Kyle’s Review

“Persecute Envoys” fell short of Blindspot’s quality thus far. It took eight episodes before we saw any kind of backstory for Director Mayfair (one of the folks pulling strings behind the scenes) and “Persecute Envoys” crammed us much of Mayfair’s backstory as it could into forty plus minutes. That would be okay if it wasn’t for Blindspot wanting to capitalize on two current topics: the NSA spying on American citizens and minorities’ mistrust of cops.

Art should imitate life but these two issues—particularly the mistrust of cops—were tacked on and used a hook to gain viewers. What’s worse is that Blindspot abandoned its formula in order to fit Mayfair, the NSA, and cop mistrust in the episode. I’m all for changing up a show’s pace and formula. Heck, I praised Blindspot for doing so a few weeks ago, but in the episode I liked, Blindspot introduced a puzzle from one of Jane’s tattoos as a teaser for the next week. There was no tattoo puzzle at all in “Persecute Envoys.”

Furthermore, the mistrust of cops and Mayfair’s backstory/NSA were too on the nose and yet I still see where Blindspot is headed in the next few weeks, when it reaches its mid-season break, and I’m glad we got Mayfair’s backstory out of the way. I would’ve liked a taste of it sooner and with a lot less bells and whistles. The NSA hook should’ve been enough.

Thanks for reading.