Perfect Replacement For The Blacklist

It has been a while since NBC’s The Blacklist ended its run, but Apple TV+ seems to have the perfect replacement for the hit crime thriller series.

Created by Jon Bokenkamp and developed by John Eisendrath, NBC’s The Blacklist had an incredible 10-season run from 2013 to 2023 before it wrapped up its story. Like most shows, it had its share of ups and downs, but it maintained high critical ratings across all seasons and boasts an impressive overall Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score of 91%.

Since The Blacklist ended its run with a well-rounded and natural conclusion, the show is not expected to return in any capacity in the near future. Interestingly, however, Apple TV+ has added a new thriller series to its catalog that seems to have a lot in common with The Blacklist, making it the perfect replacement for the hit NBC series.

The Last Frontier Is Jon Bokenkamp’s First TV Show After The Blacklist

Before making his television debut with The Blacklist, Jon Bokenkamp served as the writer for several movies, like Perfect Stranger, Taking Lives, and The Call. Once he stepped into the world of television, he dedicated several years of his life to The Blacklist and its 2017 spin-off, The Blacklist: Redemption.

Since the show’s end in 2023, Bokenkamp has not been directly involved with any TV projects until now. Apple TV+’s The Last Frontier marks his return to the small screen, allowing him to bring back some of the key elements that made The Blacklist a critical and commercial hit.

How The Last Frontier’s Premise & Tone Compare To The Blacklist

Interestingly, while highlighting the similarities between The Blacklist and The Last Frontier, Bokenkamp called the Apple TV+ series “a relative” of the NBC show. He said that The Last Frontier does not exactly follow the same case-of-the-week format as The Blacklist, but each installment in the series still feels “like its own movie.“

The Last Frontier also presents one major mystery that ties all of its episodes together throughout its runtime. However, similar to The Blacklist, it often tends to focus on only one criminal per episode, giving it a procedural rhythm like the NBC series.

Compared to The Blacklist, The Last Frontier is also relatively colder and more serious in tone because of its Alaskan setting and tense storytelling. However, Apple TV+‘s The Last Frontier still seems reminiscent of The Blacklist because it features many morally grey characters, heavily invests in emotional subtext, and also provides the perfect form of escapism to viewers with its taut storytelling.