Times Square Gossip

**** THE GLORIOUS CORNER Story By: G. H. HARDING **** James Spader BLACKLIST’S BEST --- Last week was the season finale of NBC’s The Blacklist, and it was by far the best episode this entire second season. FBI agent Lizzie Kean is on the run, framed by the nefarious cabal and, of course, Red Reddington (portrayed by the great James Spader) comes to her rescue. Several questions were finally answered in this episode, which finds Liz and Red ultimately on the run in the final minutes, with Elton John’s “Rocket Man” poignantly playing them out. In a masterstroke, Lizzie now becomes the FBI’s Most Wanted. Actually, a brilliant play. Spader, for my money, remains one of the very best actors on TV these days. Talk about chewing the scenery—Spader continually makes a grand dinner out of it. I don’t know how this role came to Spader, but it is an inspired choice. He should give his agents a major bonus! This episode saw his character Reddington admit tha...

**** THE GLORIOUS CORNER Story By: G. H. HARDING **** James Spader SPADER'S WORLD --- NBC’s The Blacklist ended their raucous and very successful first season Monday night with the conclusion of a two-part arc. First: James Spader is positively mesmerizing on this show; you simply cannot take your eyes off him. His line readings are addicting and the way he chews the scenery are nothing short of fantastic. Second: While this episode was thrilling and the plot points many indeed; the best episodes of this show, including the pilot and the December-finale, written by director Joe Carnahan, were heads-and-tails the best ones of this series. This one contained so many plot points and developments (including the great Alan Alda reprising his cloak-and-dagger government rep), that I had to go back and watch it again. The legendary Peter Stomare was the main culprit here and his acting did not disappoint. Stormare has been in so many great epics (Th...