The Good Wife 5.19
Apr. 28th, 2014 02:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which Colin Sweeney is back, and so is Owen.
I'm wondering whether or not Sweeney has overstayed his welcome, though. Because as the cop and Castor point it, it's likely that Alicia was in his house to provide an alibi, for the second time, and if she continues to represent him, there will be undoubtedly more times. And the show does treat this not so much as moral ambiguity than as comic relief, imo, though your mileage may differ. Also, is there any particular reason why there needed to be a new fiancee instead of Isabel (i.e. Morena Baccharin's character)? Their respective characterisations didn't seem to be much apart. Was Morena Baccharin unavailable? Anyway, Sweeney's and now Renata's treatment by the show reminds me of why I stopped watching Hannibal last season and am keeping on watching Bates Motel. I'm starting to get tired of glib, oh-so-clever aesthetic murderers whose victims are never given any humanity of their own.
I usually love the Alicia and Owen sibling scenes, but there was one element in their last one here I had a bit of a problem with. I mean, it's understandable that Owen, upon hearing Alicia and Peter are now having a nominal marriage, thinks Peter is sleeping around and that Alicia is the martyr here, but considering the newest separation was a unilateral Alicia decision (which she was entitled to, I'm not saying she wasn't, I hasten to add) caused by many things but not new infidelity, I thought it was a bit unfair of Alicia to let that idea stand. That aside, I was glad to see Owen again.
Diane and Alicia working together and Diane pulling a ruthless, clever manoeuvre: was v. enjoyable, but I wish they wouldn't have let Colin Sweeney say she's channelling Will. Like David Lee's "you're no Will Gardner" two weeks ago, this writerly postumous Will glorification in the mouth of various characters is starting to really, really annoy me. Diane always was a shark, and a far more clever one than Will the overextender of business and occasional ass-of-vengefulness. We do remember which of the two got barred for a half a year, don't we? If one more character compares her to Will on screen in a way that implies Will was in any way her superior, I'm going to scream.
On the bright side: Alicia helping Finn Polmar with the "prevent Castro from firing you by running against him" advice and Peter then, after Castro gave him the "you gotta support me because otherwise you'll look partial to your wife" speech, deciding to throw his weight behind Finn, thus making the candidacy a serious one, not only was amusing to watch but answered something I'd been wondering, to wit, whether Finn being made a recurring character would result in him getting fired from the state attorney's office and then hired by either Florrick & Agos or L & G., which I couldn't quite see resulting in interesting storylines (I like the character, but I don't want him to become Will Mark II, complete with romantic tension with Alicia), him running for state attorney instead (even if it was at the start just a ploy to prevent Castro from getting rid of him) is far better. (BTW, while the show was careful to establish from the get go he's married, I do think it's possible he's planned as a new love interest for Alicia; but if he was to get hired by L & G, he definitely would have come across like a Will replacement rather than his own character.)
Zack comparing his parents to Bill and Hillary is the second Bill and Hillary comparison this season (the first one was by Will in the first half of the season). Since the first comparison of that kind happened in the pilot (where Diane made it), I wonder in which phase of Hllary's life Alicia is currently supposed to be - Senator or Secretary of State already?
I'm wondering whether or not Sweeney has overstayed his welcome, though. Because as the cop and Castor point it, it's likely that Alicia was in his house to provide an alibi, for the second time, and if she continues to represent him, there will be undoubtedly more times. And the show does treat this not so much as moral ambiguity than as comic relief, imo, though your mileage may differ. Also, is there any particular reason why there needed to be a new fiancee instead of Isabel (i.e. Morena Baccharin's character)? Their respective characterisations didn't seem to be much apart. Was Morena Baccharin unavailable? Anyway, Sweeney's and now Renata's treatment by the show reminds me of why I stopped watching Hannibal last season and am keeping on watching Bates Motel. I'm starting to get tired of glib, oh-so-clever aesthetic murderers whose victims are never given any humanity of their own.
I usually love the Alicia and Owen sibling scenes, but there was one element in their last one here I had a bit of a problem with. I mean, it's understandable that Owen, upon hearing Alicia and Peter are now having a nominal marriage, thinks Peter is sleeping around and that Alicia is the martyr here, but considering the newest separation was a unilateral Alicia decision (which she was entitled to, I'm not saying she wasn't, I hasten to add) caused by many things but not new infidelity, I thought it was a bit unfair of Alicia to let that idea stand. That aside, I was glad to see Owen again.
Diane and Alicia working together and Diane pulling a ruthless, clever manoeuvre: was v. enjoyable, but I wish they wouldn't have let Colin Sweeney say she's channelling Will. Like David Lee's "you're no Will Gardner" two weeks ago, this writerly postumous Will glorification in the mouth of various characters is starting to really, really annoy me. Diane always was a shark, and a far more clever one than Will the overextender of business and occasional ass-of-vengefulness. We do remember which of the two got barred for a half a year, don't we? If one more character compares her to Will on screen in a way that implies Will was in any way her superior, I'm going to scream.
On the bright side: Alicia helping Finn Polmar with the "prevent Castro from firing you by running against him" advice and Peter then, after Castro gave him the "you gotta support me because otherwise you'll look partial to your wife" speech, deciding to throw his weight behind Finn, thus making the candidacy a serious one, not only was amusing to watch but answered something I'd been wondering, to wit, whether Finn being made a recurring character would result in him getting fired from the state attorney's office and then hired by either Florrick & Agos or L & G., which I couldn't quite see resulting in interesting storylines (I like the character, but I don't want him to become Will Mark II, complete with romantic tension with Alicia), him running for state attorney instead (even if it was at the start just a ploy to prevent Castro from getting rid of him) is far better. (BTW, while the show was careful to establish from the get go he's married, I do think it's possible he's planned as a new love interest for Alicia; but if he was to get hired by L & G, he definitely would have come across like a Will replacement rather than his own character.)
Zack comparing his parents to Bill and Hillary is the second Bill and Hillary comparison this season (the first one was by Will in the first half of the season). Since the first comparison of that kind happened in the pilot (where Diane made it), I wonder in which phase of Hllary's life Alicia is currently supposed to be - Senator or Secretary of State already?
