The Good Wife 6.04
Oct. 14th, 2014 01:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which the creators of The Americans have a cameo which is distracting for me and makes crossovers difficult (and here I thought Alicia could represent Henry and/or Paige when they try to sort out their citizenship issues decades later), but also made me smile. Oh, and the episode continues to prove this show is just sublimely confident in itself, and justly so, in its sixth year.
I mentioned this before, but: I really love how we continue to get pay off that's built over so many seasons for the Lamont Bishop situation. He's just such a great antagonist and it's all Alicia's (and Diane's, and Will's, and Cary's, and David Lee's... etc.) fault for having been greedy, wanting and keeping him as a client. Alicia trying to get rid of him now that she's finally admitted to herself she wants to run for State Attorney was predictable; Bishop handling it smartly and calmly and ruthlessly may have been, but I still lived in the moment during watching. No Scorsese-esque gangster tantrum would have been as chilling as Bishop cheerfully informing Alicia that OF COURSE he'll change firms, and tell everyone she fired him, of COURSE wants her to become State Attorney, why, he's donating money (and laundering it via anonymous contributions the way Junior inadvertendly did Walter White's) for her cause already. And he didn't even have to say what he expects once she's in office.
Talk about corruption.
As usual for this show, there was a lot of social comedy and satire in the episode building up to this scene. And after six years as a lawyer (plus two campaigns for Peter), Alicia is a pro weathering such details like the Will photo, the Finn photo, Veronica spanking a kid and Owen dating a Palestinian who moonlights as a gay porn star. But the Zach news is a bombshell (though she weathers that one in the end as well). It's also the kind of retcon (because I bet the show didn't think of it already last season or the one before that) that works, though of course in retrospect it makes Zach's breakup with Nyssa look even more callous (though otoh: maybe she dumped him after the abortion and since he couldn't mention the later, he claimed to have done the dumping?). Not that two teenagers marrying and being parents would have been the better choice, I hasten to add. Just that at the time, Zach ending his relationship with a black girl because Eli and his arch nemesis/rival campaign manager heavily hinted it could be an issue looked bad enough.
(Sidenote: Alicia being upset about Zach lying to her, not so much about the abortion per se, also struck me in character, because either you are pro choice or you're not. While "lying to me" was the sin she in different degrees never forgave either Peter or Kalinda for.)
Speaking of Kalinda: I had forgotten Eli never knew her one night stand with Peter back in the day and Alicia's belated discovery of same had been the reason for their enstrangement! It was interesting that he was, for once, deeply shocked when Alicia mentioned it so casually. And that he later denied having the information from Alicia when quizzing Kalinda about it. Also, like Eli, though for other reasons, I find it telling Kalinda protests the "best friend" designation.
Someone told me this is now the confirmed last season - is this true? Because then I think Alicia will actually win. If it isn't, she'll lose.
Jordan the new campaign manager: so far so good.
Ongoing satirizing excerpts of non existant cop show which comes across like a cross between True Detective andHannibal: having by now attempted to watch True Detective (which didn't leave me enthralled but thinking "what pretentious drivel, cinematography not withstanding" , which is why I stopped after three episodes, and having given up on Hannibal after eight eps of the first season: they have it coming. Oh so much. I can't tell you of how much OVER I am over shows where the human body, usually female, serves as a wannabe Hieronymous Bosch like murder scenario prop while a cop or a serial killer or both drones on existentially. (Seriously: I thought Neil Gaiman debunked this whole "cool/philosophical serial killer" thing several DECADES ago with A Doll's House?)
And on that note, back to taking my medication to fight the evil book fair flu.
I mentioned this before, but: I really love how we continue to get pay off that's built over so many seasons for the Lamont Bishop situation. He's just such a great antagonist and it's all Alicia's (and Diane's, and Will's, and Cary's, and David Lee's... etc.) fault for having been greedy, wanting and keeping him as a client. Alicia trying to get rid of him now that she's finally admitted to herself she wants to run for State Attorney was predictable; Bishop handling it smartly and calmly and ruthlessly may have been, but I still lived in the moment during watching. No Scorsese-esque gangster tantrum would have been as chilling as Bishop cheerfully informing Alicia that OF COURSE he'll change firms, and tell everyone she fired him, of COURSE wants her to become State Attorney, why, he's donating money (and laundering it via anonymous contributions the way Junior inadvertendly did Walter White's) for her cause already. And he didn't even have to say what he expects once she's in office.
Talk about corruption.
As usual for this show, there was a lot of social comedy and satire in the episode building up to this scene. And after six years as a lawyer (plus two campaigns for Peter), Alicia is a pro weathering such details like the Will photo, the Finn photo, Veronica spanking a kid and Owen dating a Palestinian who moonlights as a gay porn star. But the Zach news is a bombshell (though she weathers that one in the end as well). It's also the kind of retcon (because I bet the show didn't think of it already last season or the one before that) that works, though of course in retrospect it makes Zach's breakup with Nyssa look even more callous (though otoh: maybe she dumped him after the abortion and since he couldn't mention the later, he claimed to have done the dumping?). Not that two teenagers marrying and being parents would have been the better choice, I hasten to add. Just that at the time, Zach ending his relationship with a black girl because Eli and his arch nemesis/rival campaign manager heavily hinted it could be an issue looked bad enough.
(Sidenote: Alicia being upset about Zach lying to her, not so much about the abortion per se, also struck me in character, because either you are pro choice or you're not. While "lying to me" was the sin she in different degrees never forgave either Peter or Kalinda for.)
Speaking of Kalinda: I had forgotten Eli never knew her one night stand with Peter back in the day and Alicia's belated discovery of same had been the reason for their enstrangement! It was interesting that he was, for once, deeply shocked when Alicia mentioned it so casually. And that he later denied having the information from Alicia when quizzing Kalinda about it. Also, like Eli, though for other reasons, I find it telling Kalinda protests the "best friend" designation.
Someone told me this is now the confirmed last season - is this true? Because then I think Alicia will actually win. If it isn't, she'll lose.
Jordan the new campaign manager: so far so good.
Ongoing satirizing excerpts of non existant cop show which comes across like a cross between True Detective andHannibal: having by now attempted to watch True Detective (which didn't leave me enthralled but thinking "what pretentious drivel, cinematography not withstanding" , which is why I stopped after three episodes, and having given up on Hannibal after eight eps of the first season: they have it coming. Oh so much. I can't tell you of how much OVER I am over shows where the human body, usually female, serves as a wannabe Hieronymous Bosch like murder scenario prop while a cop or a serial killer or both drones on existentially. (Seriously: I thought Neil Gaiman debunked this whole "cool/philosophical serial killer" thing several DECADES ago with A Doll's House?)
And on that note, back to taking my medication to fight the evil book fair flu.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-15 04:29 am (UTC)At the elk, which reminded me of Hannibal, was a reference to The Sopranos, per the Good Wife writers' twitter.
There was some discussion (by Emily Nussbaum, iirc?) when the episode aired of how it served as meta-commentary on bad-ass antiheroes portrayed on TV vs. Alicia's antiheroism.