Außerdem finde ich es klasse, dass auf diese Umstände in der Serie nicht eingegangen wird, selbst wenn beispielsweise ein Verdächtiger mal ausschließlich von den weiblichen Charakteren verhört wird. Ich war als Praktikantin beim Fernsehen einige Male zufällig mit einem rein weiblichen Team (Kamerafrau, Tonfrau, Redakteurin und ich) unterwegs und wir sind von fast jedem auf diese Konstellation angesprochen worden. Alle fanden sie gut, aber dennoch war es scheinbar so außergewöhnlich, dass es jeder erwähnen musste. Bei "Blindspot" wird selten auf das Geschlecht, die Hautfarbe, sexuelle Orientierung oder Herkunft der Charaktere eingegangen. Diese Aspekte werden einfach als Teil der Figuren akzeptiert, ohne dass es notwendig ist, sie zu thematisieren. Das wäre auch wünschenswert fürs richtige Leben.

Ein weiterer Punkt, der mir an der Serie gefällt, ist die Tatsache, dass keine klare Linie zwischen "den Guten" und "den Bösen" gezogen wird. Die Mitglieder von "Sandstorm" haben nachvollziehbare Gründe weshalb sie sich der Terrororganisation angeschlossen haben. Während die Agents des FBI und anderer Behörden manchmal nicht moralisch einwandfrei arbeiten, leichtsinnig sind oder im eigenem Interesse handeln. Keiner der Charaktere bei "Blindspot" ist nur "gut" oder nur "böse", alle sind vielschichtig und werden durch Ereignisse nachhaltig geprägt. Dadurch sind sie nicht nur lebensnah, sondern auch viel interessanter. Die Serie stellt ebenfalls klar, dass es nicht immer möglich ist, die "gute Seite" eines Menschen zu wecken. So entscheidet sich Ex-FBI-Therapeut Robert Borden/Nigel Thornton (Ukweli Roach) für "Sandstorm" und nicht für seine Liebe zu Patterson. Und während Jane die Chance auf ein neues Leben nutzt und der Terrororganisation den Rücken kehrt, schließt sich auch ihr Bruder Roman (Luke Mitchell) nach seiner Amnesie wieder "Sandstorm" an. Was die Terroristen so unberechenbar und dementsprechend spannend macht, ist die Tatsache, dass auch sie nicht dem Klischee der "Bösen" entsprechen: Sie sind gut vernetzt; handeln überlegt; schmieden Pläne, die sie den "Guten" nicht verraten, wenn sie sie mal in ihrer Gewalt haben und warten bis zum richtigen Zeitpunkt, um zuzuschlagen. Was "Blindspot" aber besonders gut macht und drastisch von anderen amerikanischen Serien unterscheidet, ist die Tatsache, dass US-Politik und die Integrität der Behörden kritisch hinterfragt werden. Der Terror kommt nicht von weit her, sondern aus dem eigenen Land. Die persönlichen Motive der "Sandstorm"-Mitglieder sind fast alle in der amerikanischen Politik zu finden. Außerdem verzichtet die Serie weitestgehend auf Flaggen in allen Büros und patriotische Reden. Dadurch setzt sich "Blindspot" deutlich von der Masse der amerikanischen Krimi- und Thrillerserien ab und ist so realistisch wie es eine Sendung über verbrechenvoraussagende Tattoos nur sein kann.

Dieser Punkt lässt sich schnell erklären: Ich mag an den Charakteren, dass sie trotz allem zusammenhalten und ihre Freundschaft sie als Team stärkt. Nach getaner Arbeit ist das FBI-Team vor allem eins: Einsam. Deshalb verbringen die fünf Hauptcharaktere Jane, Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton), Patterson, Zapata und Edgar Reade (Rob Brown) häufig auch den Feierabend zusammen. Die Dialoge der meist schon leicht angetrunkenen Truppe sind sehr witzig. Die besten Szenen sind die, in denen sich die Charaktere nicht über die Arbeit unterhalten. Besonders die Freundschaft zwischen Jane und Patterson ist berührend. Patterson ist die einzige Person, die Jane in der ersten Staffel nicht wie ein Opfer oder die lang verschollene Taylor Shaw behandelt, sondern wie eine eigenständige Persönlichkeit. In der ersten Hälfte der zweiten Staffel ist Jane in allen Augen eine Terroristin, nur Patterson spricht das nie an. Auch die Freundschaft zwischen Reade und Zapata ist toll, da sie zeigt, dass es manchmal nötig ist, den anderen zu verletzen, um ihm zu helfen.

Die "Blindspot"-Drehbuchautoren schaffen es selbst in die dunkelsten Szenen amüsante One-liner und bissige, sarkastische Dialoge einzubauen, ohne dass es seltsam wirkt oder die düstere Stimmung verloren geht. An dieser Stelle erspare ich euch jetzt eine lange Liste von Zitaten. Diese Szene - mit Rich Dotcom (Ennis Esmer) und Boston Arliss Crab (Josh Dean), zwei der besten Nebencharaktere, die derzeit im Fernsehen zu sehen sind - gibt einen guten Eindruck:





Keine Sorge, gleich bin ich fertig. ;) Nachdem ich geschildert habe, was mir an den ersten beiden "Blindspot"-Staffeln gefallen hat, möchte ich noch kurz erwähnen, was ich mir für die dritte Staffel wünsche:

The first time I heard about "Blindspot" was in a newspaper article last year when it premiered in Germany. I immediately liked the unique idea. If anyone doesn't know what the show is about: An amnesic naked woman is found in a bag in New York's Times Square. She is covered in tattoos from head to toe. A FBI team is trying to uncover who she is. In the process it turns out that all the tattoos contain clues regarding crimes. I'm a big crime fan, but I rarely watch any American shows in this genre, because for my taste they're too unrealistic and hectic. Therefore I didn't expect much of "Blindspot". But the first episode had me hooked, so one week later when the second episode aired in Germany, I had already watched the entire first season in English. Shortly after the second season premiered in the U.S.A and eventhough I was busy writing my bachelor thesis, Thursday became my "Blindspot"-day (in the morning I'd watch the new English episode and in the evening the most recent German one on TV).In order to celebrate the renewal and bridge the time until season three, I wrote down some reasons why "Blindspot" is such a unique and special show for me.

1. The idea with the tattoos

Ultraviolet light reveals more tattoos Photo: NBC

Zombies that solve murders with the help of brain-induced visions; time travelling detectives; high functioning sociopaths who can deduce a criminal with one look ; agents that have to find out which supernatural object made someone a perp.... One might think that everything has been done in the genre "crime". So I was very fond of "Blindspot's" innovative idea: Tattoos indicating future crimes. The designs on Jane Doe's (Jaimie Alexander) body look amazing and it's impressive how much thought was put into them. Because most of the tattoos are not understandable writing like locations, times or names. Behind the majority of the designs are complicated riddles and algorithms, which have to be spotted and analyzed. One of my favorite episodes in this regard is the seventh in the first season: Patterson (Ashley Johnson), head of the Forensic Science Unit and her boyfriend David (Joe Dinicol) follow a tattoo clue leading them to a library. There they find a code in an old book and have to crack it. I'm a huge fan of elaborate riddles and treasure hunts like "The Da Vinci Code". In this respect I like "Blindspot" a lot more than most crime series, because there the investigations are mostly interrogating and talking. It's also pretty cool that the tattoos have different layers and some designs contain clues to multiple cases. You'll never know where another secret might be.





2. The portrayal of female characters

f.l.: Patterson, Jane and Zapata have an after-work drink Photo: NBC

"Blindspot's" main characters are diverse, that's awesome. At this point I'd especially like to talk about the female characters. As mentioned earlier I'm a huge crime series fan and I frequently notice that there are fewer women in the investigating teams. Most of the time there's one female agent and two to four males, sometimes a female assistant or prosecutor and that's it. It took my favorite German whodunit "Tatort" only 46 years to introduce the first all-female team - although there are currently over 20 different investigating squads. Even an equal distribution of male and female agents is not that common. "Blindspot" has several strong women: Besides fighter Jane and all-rounder Patterson, there's also the cool-sarcastic Natascha "Tasha" Zapata (Audrey Esparza), the composed and loyal Assistant Director Bethany Mayfair (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) as well as the impenetrable and ambitious Nas Kamal (Archie Panjabi). The opposite party is also led by a women: The shifty and intelligent terrorist Shepherd (Michelle Hurd). None of the female characters represent a classic cliché. The women's libber in a leather jacket, who's manlier than any man; the hyper-happy mother figure; the hot sex bomb, who turns everyone's heads; the likeable, scatterbrained wallflower: You don't find any of them in "Blindspot". Instead the characters are strong, but still show emotions, they are independent, intelligent, but still make mistakes: They feel real and it's easy to relate to them.

Assistant Director Mayfair fought for her team Photo: NBC

Additionally I think it's great that the show doesn't address this, even when there's, for example, only female agents interrogating a male suspect. As an intern at a tv station I was sometimes filming with a coincidentally all-female team (camerawoman, sound recordist, reporter and I) and everyone we encountered addressed this constellation. All of them thought it was great, but somehow it was so strange that they had to point it out. "Blindspot" rarely thematizes its character's gender, skin color, sexual orientation or origin. These aspects are just accepted as part of their personas, without needing to mention them. That's also desirable for the real world.





3. The relation "good" and "evil"

Shepherd (r.) holds a gun to Patterson's head Photo: NBC

Another point I like about the series is the fact that there's no clear cut between the "good guys" and the "bad guys". The "Sandstorm" members have understandable reasons why they joined the terror organization. While the FBI agents and other authorities sometimes work morally questionable, are reckless or act in their own interest. Not a single one of the "Blindspot" characters is just "good" or "bad", they're all multilayered and influenced by the events happening around them. Thereby they're not just realistic, but also much more interesting. The series also shows that it's not always possible to wake someone's "good side". Like former FBI-therapist Robert Borden/Nigel Thornton (Ukweli Roach) who chooses "Sandstorm" over his love for Patterson. And while Jane takes the opportunity to start a new life and turns her back on the terror organization, her brother Roman (Luke Mitchell) rejoins "Sandstorm" after his memory loss. The terrorists are unpredictable and therefore exciting, because they're not the stereotypical "bad guys" either: They have a great network, act well-considered, make plans which they don't reveal to the "good guys" as soon as they have them under control and wait for the right time to attack. But what makes "Blindspot" particularly good and firmly differentiates it from other American shows is that it scrutinizes U.S. politics and the integrity of the authorities. The terror isn't coming from far away, but from within their own country. The personal motives of the "Sandstorm" members are mostly based in American politics. Additionally the series mostly forgoes flags in every office and patriotic speeches. In this way "Blindspot" stands out from all the other American crime and thriller TV shows and is as realistic as a series about crime-predicting tattoos can be.





4. "We're a family"

Patterson, when Jane thinks about removing the tattoos Photo: tumblr/sherlockholmcs

This aspect is quickly explained: What I really like about the characters is that they stick together no matter what and their friendship makes the team stronger. When the day's work is done, the FBI team is pretty lonely. That's why the five main characters Jane, Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton), Patterson, Zapata and Edgar Reade (Rob Brown) often spend their evenings together. The dialogues are pretty funny, especially when the group is a little drunk. The best scenes are the ones where no one's talking about work. Especially the friendship between Jane and Patterson is touching. Patterson is the only person in season one who didn't treat Jane like a victim or the long-lost Taylor Shaw, but as an autonomous personality. In the first half of the second season Jane was a terrorist in everyone's eyes but Patterson's. The friendship between Reade and Zapata is great too, because it illustrates that sometimes you have to hurt someone in order to help them.





5. The humor

The "Blindspot" writers manage to integrate funny one-liners and sharp, sarcastic dialogues even into the darkest scenes, without it feeling weird or losing the gloomy atmosphere. At this point I will spare you a long list of quotes. This scene - with Rich Dotcom (Ennis Esmer) and Boston Arliss Crab (Josh Dean), two of the greatest secondary characters TV has to offer - gives a pretty good impression:













One more thing....

No worries, I'm almost done. ;) After telling you what I liked about the first two "Blindspot" seasons, I quickly want to express my wishes for the third season:

Good twists. Some have been pretty obvious (for example Borden being the mole), therefore I hope season three will have some aspects that no one is expecting. For instance: Weller's ring not meaning he and Jane married after the season finale, but that Weller found one of Voldemort's horcruxes. #BringBackBorden Photo: NBC Borden comes back! Preferably he survived the explosion and is honeymooning with Patterson, who faked her own kidnapping in the finale, in some country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the U.S. Or he comes back as a ghost. I don't care as long as he returns. We get answers to some burning questions, especially: How would have "Sandstorm" pulled of their plan if Patterson hadn't gone to Borden's house in the mid-season-finale and become a mole without her knowing about it? No one could've predicted that she'd leave the office and Borden explicitly said she should've stayed there. Another question: What does the terror organization call itself? The name "Sandstorm" was chosen by Nas. And of course the classic: What's Patterson's embarrassing first name and how does Boston Arliss Crab know it, but not the viewers? The FBI certainly needs an art forger like Boston (l.) Photo: NBC Talking about Bosten: MORE BOSTON! He's awesome and in my opinion funnier than Rich Dotcom. Less "Jeller". I know a lot of people like that pairing, but they lack chemistry and the will-they-won't-they gets in the way of the thrilling main storyline. Also I think Jane deserves someone better, who didn't spend a season loving a person Jane was not (Taylor Shaw) and another half season ignoring her. Stuart (Jordan Johnson-Hinds) becomes a recurring character and a hero. I immediately liked the poor newbie in "In Words, Drown I" and I hope he'll have a clever idea someday and save the entire FBI.



What do you like about "Blindspot" and what are your wishes for the third season? Tell us in the comments.

Click What do you like about "Blindspot" and what are your wishes for the third season? Tell us in the comments.Click here for our review of the first season three episode.



