Blacklist Season 7 finale animated

The Blacklist fans are super divided on the animated season finale episode. "The Kazanjin Brothers" drew a ton of reaction on social media when it was first announced. That scrutiny only intensified when people actually got to see some of what the show was working with. When the show aired tonight on NBC, viewers got a taste of what that fusion live-action/animation approach looked like. Some were huge fans and commended the show on taking such a risk. Others were ready to mock the low-poly/cel-shaded feel of the episode. But, you have to give it up to the production team for trying something new when it comes to getting that product out despite the coronavirus pandemic slowing production to a crawl.

For those who don't have the backstory, the seventh season was almost complete. With an episode half-finished, they opted for comic book-style animation to make sure the show could go on. Executive producers John Eisendrath and Jon Bokenkamp talked to Comicbook.com about the episode and the process that led to its creation this week.

"We've always talked about The Blacklist being a big of a comic book. We've got a criminal anti-hero at the center of the show. A Rogues' Gallery of criminals each week," they explained. "The look and feel of the show has a slightly alt, graphic novel feel to it that's baked into the DNA of what we do on a week to week basis. So we think when we started kicking around ideas for two to complete the season when we looked back at the comic books that had been written by Nicole Phillips an animated approach felt very organic."

Both producers continued, "The cast recorded all of their dialogue remotely while in quarantine. Those recordings were sent to our Post Production team in Los Angeles. We had animators working around the clock in London and Atlanta.The whole thing was a very virtual experience across multiple time zones, but we were truly impressed with how quickly and seamlessly everyone came together to complete the episode. Think we also welcomed the distraction from what was really happening out in the world."

The Blacklist stars James Spader alongside Megan Boone, Diego Klattenhoff, Amir Arison, Hisham Tawfiq, and Harry Lennix. NBC has already renewed the series for Season 8, so it will be returning with new episodes this fall.

What did you think of The Blacklist finale? Let us know down in the comments! Check out the best reactions down below:

Incredible

Very nice take

Super happy with it

Jeez

Salute

Some are sad

Creative solution

Deadly Premoniton

Great review

Best of a hard situation

Two thumbs up

Must see TV

Look at this

Maybe so

Ouch

What a deep cut!