selenak

Now that's more like it. Show, I thoroughly loved this week's episode.

Including its treatment of Celeste, who without scenes with Will and with scenes with Alicia and Diane suddenly mutated to a three dimensional character. Not to mention we saw her efficient as a lawyer. And this week's mindmessing - the "we're lovers, and she's breaking up with me for a man not worthy of her" remark - didn't come across as crass and embarrassing but genuinenly funny. Also, the getting drunk together scene was golden. The show is generally good with drinking scenes between adults, and we even got a note of Kalinda angst when Alicia said she didn't have any female friends. (Nor male ones. Which, come to think of it, is true. Eli is too invested in Peter's career to be her disinterested friend, Owen is her brother, and it's probably telling that now she and Will have made the transition to lovers, she doesn't count him as a friend anymore.

I also appreciated how the show turned Alicia's - and the audience's - righteous indignation at David's nepotism around by letting Will point out in the final scene that this was how she herself got hired. Speaking of Will, after my grousing in the last two weeks I have to say this was my favourite flavour of Will; with a minimum on screen time and shady (for understandable motives), not the centre of attention. If the show kept him like that every week, I would not have a problem.

The series also fulfilled my other wish from last week and instead of annoying Will/women more interesting than him scenes gave me an awkward Alica, Peter, children family scene. And speaking of friends, what happened to religious girl from last season for Grace to say that Jennifer was her only friend? Anyway, the scene between Alicia and her daughter was also great, subtext wise, because while Alicia expounded on how it was unprofessional for Jennifer to be both Grace's friend and her tutor, you could practically hear her think of Will's and her situation as boss and employee.

Sweeney was reliably creepy, and just as I was wondering whether they brought him back just for a bit of frisson and to give Celeste the opportunity for her "we're lovers" line about her and Alicia, he provided us with a great subplot involving the state attorney's office. One of the things I appreciated about s2 was that the Cary scenes then increasingly allowed us to see the state attorney's people in functions other than Lockhart & Gardner's antagonists, doing often a good and important job, and this episode was the first to pick that up again this week, with both Cary, Peter and the staff. And we were back to politics as well, which is always fun to see and full of good character stuff as well. (Such as Peter being his version of ambiguous, admitting to wanting the key note speech on the one hand but putting being a good state attorney first on the other, yet unable to admit to Eli the truth about Kalinda. Mind you, given the clues he already has about the state of the Florick marriage and Kalinda's behaviour, I don't think it will take Eli long to deduce it on his own. And now he's committed himself to keep that marriage around despite already knowing something is seriously wrong, just not what. The plot, it thickens.

In conclusion: I am a happy viewer this week, oh yes, I am.