The Blacklist Director Discusses The Preparation For 'Serious Jeopardy' Facing The Task Force: 'It's Exciting'
The Blacklist is going strong in the tenth and final season, with no sign that it’s going to slow down leading up to the bigger-than-expected series finale in July. The show moves to Thursday nights with a pair of episodes that should raise the stakes even higher. Director Saray Guidetti spoke with CinemaBlend about the “serious jeopardy” that’s facing the team in the second of the two episodes on June 1, as well as how she prepared to step behind the camera of a show that’s already more than 200 episodes in.
Saray Guidetti came to The Blacklist as part of NBCUniversal Launch’s Female Forward program, which involves directors helming an episode of television after shadowing earlier in the same season. She directed Episode 16 of Season 10, called “Blair Foster No. 39,” and shared how she prepared to come into such a long-running show close to its finale. Guidetti explained:
I had watched The Blacklist when it first came out, Season 1 and 2, and I was hooked. I loved the show, but of course, with life and with all the shows, you don't keep going with the shows that you've been watching. So in order to prepare, I did spend a lot of probably a few months watching every episode. You don't necessarily have to do that, but for me, because it was my first one and I really love understanding the backstory on characters, where they're coming from, why they're doing what they're doing, I really wanted to be prepared in that sense. I watched every episode, and I read every script leading up to mine.
The Female Forward director prepared for “Blair Foster No. 39” by watching the entire series that was available to that point as well as reading the scripts for episodes that had not yet aired. While fans can certainly watch The Blacklist’s first nine seasons at their leisure with a Netflix subscription, Saray Guidetti went the extra mile for her episodic TV directing debut.
For a show as complex and long-running as The Blacklist, watching the entire saga so far is no small feat! When I asked if watching every episode resulted in her having anything that she particularly wanted to do when she had her chance behind the camera, Guidetti shared:
As part of the program, because I was part of the NBCUniversal Launch program and Female Forward, you get to shadow twice before you direct. One of the episodes that I shadowed was Episode 1013, and it was directed by Mahesh Pailoor, who's amazing. That's when they introduced that storyline that led into mine of introducing Toby Leonard Moore, who plays Congressman Hudson, and I just fell in love with this character and I fell in love with just the idea of like, 'Alright, the task force is now in serious jeopardy here.' I just love that it continued into mine.
The problem of Congressman Hudson digging into the task force certainly wasn’t resolved in the span of just one single episode a couple of weeks ago, and an exclusive sneak peek at the first of the two episodes on June 1 reveals Red doing some digging for answers about what Hudson is up to. The team is still in what Saray Guidetti describes as “serious jeopardy,” which should be a lot more fun for fans to watch than for the characters to experience!
Fans will have to tune in to NBC on June 1 for everything that unfolds with the team in jeopardy on The Blacklist, but the director went on to preview what she was particularly excited about with her episode: working with Toby Leonard Moore as Congressman Hudson and Wayne Duvall as Senator Dorf. Saray Guidetti continued:
My excitement was about having those two against Cooper and Panabaker. I just was over the moon when I read the script. I'm like, 'I have all four of them!' First of all, they're extremely talented, amazing humans and actors, and just having them as these very interesting characters go head to head was exciting for me. I think that was one thing. Also, Blair Foster, who's played by Francie Swift, I was really excited to work with her as well. She's fantastic.
Cooper has faced his share of opponents over ten years of The Blacklist, but he has never been in a situation quite like this before. Based on what the director teased for “Blair Foster No. 39,” fans can seemingly expect some strong performances from Toby Leonard Moore as Hudson and Wayne Duvall as Dorf in opposition to Harry Lennix as Cooper and Deirdre Lovejoy as Panabaker.
This episode will also be one half of two hours of The Blacklist on June 1, as NBC is delivering a double dose of the action in the new time slot. Saray Guidetti explained that she didn’t know her episode would be paired with another when she directed, and only had good things to say about the back-to-back cases:
Originally it was going to air on the 11th, and I'm like, 'Oh, that's amazing! It got pulled up.' It's back to back with 1015, which is an awesome episode as well and directed by Adam Weisinger, who is also one of their ADs and an amazing man. It's exciting! The fans are gonna get to have two hours of The Blacklist back to back on one night, which is great.
Airing on June 11 would have meant The Blacklist keeping the time slot on Sundays that it held for the majority of Season 10 (and paired it with Magnum P.I. prior to Magnum’s midseason finale). The change means that not only will “Blair Foster No. 39” air earlier than originally planned, but will also be part of two back-to-back episodes.
Be sure to tune in to NBC on June 1 starting at 8 p.m. ET for the double dose of The Blacklist, and don’t forget to check back with CinemaBlend afterward for more of what Saray Guidetti had to say about her 9 p.m. episode of The Blacklist! The series finale is scheduled for July 13, so now is not the time to start missing any episodes.
