‘The Blacklist’ spoilers: ‘Weeds’ alum Justin Kirk goes for surprising change of pace

“The Blacklist” is continuing to knock it out of the park when it comes to their outside-the-box castings for some of their main criminals. We’ve already seen a turn from Robert Knepper as the villain nicknamed “The Courier,” and next week is going to bring us a turn as Robert Sean Leonard of “House” fame as a scientist who may or may not have the best intentions.

As interesting as these castings are, the next one may be the most surprising. According to Entertainment Weekly, Justin Kirk of “Weeds” (and briefly “Animal Practice”) has been booked for a guest spot as the villain-of-the-week, who is the founder of some sort of anti-capitalist group. In our mind, we personally envision this as being some sort of deadly version of Occupy Wall Street.

While there is a part of us that wants to stay away from these procedural-themed episodes with a giant pitchfork, “The Blacklist” continues to be intelligent when it comes to finding people who audiences want to see in a new role. Take for instance Leonard, who is likely very interested in being a character other than Wilson for a change. It’s a win-win both for the actors and the show, and we hope that this is the route that they continue to take. We also do appreciate it when the series does decide to incorporate someone with some obvious comedy chops, since there is at least a chance that they will stir things up a little bit, and not cause us to take everything so seriously all the time. (This is predictably something that happens when you have a show this dramatic.)

“The Blacklist” already has itself a full 22 episodes this season from NBC, and is remaining a solid part of the schedule after “The Voice.” While its ratings have fallen over the past several weeks, they are not of the sort of dramatic level that would cause you to actually worry about the show’s future.

Photo: NBC