Dembe”).
• All About Aram (10:49)
  The cast and creators talk about Aram’s journey this season, his tough job of making the exposition for the audience fun and interesting, the actor’s favorite and most emotional scenes, writing Aram’s techno-speak, and more. Includes clips and interviews with actor Amir Arison (“Aram Mojtabai”), staff writer Nicole Phillips, executive story editors Brandon Margolis & Brandon Sonnier, writer Dave Metzger, executive producer Lukas Reiter, and actress Mozhan Marnò (“Samar Navabi”).
• From the Shadows: Villains of Season 3 (14:21)*
  A look at some of the third season’s big new villains and favorite blacklisters and the actors who play them, and what lies ahead in season 4. Includes clips and interviews with executive producer/star James Spader (“Raymond Reddington”), executive story editors Brandon Margolis & Brandon Sonnier, executive producer John Eisendrath, creator/executive producer Jon Bokenkamp, staff writer Nicole Phillips, co-executive producer Daniel Knauf, executive producer Lukas Reiter, and actors Amir Arison (“Aram Mojtabai”), Diego Klattenhoff (“Donald Ressler”), Hisham Tawfiq (“Dembe”), Megan Boone (“Elizabeth Keen”), Ryan Eggold (“Tom Keen”), Mozhan Marnò (“Samar Navabi”) and Ulrich Thomsen (“Alexander Kirk”).
• Outside the Box: Making The Blacklist Comic Book (8:42)
  A look at how the comic book expands the world of the series and tells stories they couldn’t be told on TV; the actors talk about seeing themselves in animated form. Includes behind-the-scenes footage, script and comic production stills, and interviews with series creator/executive producer Jon Bokenkamp, Titan Comics editor David Leach, staff writer/comic book writer Nicole Phillips, co-executive producer Daniel Knauf, artist Beni Lobel, executive story editor Brandon Margolis, and actor Amir Arison (“Aram Mojtabai”), Diego Klattenhoff (“Donald Ressler”) and Mozhan Marnò (“Samar Navabi”).
• Red’s Gems: Favorite Lines From Season 3 (7:05)
  The show’s creators recount their favorite Red Reddington lines of the season. Includes clips and interviews with executive producer Lukas Reiter, creator/executive producer Jon Bokenkamp, executive story editors Brandon Margolis & Brandon Sonnier, and co-executive producer Daniel Knauf.

Final Thoughts:

In its third season The Blacklist continues to be a fun, action-packed series with not only an interesting ongoing storyline but also entertaining cases/blacklisters of the week. James Spader continues to make Red Reddington a delight to watch. The third season takes its time to resolve the events of the previous season, instead of just immediately resetting back to the status quo, and then sets up some exciting new twists and turns that keep viewers guessing as to the fate of certain characters. The Blu-ray looks and sounds great and includes a nice selection of bonus features. I really enjoyed rewatching episodes on this Blu-ray—I had forgotten just how much had happened over the course of the 23-episode season! This release is definitely worth checking out for fans of the series as well as potential new fans.