Scott D. Pierce: Do we really need another ‘Blacklist’? Nope

If you're a fan of NBC's "The Blacklist," you'll like "The Blacklist: Redemption." If not … there's no reason to watch.

And that's not the best way to launch a spinoff.

The parent show centers on Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader), a former American operative who turned rogue and has been on the most-wanted list for decades. When "The Blacklist" began in September 2013, Red surrendered and offered to help U.S. authorities battle the criminals and terrorists.

In "The Blacklist: Redemption," several of those criminals band together to battle bad guys and seek "Redemption" for past crimes.

John Bokenkamp, an executive producer of both, describes the original show as "a crime drama" that's "dark and very serious and moody and has its own weird sense of humor." The spinoff is "more sexy and fun, and we exist more in an espionage world."

The jumping-off point for "Redemption" is Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold), who has figured prominently in the "Blacklist" narrative — he's the husband of FBI agent Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone). He was long ago revealed to be working for various bad guys, including Reddington.

He joins a team headed by Susan "Scottie" Hargrave (Famke Janssen), who is his biological mother. (Tom was kidnapped as a 3-year-old.)

It's the flip-side of "The Blacklist," which is still teasing viewers with the unanswered question of whether Red is Elizabeth's biological father after 80-plus episodes.

"Is-he-or-isn't-he is very much a part of the central question of that show," Eggold said. "With this relationship, right off the bat we say she's his mother and where do we go from there?"

The "Redemption" group includes assassin Matias Solomon (Edi Gathegi), international criminal Nez Rowan (Tawny Cypress) and hacker Dumont (Adrian Martinez) — and this was all introduced on "The Blacklist" 10 months ago.

Now it's a separate show. Sort of. On Thursday, NBC airs "The Blacklist" at 8 p.m. and "Redemption" at 9 p.m., and it's one big story in which we'll "see Tom Keen walk out of one show into the next," Bokenkamp said.

(Will Eggold return to "The Blacklist"? That depends on whether NBC picks up "Redemption" for more episodes.)

NBC has ordered eight hours of "Redemption," which will air in the "Blacklist" time slot (Thursdays at 9 p.m.) while the original takes a break.

"They share a lot of the same DNA, and it's essentially 30 episodes in a row of the 'Blacklist' world," Bokenkamp said.

Again, that's great if you're a fan. But after a strong Season 1, the original series has never recovered that level of quality in the 2 ½ seasons since.

Frankly, I don't trust the new show any more than I trust the old one, which deliberately deceived and manipulated viewers last season. After Elizabeth Keen was killed off, she was brought back with the explanation that she faked her death to shield her new baby from Reddington.

Yes, Boone had to take time off from the series because of her real-life pregnancy. But I'm not a big fan of shows that give us fake deaths, making us wonder what's real and what's not for the rest of that series.

Frankly, I've already given up on "The Blacklist," so I have no interest in investing time in more of the same. There are already too many really good TV shows out there that I don't have time to watch in their entirety.

But if you're still in love with the original, by all means seek "Redemption."

Scott D. Pierce covers TV for The Salt Lake Tribune. Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.