Managing to air despite the production being interrupted is a praise-worthy task indeed
We will get to see the final episode of season 8 of NBC’s The Blacklist, and we must applaud the whole cast and crew, who was able to spin around the 22-episode season into a 19-episode one, after production was shut down because of the coronavirus. Aside from that, only half of the episode for the finale was shot, so the producers finished the rest of it with animation.
How it all turned out
Making a long running series liked by millions into an animated version was not an easy task, and the makers were indeed, playing it a little too close to the chest. By not leaking any spoilers, the finale carefully created a web of deceit, secrets, betrayal, and other elements. And they managed to fit all this together into an animated form, and that is something extraordinary.
The credits go to the show’s creator and executive producer Jon Bokenkamp, co-creator John Eisendrath, finale director Michael Caracciolo, and finale writers Kelli Johnson and Sam Christopher, along with the other members of the creative team.
The animation they chose was different, not the motion capture ones we see in recent videogames that would take a couple of years to make. This one was more roughly done, but managed to capture the characters well, and a tribute must be given to the team for striving for this method to succeed even when all odds were against them.
The actors had to record their lines from home for these parts, and were working in par with a team in Los Angeles. And the credit for creating the artworks goes to Proof, Inc. which is based in London and Atlanta.