Well, they're certainly not making any attempt at making Reddington more of a good guy or showing any hesitation to reveal his dark side. Killing the paramedic (especially), the doctor(?) from the torture session, and banker Skinny Pete (complete with Breaking Bad promo music), wrong though they were to be involved, was pretty hardcore.
The latter two were pretty well-involved (although Skinny Pete's family was threatened), but the paramedic was shocking, since she just pulled the tracking chip from Red's neck (although she had to know that was a kidnapping and they were up to no good). He's killed criminals before, but they've always been mass murderers and terrorists of some sort (not that that makes it okay to kill someone you have in custody, but still, they were much worse than these people). This was a major escalation, though.
Granted, it's to show the understandable depth of anger and remorse he felt over the loss of his friend/colleague and the threat posed to his daughter and his plans, but it was still kind of a risky move on the part of the showrunners that could alienate the character from many in the audience. So even though I find the murders themselves appalling, I have to give the writers, director, and producers credit for having the guts to not shy away from showing Red get really dark.
Also, typically I'd say that Johnny Cash needs a moratorium for at least a decade after how many shows and movies have used him in this one (The Blacklist, the Dawn of the Dead remake and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles using "When the Man Comes Around", Defiance using "Jackson" ((that one was at least upbeat, though)), and most recently "Hurt" was used on Person of Interest just a month ago to great effect *), but dammit if they don't just keep finding awesome sequences for him to provide the gravelly, macabre theme to, with the songs themselves accentuating and adding to the awesome.
* I'm sure I left out numerous other examples.
Anyway, it was a great comeback episode, and I look forward to the remainder of the season.
The latter two were pretty well-involved (although Skinny Pete's family was threatened), but the paramedic was shocking, since she just pulled the tracking chip from Red's neck (although she had to know that was a kidnapping and they were up to no good). He's killed criminals before, but they've always been mass murderers and terrorists of some sort (not that that makes it okay to kill someone you have in custody, but still, they were much worse than these people). This was a major escalation, though.
Granted, it's to show the understandable depth of anger and remorse he felt over the loss of his friend/colleague and the threat posed to his daughter and his plans, but it was still kind of a risky move on the part of the showrunners that could alienate the character from many in the audience. So even though I find the murders themselves appalling, I have to give the writers, director, and producers credit for having the guts to not shy away from showing Red get really dark.
Also, typically I'd say that Johnny Cash needs a moratorium for at least a decade after how many shows and movies have used him in this one (The Blacklist, the Dawn of the Dead remake and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles using "When the Man Comes Around", Defiance using "Jackson" ((that one was at least upbeat, though)), and most recently "Hurt" was used on Person of Interest just a month ago to great effect *), but dammit if they don't just keep finding awesome sequences for him to provide the gravelly, macabre theme to, with the songs themselves accentuating and adding to the awesome.
* I'm sure I left out numerous other examples.
Anyway, it was a great comeback episode, and I look forward to the remainder of the season.