The Good Wife 4.13
Jan. 28th, 2013 03:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which your reviewer is made happy on a number of issues.
TGW has the comedy of manners thing down flat, but I love it best when we get interesting commentary on various ways women succeed (or not). Alicia getting offered the partnership she must have dreamed of for years and that the viewers (at least yours truly) didn't expect her to get until more to the end of the show, only to discover that the offer wasn't limited to her and was part of Will and Diane's efforts to raise money for the firm via handing out partnerships to five associates was a case in point. As were the two stories Diane told - one of Jonah Stern offering her the partnership, which made it all sound shiny and triumphant, the reward for all the hard work, and the other near the end that the reason Stern made that offer was that he was being sued for sexual harrassment and needed a female partner to improve his image. As with Alicia, that doesn't mean either woman didn't work hard for the position, but it taints their joy in receiving it - but both take the job. (Though with Alicia I expect it won't be the end of the tale; she did keep Canning's card, and Diane's face at the end, watching Alicia thank the partners as ordered, was distinctly suspicious.) Getting through a crucial door for questionable reasons; it feels very real to me.
There is a small parallel with Cary who also is a bit let down on discovery that amazing partnership offer turned out to be part of a money raising effort (though Cary should have been less surprised than Alicia, given his stint at the state's attorney's office), and is gently chided for that by Kalinda whereupon he shrugs it off and gets back into celebration mode. But then, Cary, by virtue of being male and from rich background (never mind Lex Luthor as a father), never had Alicia's need to prove herself at L & G and so the let down upon discovery the promotion came for pragmatic reasons is considerable less. Incidentally, that scene between Cary and Kalinda was the first friendship scence between them we've had for eons, and damm, I missed them having scenes that were about more than exposition! So I was glad to see that.
Speaking of friendship scenes, I was also pleased by the one between Cary and Clark Haydon, and the fact that Clark Haydon was given an exit episode (at least I assume that was what it was?) in which he got to save the day, basically (with Diane still not getting his motive). Aw. I really like the character, but actually given the fate of Eli I'm not sure whether a short and limited guest stint isn't better for him than, say, him becoming a regular and being reduced to comic relief.
(Otoh I still expect the show to end with Alicia and Cary becoming heads of their own law firm; then Clark Haydon can join them and be their David Lee.)
The case of the week brought back Neil Gross, not a very interesting guest star, but that didn't matter because the pre nup negotiations were hilarious, David Lee was in great form, and his approval at Cary smoothtalking the fiancée cracked me up.
Above all, though, the episode was a great showcase for our lead actress and her character. Alicia went through the whole emotional spectrum in this hour, and I think my two favourite scenes were Louis Canning springing the news about the five partnership offers at her in court and her response (which was for Will and Diane as much as it was for Canning, and managed to get across her emotion without falling into Canning's trap and betraying the firm), and then later the leadership dinner scene with her "I'm an atheist" response. Incidentally, this is something I wouldn't have gotten the full impact off 20 years ago when I started to watch American tv shows other than Star Trek and Babylon 5 because the enormous weight religion plays in American politics doesn't have an equal counterpart in contemporary Germany. (I hasten to add this wasn't always the case.) Leaving aside sci fi and fantasy shows, having the sympathetic lead of a contemporary hit show declare her atheism is still very unusual, isn't it? Anyway, well played, on various levels.
TGW has the comedy of manners thing down flat, but I love it best when we get interesting commentary on various ways women succeed (or not). Alicia getting offered the partnership she must have dreamed of for years and that the viewers (at least yours truly) didn't expect her to get until more to the end of the show, only to discover that the offer wasn't limited to her and was part of Will and Diane's efforts to raise money for the firm via handing out partnerships to five associates was a case in point. As were the two stories Diane told - one of Jonah Stern offering her the partnership, which made it all sound shiny and triumphant, the reward for all the hard work, and the other near the end that the reason Stern made that offer was that he was being sued for sexual harrassment and needed a female partner to improve his image. As with Alicia, that doesn't mean either woman didn't work hard for the position, but it taints their joy in receiving it - but both take the job. (Though with Alicia I expect it won't be the end of the tale; she did keep Canning's card, and Diane's face at the end, watching Alicia thank the partners as ordered, was distinctly suspicious.) Getting through a crucial door for questionable reasons; it feels very real to me.
There is a small parallel with Cary who also is a bit let down on discovery that amazing partnership offer turned out to be part of a money raising effort (though Cary should have been less surprised than Alicia, given his stint at the state's attorney's office), and is gently chided for that by Kalinda whereupon he shrugs it off and gets back into celebration mode. But then, Cary, by virtue of being male and from rich background (never mind Lex Luthor as a father), never had Alicia's need to prove herself at L & G and so the let down upon discovery the promotion came for pragmatic reasons is considerable less. Incidentally, that scene between Cary and Kalinda was the first friendship scence between them we've had for eons, and damm, I missed them having scenes that were about more than exposition! So I was glad to see that.
Speaking of friendship scenes, I was also pleased by the one between Cary and Clark Haydon, and the fact that Clark Haydon was given an exit episode (at least I assume that was what it was?) in which he got to save the day, basically (with Diane still not getting his motive). Aw. I really like the character, but actually given the fate of Eli I'm not sure whether a short and limited guest stint isn't better for him than, say, him becoming a regular and being reduced to comic relief.
(Otoh I still expect the show to end with Alicia and Cary becoming heads of their own law firm; then Clark Haydon can join them and be their David Lee.)
The case of the week brought back Neil Gross, not a very interesting guest star, but that didn't matter because the pre nup negotiations were hilarious, David Lee was in great form, and his approval at Cary smoothtalking the fiancée cracked me up.
Above all, though, the episode was a great showcase for our lead actress and her character. Alicia went through the whole emotional spectrum in this hour, and I think my two favourite scenes were Louis Canning springing the news about the five partnership offers at her in court and her response (which was for Will and Diane as much as it was for Canning, and managed to get across her emotion without falling into Canning's trap and betraying the firm), and then later the leadership dinner scene with her "I'm an atheist" response. Incidentally, this is something I wouldn't have gotten the full impact off 20 years ago when I started to watch American tv shows other than Star Trek and Babylon 5 because the enormous weight religion plays in American politics doesn't have an equal counterpart in contemporary Germany. (I hasten to add this wasn't always the case.) Leaving aside sci fi and fantasy shows, having the sympathetic lead of a contemporary hit show declare her atheism is still very unusual, isn't it? Anyway, well played, on various levels.
