Blacklisting - the new shark jumping?

.

We really, really don't want to say this, but NBC's The Blacklist is really starting to grate. (Get ready for spoiler spoiler spoiler etc.) The first season was the Search for the Father, which ended with a resounding syllable dropped into the phone by Raymond Reddington: "No." And now it's the Search for the Mother. Plus a whole bunch of back story.

The saga so far:

A wanted fugitive turns himself in and says he'll give up dozens of global criminals if the FBI lets him work with a newbie profiler. Sharp viewers quickly recognize this as the FBI being hired to act as the fugitive's personal hit squad. But no one in the FBI notices this, so it's okay. The fugitive tells the profiler that her super-nice husband is a bad guy. She doesn't believe him, even when evidence appears under her floor. Alan Alda shows up. The profiler wonders if the fugitive is her father. (See: "resounding syllable dropped into the phone," above.)

And that's when things get shark-jumpy.

The husband is a bad guy. The profiler hates him! But then she loves him again because he's only bad in a good way. Meanwhile, a super-secret device that will bring world governments to their knees if it's ever put together starts coming together piece by piece. The profiler finds that her brain has been erased. David Strathairn shows up. The device comes together. Nothing happens to world governments. Various nasty villains appear and are killed, including some Nazis who are very, very evil. The profiler hates the fugitive for hiring her husband, whom she hated but now loves again, so why even bother being pissed at the fugitive?

For all of this, The Blacklist set a record in the new era of recording TV ratings, for having the most viewers who watched within three days, or something.

And that's even before the super-awesome series finale, which promises incredible plot twists, because there haven't been any so far.

.