"The Alchemist" is the twelfth episode of the first season of the American
crime drama
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
''
The Blacklist
''The Blacklist'' is an American crime thriller television series that premiered on NBC on September 23, 2013. The show follows Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader), a former U.S. Navy officer turned high-profile criminal who voluntarily sur ...
''. The episode premiered in the United States on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
on January 20, 2014.
Plot
Red informs the team that "The Alchemist" (guest star
Ryan O'Nan
Ryan O'Nan (born March 25, 1982) is an American actor, writer, and director, best known for his role as King George in '' Queen of the South''.
Career
In 2009, O'Nan had a recurring role on the crime drama series ''The Unusuals''.
Reception
Ratings
"The Alchemist" premiered on NBC on January 20, 2014 in the 10–11 p.m. time slot. The episode garnered a 2.3/6
Nielsen rating
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...
with 8.83 million viewers, making it the second most-watched show in its time slot behind
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
's ''
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
'', which collected 8.96 million viewers. "The Alchemist" was also the eleventh most-watched television show of the week.
Reviews
Jason Evans of ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' gave a positive review of the episode: "This was a pretty solid episode. I doubt Red is going to kill Malik, she’s a character they can do a lot more with before offing her. The story of The Alchemist may seem relatively unimportant right now, but I bet it has an impact down the line because Red needs something from his client list".
Jim McMahon of
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
gave the episode a 7.2/10: "The Alchemist" goes back to meat-and-potatoes Blacklist territory, as the Feds chase another name and Red does what Red does". He further stated: "Still, the stuff that matters most is ''The Blacklists strongest suit: James Spader elegantly chewing scenery and well-executed procedural plots with bad guys to match. As long as we keep getting healthy doses of each, I'm happy".