The Good Wife

[shadowkat]

Watched The Good Wife this past Sunday, which was a lot better than the last two weeks. Although my attention kept wandering during it. No fault of the Good Wife's. Mostly just work related. I have a mentally tasking and frustrating occupation - as one co-worker put it on the walk to the subway, they constantly put obstacles in our path all day long and we have to navigate around them. Constant negotiation, problem solving, and facilitating. And a bit on the thankless side of the fence. Time was that I would go out partying, write several chapters of whatever novel I was working on, go to the theater, out for drinks, take a class, do pottery, go to book club after work. Now? I'm too tired. I just want to go home, fix dinner, talk to the Momster, watch television, and fiddle on the net. Discussed this with two different co-workers today, and realized it wasn't just me. With or without families? They feel the same way. Which begs the question? Why stay? Because it is a really good job and I don't know what else I'd do, and I like aspects of it. But it does bleed into my real life, I'm less tolerant of strong differences of opinion or fights in my lj over tv shows or politics. I find myself more frustrated. And I use my lj, too much perhaps, as a stress-reliever...or escape from frustration during the day, a welcome distraction.

One of the reasons I like The Good Wife - is in an odd way it resonates for me, I identify. Alicia Florek feels lonely, she really has no friends and spends most of her time working hard. And navigating a tricky political climate filled with different breeds of shark. Her daughter is equally struggling with friends. As is her private investigator, Kalinda, and various other female characters. Making female friends in this environment is tricky. Family is far away, or too close. And each relationship feels filled with landmines.
Often invisible ones. Of all the shows currently on TV right now, I think the Good Wife is by far the most realistic depiction of the American Legal system and political system within business or how our business world and legal system works. It's far from perfect of course.
But it comes the closest and in some respects reminds me a great deal of The Wire, except with female leads.



This week Alicia finds out a bit more about Will Gardner than she'd like. And Celeste is actually developed. Which makes me think the sole reason she appeared obnoxious and one-dimensional was that we were seeing her through Will Gardner's eyes. Alicia is a bit different. And I loved their conversation - which is more about power than romance or anything else. Celeste states she can't be Alicia's friend, even though she likes her, because of Will - because she's in competition with Alicia. It's not that Celeste necessarily wants Will, so much as she appears to want to win or rather have Will her playmate back again. But Celeste makes a good point - Will isn't right for Alicia, he's too much of a player, he will do whatever it takes to win or achieve what wants, regardless of the consequences.

There's small character bits here, and the Eli plot thread continues to build. This week Eli discovers that Kalinda wants nothing to do with Peter. Which Peter shrugs off as nothing, but Eli is suspicious. He's also noticed - that Alicia is spending time with divorce lawyer David Lee ( a fascinating if somewhat duplicitious character, portrayed by an excellent character actor). On top of all of this - Eli is told once again by the Democratic Chairman that Alicia is Peter's ticket to the Governor's seat and the White House. When Eli works to get Peter the keynote address, he's told by the head of that committee that Peter's marital problems are a ticking bomb that the Republicans can drop on their heads at any moment. Peter and Alicia are separated. Meanwhile Alicia and Peter have a small parental discussion about the daughter's inappropriate tutor. Peter just wants to fire the tutor and hire a new one. Alicia wants to deal with it more carefully, not fire the girl. And is made a bit uncomfortable by the need to inform the girl that doing provocative videos and becoming "friends" with the girl she is tutoring is unprofessional. Just tutor her. So the tutor does exactly that, and Alicia's poor daughter is devastated, she's lost another friend. Like many outsider teens, she is sought out by fellow loners and outsiders. And these friendships are often transitional. They come and go. Often on a whim. Most tv shows are unrealistic in their depiction of teen life - showing people who have close nit friends through high school, who go to prom, who date, who sleep with their boyfriends or girlfriends, but those were the popular kids or the kids who fit in some group, they aren't the majority. Kudos to the Good Wife who depicts how it was for well, everyone else. The scene shows how good both Peter and Alicia are as parents. It also shows how good Alicia is - when her daughter comes to her devastated. Alicia listens to her and realizes maybe she could have handled this differently. It's hard to know what to do. The tutor was inappropriate and was involving a 14 year old in something that was dangerous and dicey.

Then there was the hiring - the two candidates. Martha and Caitlin. Which felt very realistic to me. I've met both, remember I went to law school. Although prettier. Lawyers generally speaking aren't pretty. In fact I looked at our graduation class photo and stated well, you can see why we all went to law school...not exactly photogenic. Another problem with Hollywood - the insistence on hiring people who look great on camera for everything.
Anyhow...it wasn't about the candidates, rather it was about power, who has it, who doesn't.
Kalinda was wrong when she told Eli that David Lee stood by Diane. Will tells Alicia that he voted with David Lee, because David Lee voted with him to get Alicia on board. Diane clearly voted the other way for much the same reason Alicia planned to. (Being a C law student myself, I was sympathetic towards Caitlin. But being a Martha who turned down one job in hopes of getting another, only to lose both - I was furious, also furious at the nepotism or the way around the nepotism which exists big time in US law firms and businesses and ghod, Universities. Ran into it all my life. Hollywood is basically nothing but that - the people I admire in Hollywood the most are the ones who didn't have a father or mother working in the biz. Few and far between. It's all about connections. And the Good Wife really gets that across - who you know and who you owe favors to. Alicia got the job at Lockhart/Gardner because of her connection to Will and the fact he still carried a torch for her. She did not get it for any other reason. Will makes that clear in this episode. Which explains why Diane has been so tough on Alicia and did not like her to begin with. Will clearly has the power in the firm. The fact that he allowed David Lee to put Alicia through it and never warned her or told her what was going on...is also interesting and what Alicia picked up on.

Then there was the case, which I don't really remember and the whole persuasion of the wife-murderer/embezzler to testify against a prison inmate, so that the DA would let him off on good behavior - which was his condition for testifying at a civil trial as a key witness.
Dylan Baker is quite good here and there's a rather funny scene where he tries to pull a Hannibal Lector and get the two women to tell him why there's tension between them. Celeste, poker faced, states they are lovers and have just broken up, and Alicia won't leave her family for her. Alicia poker faced nods assent. Dylan Baker's crook states, "If only that were true...I'd be very happy." It's a funny statement, but also a commentary on where the Will and Alicia relationship is heading by Celeste. It really can't go anywhere.

So much to chew on. I rather adore The Good Wife, it too plays with my mind.

Comments

[empresspatti.livejournal.com]

TGW is easily the best thing on tv! It's a joy to see smart complex women in positions of power. Plus - good stories to showcase them...