‘The Blacklist: Redemption’ preview: Your primer on Tom Keen, Scottie Hargrave, and more

For fans of “The Blacklist,” Thursday night is going to be a day like no other. Not only do you have the final episode of “The Blacklist” for the next two months (we shudder to call it the winter finale — that term’s being used FAR too often these days), but you also have the official premiere of “The Blacklist: Redemption.” This means that the opportunity is finally here to see a show that is very different from the flagship, and one that could have its own unique flavor and style.

The video below is your quick primer to the main characters, whether it be Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold), Scottie Hargrave (Famke Janssen), or Mr. Solomon (Edi Gathergi). One of the reasons why this show may work well in its eight-episode format is they’re keeping the team tight and focusing their energy on a small crew, as opposed to giving you a larger cast of six or seven big characters, something that we tend to see elsewhere — including “The Blacklist”. This feels more like it’ll be a slick spy show — think of a show like “Chuck”, but as if Matt Bomer’s character of Bryce Larkin was the leading man.

Now, here’s the biggest similarity that the show has with the original — there is still this sense of mystery where one character knows something the other doesn’t. Tom knows that Scottie is his mother, but he’s not going to be so keen (why do we keep making these obvious puns?!!) to clue her in on it. He’ll let her dangle with that information, which could lead to some VERY awkward moments throughout the course of the season. What makes this twist fun is that there’s no real ambiguity — we still refuse to believe that Red is actually Liz’s father on the flagship show regardless of whatever he said to Alexander Kirk, and there’s no proof of it anyway. Here on “Redemption,” Tom is Scottie’s son. There’s no real debate over it.

There are two big challenges that the show faces — trying to convince the majority of the fans of “The Blacklist” itself to tune in, and then also recruit some people who haven’t watched the other series at all. The latter may be the bigger challenge just because of the name, but we’ve been assured that you can watch even if you don’t know the original very well at all.

We’ll be sticking around all season to cover the series, so stay tuned and keep track of the link here! That’s where we’ll be sharing all of our coverage.

Do you have any thoughts on this teaser, or the upcoming season as a show? Be sure to share in the comments!