Promoting a new series is a tricky thing because networks walk a fine line between hooking you and spoiling you, and Blindspot‘s biggest McGuffin — amnesic, tattooed, naked woman in a duffel bag is deposited in Times Square — is pretty much all over the promotional campaign. So where do you go from there?
If the pilot episode is any indication, you can go anywhere because the woman, and the tattoos, are multi-layered with potentially endless possibilities. And those layers and possibilities are what Blindspot will play with every week while “Jane Doe” tries to figure out who she is and the FBI works on what her tattoos mean.
On the off-chance you haven’t been inundated with the promos, here’s the basic gist of the series: A beautiful woman, with no memories of her past, is found naked in Times Square with her body fully covered in intricate tattoos. Her discovery sets off a vast and complex mystery that immediately ignites the attention of the FBI, which begins to follow the road map on her body into a larger conspiracy of crime, while bringing her closer to discovering the truth about her identity.
Anchored by a very strong Jaimie Alexander (who I really only know from Kyle XY although most of the free world knows her from Thor), the series is surprisingly emotional. She completely delivers as the full weight of what Jane must have been through to surrender her mind and body to get to this point falls in on her — even though she cannot, or maybe precisely because she cannot, remember it. Add to that her tendency to be equally slammed with the weight of things she didn’t know she knew, or know she could do, when they present themselves with a scary autopilot recall at the exact moment she needs them. It’s a superb performance. Alexander vacillates seamlessly between being absolutely terrified and wholly assured, yet determined to learn her truth at all costs.
Alexander is joined by Sullivan Stapleton from Cinemax’s Strike Back (which I’ve never seen but I liked him here), longtime girl crush Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Without a Trace), Ukweli Roach (The Royals), an all-grown-up Ashley Johnson (holy crap I am old, y’all), Audrey Esparza (Power), Rob Brown (Treme), and Johnny Whitworth (The 100 and Empire Records FOREVER).
I was intrigued enough by the pilot to book this on the DVR. It’s definitely worth checking out.
Blindspot premieres Monday night at 10/9c on NBC in the U.S. and 9 pm e/p on CTV in Canada.
Here are a couple of sneak peeks.
Photos and videos courtesy of NBC.
