'The Blacklist' Fans Were Left Divided by Show's Animated Season 7 Finale

The animated season 7 finale of The Blacklist ended up dividing some fans of NBC's crime drama. Due to widespread industry shutdowns resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, the show wasn't able to complete filming on the final episode for the season, titled "The Kazanjian Brothers." So to ensure a complete episode, animated sequences were created to fill the gaps of all the missing scenes. It worked for some viewers, but not all of them were on board with the decision.

The animation itself was done in the style of the Titan comic books that the series inspired back in the first season. "The comics really were the springboard thinking about this and it felt very organic to our show because The Blacklist is in many ways sort of a graphic novel," John Eisendrath told IndieWire. "A larger than life anti-hero, a rogues gallery of bad guys, very dark and heightened, a bit of an alternate universe, Spader and the hat, the gun, and the silhouette."

The plot focused on Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader), who's given a task force to help him find Liz's mother, while Liz decides to let her mom in on the secret, going behind Red's back. Not to mention some clues about Red's mysterious illness. Despite the ambition attempt to finish Season 7, not everyone walked away impressed.