The Blacklist season 5: Enrique Murciano leaving
When the former Without a Trace actor joined the show as Julian Gale, there was a chance that he would be promoted to series regular for the new season. Alas, that hasn’t happened, and he confirmed in a new post on Twitter that he won’t be a part of the new season.
Personally, this is news that bums us out given that Murciano played a very different sort of character than anyone else who was a part of the show. It’s one thing to be squaring off against an opponent who is a Blacklister or someone operating on the outside of the law. Meanwhile, it’s another thing altogether to have a rival within the FBI, someone who is actively trying to cause a little bit of chaos for you and get you to follow something closer to the moral high ground. Gale was a good character because of the threat that he posed to Ressler and the rest of the Task Force. Arguably, he brought Diego Klattenhoff some of the best material that he’s had in the past few years.
Obviously, there may be another plan now that The Blacklist has in order to compensate further for this exit … or at least this is what we hope. They’re coming off of their best arc since the first season with Mr. Kaplan, and that suitcase full of bones (which is in Tom Keen’s possession) should very well be one of the most tantalizing cliffhangers that we’ve seen. The show will return to NBC in early October, where it will occupy for the first time the Wednesday night timeslot at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Hopefully, airing at this earlier time of the night will help the show to get a bump in the ratings, even if in the process it’s going to be squaring off against some rather-hefty competition.
What do you think about the news of Murciano leaving, and did you enjoy the Gale character and what he brought to The Blacklist? Share below!
(Photo: NBC.)
Lori Crable
June 27, 2017 @ 8:20 pm
While I didn’t like the Julian Gale character at first, Enrique’s talent, along with some of the writing, made me want to learn more about Agent Gale. As a huge Diego Klattenhoff fan, it was exciting to see a former colleague buddy-up to, spar with, and then push Ressler until he reacted. We got to see Ressler interact with a man with whom he worked closely in the past and, as Ressler headed down a dark road at the end of S4, Gale was someone who reminded Ressler of himself when he was younger and less jaded.
I also wanted to know what connection, if any, this newly-introduced odd duck had to any of the exhumed bodies. I’m very disappointed at this turn of events and feel quite badly for Enrique Murciano. He’s a very talented actor and will no doubt be in demand for other parts, but from his tweets last night, it sounded like he was dropped quite suddenly without explanation. Very sad.