‘Ottawa’ Crime Drama Blindspot Has Mastered the Art of Over-Explaining
A baby girl has been found in a duffel bag — just as Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander), our main character, was found in episode one. The two even have a matching tattoo. The FBI tracked down the man who dropped off the baby, but a sniper killed him. Standing around a table in the FBI office, the team does a rapid-fire recap.
“So he steals a baby?” Jane asks.
“Not just any baby, the granddaughter of a famous politician,” growls the aptly named Kurt (Sullivan Stapleton).
“I can’t find any record of her birth,” Patterson (Ashley Johnson) chimes in.
“More importantly, why haven’t the Warrens reported her missing?” Kurt snarls.
I watched episode one of this series, but didn’t continue. So I was curious to see if, 21 installments later, I could keep up. It’s a major concern for shows that unravel a mystery across a season, such as Lost, 24 or Quantico: If you miss an hour, it feels like too much to catch up on, so you drop it.
Blindspot solves that problem by recapping itself every five minutes, in high-speed dialog that sustains the illusion of tension. “A little girl left in a bag totally helpless — doesn’t that remind you of someone?” Jane asks. Why yes, Jane, it reminds me of you! Amazing!
Even action scenes (assailants steal a baby) are followed immediately by recaps (“Assailants have stolen a baby!”). So don’t worry about keeping track since episode one. You don’t even have to keep track between commercials.