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shadowkatWell, I get tomorrow off - yes, it's weird, I know. Before you envy me, keep in mind I do not get the day after Thanksgiving off. Government work places are odd. Nor does everyone I work with get tomorrow off - depends on which union you are in or if you are management. The reason? It's an election day - and the union dictates that employees should be provided plenty of time to vote. Goes back to the inception of the union, way back in 1940.
Promised a review of The Good Wife, for the scant few who care. But hey, one reader is enough from my perspective. The Good Wife continues to be my favorite series, but it is very female centric apparently, few men I know watch it. A lot of people think it is a procedural, but if last night's episode was any indication? Really not. It is critically acclaimed.
*Diane, you are brilliant. Will's partner and the Lockhardt in Lockhardt/Gardner, Diane calls Will and is talking to him, when Alicia's phone rings in the background with a very loud "Hi Mom, Hi Mom, Hi Mom" - ring-tone signaling her daughter. Alicia, I think, you really need to get some new and less obvious ring tones if you want to carry on a top-secret affair with your boss. Diane no dummy, figures out what is going on. And a shout out to Christine Baranskie who subtly conveys the "hmmm, this is not good" without saying a word.
Instead she decides it is time to renew their insurance regarding individual employment claims and malpractice. Will walks in on this, all fired up and ready to fight with her regarding the firm's representation of alleged or suspected terrorist who had been tortured.
She kicks the wind out of sails neatly: "I've decided its a good time to renew our insurance, specifically against individual employment claims regarding sexual harrassment,
such as situations where bosses sleep with underlings..." Will speechless, steps back. "I need you to sign off on this of course, also a mandatory sexual harrassment class is required of all employees and partners." Will nods. "I..uh, trust your judgement." Go Diane!
It's a very realistic and savvy response. Also as a side note - the sexual harrassment and workplace harrassment video that they are watching? I've seen that video twice in my working life. Big organizations love it. Often the class is basically just watching the video. At one company - we watched it on the computer and took a test afterwards. Very realistic and spot on.
Diane basically protected herself and Will from Alicia or Caitlin for that matter filing a claim against the firm. She knew she couldn't stop Will and Alicia, but she could force them to watch a video and think about it. She also tries to avoid Alicia through most of the episode. (Typical - the woman is always blamed in these scenarios. It never fails to annoy me. People? It takes two to tango. If your hubby is cheating on you - don't get furious with the woman he is doing it with - get furious with him! He's the slut in the story, he's the one who is married and sleeping with two people, ie. cheating! But a lot of women idiotically go after the woman. Same deal here - does Diane go after Will? No. Is she awkward with Will, no! She is awkward with Alicia. She blames Alicia. I can see why - she's disappointed in Alicia. Alicia went there. Will she half-expects to go there, but she was hoping Alicia wouldn't. It's once again about power - who has it, who doesn't.)
* Speaking of power games. Peter is playing Will quite well. He uses what Will did 15 years ago to go after Will's client, the drug dealer - Lamont Bishop. They can't really go after Will, not their jurisdiction (happened in Baltimore) and 15 years ago. But they can use it as leverage to get Will to provide information on his client, they can also use it as reasonable cause to investigate Will's firm on it's investigation and legal practices.
Peter, as Carey points out, shouldn't be doing it directly - conflict of interest. It is his Wife's firm and Peter has issues with Will. Carey himself shouldn't be pursuing it - again potential conflict of interest - he was fired from that firm. But Dana can - and it is Dana who brought it up. Also, Carey can indirectly pursue with Dana. Dana also had her high profile defense attorney gig fall through in much the same way Martha did at Lockhardt/Gardner - I'm guessing. Will forces Peter's hand when he confronts him for coming after him - first the audit, now this! Have the balls to admit what this is about. Peter wisely side-steps a fight, and ponders. Peter's solution? Yes we can pursue - to get Lamont Bishop and I can use Carey and Dana to do it, if I recuse myself from the case.
*The bit with Will syncs nicely with the Alicia storyline - which are both about Attorney/Client privelege. I don't know what the laws are elsewhere on this topic, but it is a big deal in the US. And applies in various situations. You can break attorney/client privilege but only under certain situations, and all lawyers are opposed to it - because a)it is a clear infraction of their client's rights, b) if they are shown revealing what their clients have stated in confidence - they aren't going to get any more clients. Your clients have to be able to talk to you. It's a bit like a psychologist being unable to ask specific questions, or for that matter a priest. But even more so - a lawyer cannot defend a client who doesn't tell them everything - you need to know where all the land-mines are so that you can prepare a defense. Also despite what you might think in the US it truly is innocent before PROVEN guilty, the burden of proof rests on the plaintiff or prosecutor.
If you take away privilege...you make it impossible for clients/plaintiffs/defendants to trust their lawyer. No victim is going to tell the prosecutor everything - if they can't have privilege. In addition lawyers who break attorney client privilege - can be disbarred.
Confidentiality is a major rule, you don't mess with it.
Here Will and Alicia, as well as Diane in association with, are being asked to break with Attorney/Client privilege by the opposing side - who attempts to do so with bulling tactics.
It is true that under executive orders passed through and as part of the Patriot Act, that the US Treasury Department and Justice Department can force a defense attorney to reveal information received under privilege in cases of "suspected" terrorism. (Gotta love the Patriot Act). Alicia got around it with her attorney finding another conflict of interest - which underlines our current issue with corporations having more rights than individuals. The Supreme Court declaring a "Corporation" as a "person" under the Constitution opened that up a bit. As a result, somewhat ironically I might add, Alicia's attorney is able to cite conflict of interest and privilege with an outside party, the insurance firm, to prevent Alicia from betraying her client, the suspected terrorist, confidence. As a nice twist,
the government is unable to press criminal charges of suspected terrorism and perjury against Alicia's client, because the officer they call states he is not required to testify under grounds of immunity and well governmental "privilege". The judge throws out the case.
The government is hoisted on its own petard. Demonstrating the power game going on underneath the surface - both parties played with the same law, hunting loop-holes. Alicia's firm used the government's law against it. They won.
Will is thrust into a similar situation which he does not reveal to Diane. Carey and Dana threaten him with his embezzlement, attempting to use it as leverage to get him to betray Lamont Bishop's confidence. Furious - Will calls Caitlin into his office to witness it,
and states that they just committed a crime - attempting to extort privileged information about a client from him. Then he confronts Peter. Who in turn tells Dana and Carey to pursue the investigation into Will but leave him out of it.
*Alicia and Lockhardt/Gardner. Alicia figures out once again that Will does not have her back. Diane sends Alicia to deal with the Treasury Dept. with little guidance. Alicia falls into a trap - when the Treasury Department asks her to report if she hears her client mention a name of a place in Afghanistan. Alicia states that it is not her role to monitor her client for the Treasury Dept. She goes back, and the client ends up mentioning it to explain a lie that he made to his attorneys - he was visiting a patient, and went to this district to help an ill girl. Alicia speaks up and tells Diane and Will what happened at the Treasury Dept and the position she's now been placed in. They suggest she see "their" attorney who will guide her through it. Alicia wisely declines and decides to weigh her options - instead she hunts out Peter's attorney - who got Peter off of a problem last year.
Peter's attorney is Elsbeth Tascioni - who is portrayed by Carrie Preston and also plays Arlene in True Blood and was in LOST, amongst various other films and tv shows. An esteemed character actress. I swear The Good Wife has the best cast and guest stars. I'm amazed it doesn't clean up at the Emmy's. Okay maybe not, the Emmy's aren't necessarily the most reliable indicator of good taste in my opinion. Anyhow, she manages to aid Alicia, to the point that Alicia states I want to learn from you. Elsbeth has no idea what she is talking about, she didn't do anything. LOL! What she does is play the stereotype of the flaky female lawyer, and uses that to take her opponent by surprise.
The Treasury Secretary didn't know what hit him. No one takes her seriously, until it's far too late. Martha Plimpton played the same game in previous seasons - bringing her kid along.
By playing what the guy expects, she's able to do what he least suspects and is caught un-prepared.
Alicia is off the hook, but wary again about Will. Diane doesn't surprise her, Diane never had her back and challenges her. But Will is another story - Will claims to love her, wants to up their relationship to the next level - yet, it is becoming increasingly clear he'd shove her under a bus. Also his macho battle of words with Peter - indicates that maybe Will isn't into Alicia for well Alicia herself...maybe it is about power. I am wondering if the show wants me to like Will. Peter this year is coming out to be a lot more likable. Although both are playing interesting political games with one another, Alicia caught in the middle.
Of the two - Peter has more to lose - since Alicia's happiness affects his kids and their well-being.
The other player is Caitlin, who is ever the eager beaver, and very good at figuring out puzzles. She's also playing the partners, attempting to rise above Alicia to being mentored directly by them. Her agenda is clear - she wants power and to move up the ladder. It's not clear if she plans on gently rolling over Alicia to do it. I'm sort of wanting Alicia to call Michael J. Fox or Rita Wilson and join their firms. (unlike some fans, I adore Alicia and understand the character. In a way her quiet resolve and stoicism is her expression of power. It's a quieter power and in some respects more successful.)
The last scene is Alicia and Will talking in the dark as they watch the sexual harrassment video with the rest of the firm. He joins her during it. Both have their arms crossed and look uncomfortable. She looks pissed at him. And he looks wary. Both had to struggle during this episode for separate reasons.
* As an end note? I was rather thrilled that Will was finally outted as a conservative. Clearly a Republican. As he states to Diane - "With your Obama in Office, you'd think these things wouldn't still be an issue. And I was in DC during 9/11, I saw first hand what they did, how can we defend someone like that or could be like that..." (Oh, Will, I can beat you - I was in NYC and walked through the falling ash and debris on my way home from work that day. And no I don't agree. I agree with Diane. ) Diane neatly shuts him down - with the sexual harrassment. But he does get her to give up the case, at least partially, they do defend their client on the criminal grounds. This was also realistic, I had troubles buying that a top level defense firm was made up entirely of Liberal Democrats.
The only thing I missed was Eli. I so wanted an Eli scene. We got a little of Kalinda, but not a lot. Is it just me or are we getting a lot more of Carey and Peter this season and less of Kalinda? I did like Alicia's protectiveness of Kalinda. I wanted to state that Kalinda isn't Middle Eastern, she's Canadian by way of Persia. She might be Pakistania or Indian. But? Very realistic. Racial profiling has become a huge problem, actually it's always been a problem - the only thing that changes is who is being racially profiled.
So liked that subtle hint. It was subtle. Not preachy. Just realistic.
Great episode. Actually last night was a great tv night - my favorite tv night of the week is turning out to be Sundays - I adore Once Upon a Time and The Good Wife. Two favorite shows on right now, also the only one's I make a point of watching live - so I don't miss them due to DVR mishaps. As much as I enjoy the new tv show Revenge? It just doesn't hit the same chord in me that these two shows do. I don't really know why...mileage varies on this, I know. We all like what we like and that's all that should be said about that. Trying to figure out why we or someone else likes or really dislikes something is well...often impossible.
I've decided and I'm trying really really hard to abide by this rule - to not discuss in my blog tv shows or writers or books or films that I despise or really dislike. No good can come of it. But it is admittedly really hard sometimes, because...hey, it's fun to rant. Just not overly productive or conducive to internet correspondence.
As an aside? I think sometimes that the internet has heightened my tv and cultural geek quotient to an insane level. I wasn't this geeky about tv before the net. Really.
Promised a review of The Good Wife, for the scant few who care. But hey, one reader is enough from my perspective. The Good Wife continues to be my favorite series, but it is very female centric apparently, few men I know watch it. A lot of people think it is a procedural, but if last night's episode was any indication? Really not. It is critically acclaimed.
*Diane, you are brilliant. Will's partner and the Lockhardt in Lockhardt/Gardner, Diane calls Will and is talking to him, when Alicia's phone rings in the background with a very loud "Hi Mom, Hi Mom, Hi Mom" - ring-tone signaling her daughter. Alicia, I think, you really need to get some new and less obvious ring tones if you want to carry on a top-secret affair with your boss. Diane no dummy, figures out what is going on. And a shout out to Christine Baranskie who subtly conveys the "hmmm, this is not good" without saying a word.
Instead she decides it is time to renew their insurance regarding individual employment claims and malpractice. Will walks in on this, all fired up and ready to fight with her regarding the firm's representation of alleged or suspected terrorist who had been tortured.
She kicks the wind out of sails neatly: "I've decided its a good time to renew our insurance, specifically against individual employment claims regarding sexual harrassment,
such as situations where bosses sleep with underlings..." Will speechless, steps back. "I need you to sign off on this of course, also a mandatory sexual harrassment class is required of all employees and partners." Will nods. "I..uh, trust your judgement." Go Diane!
It's a very realistic and savvy response. Also as a side note - the sexual harrassment and workplace harrassment video that they are watching? I've seen that video twice in my working life. Big organizations love it. Often the class is basically just watching the video. At one company - we watched it on the computer and took a test afterwards. Very realistic and spot on.
Diane basically protected herself and Will from Alicia or Caitlin for that matter filing a claim against the firm. She knew she couldn't stop Will and Alicia, but she could force them to watch a video and think about it. She also tries to avoid Alicia through most of the episode. (Typical - the woman is always blamed in these scenarios. It never fails to annoy me. People? It takes two to tango. If your hubby is cheating on you - don't get furious with the woman he is doing it with - get furious with him! He's the slut in the story, he's the one who is married and sleeping with two people, ie. cheating! But a lot of women idiotically go after the woman. Same deal here - does Diane go after Will? No. Is she awkward with Will, no! She is awkward with Alicia. She blames Alicia. I can see why - she's disappointed in Alicia. Alicia went there. Will she half-expects to go there, but she was hoping Alicia wouldn't. It's once again about power - who has it, who doesn't.)
* Speaking of power games. Peter is playing Will quite well. He uses what Will did 15 years ago to go after Will's client, the drug dealer - Lamont Bishop. They can't really go after Will, not their jurisdiction (happened in Baltimore) and 15 years ago. But they can use it as leverage to get Will to provide information on his client, they can also use it as reasonable cause to investigate Will's firm on it's investigation and legal practices.
Peter, as Carey points out, shouldn't be doing it directly - conflict of interest. It is his Wife's firm and Peter has issues with Will. Carey himself shouldn't be pursuing it - again potential conflict of interest - he was fired from that firm. But Dana can - and it is Dana who brought it up. Also, Carey can indirectly pursue with Dana. Dana also had her high profile defense attorney gig fall through in much the same way Martha did at Lockhardt/Gardner - I'm guessing. Will forces Peter's hand when he confronts him for coming after him - first the audit, now this! Have the balls to admit what this is about. Peter wisely side-steps a fight, and ponders. Peter's solution? Yes we can pursue - to get Lamont Bishop and I can use Carey and Dana to do it, if I recuse myself from the case.
*The bit with Will syncs nicely with the Alicia storyline - which are both about Attorney/Client privelege. I don't know what the laws are elsewhere on this topic, but it is a big deal in the US. And applies in various situations. You can break attorney/client privilege but only under certain situations, and all lawyers are opposed to it - because a)it is a clear infraction of their client's rights, b) if they are shown revealing what their clients have stated in confidence - they aren't going to get any more clients. Your clients have to be able to talk to you. It's a bit like a psychologist being unable to ask specific questions, or for that matter a priest. But even more so - a lawyer cannot defend a client who doesn't tell them everything - you need to know where all the land-mines are so that you can prepare a defense. Also despite what you might think in the US it truly is innocent before PROVEN guilty, the burden of proof rests on the plaintiff or prosecutor.
If you take away privilege...you make it impossible for clients/plaintiffs/defendants to trust their lawyer. No victim is going to tell the prosecutor everything - if they can't have privilege. In addition lawyers who break attorney client privilege - can be disbarred.
Confidentiality is a major rule, you don't mess with it.
Here Will and Alicia, as well as Diane in association with, are being asked to break with Attorney/Client privilege by the opposing side - who attempts to do so with bulling tactics.
It is true that under executive orders passed through and as part of the Patriot Act, that the US Treasury Department and Justice Department can force a defense attorney to reveal information received under privilege in cases of "suspected" terrorism. (Gotta love the Patriot Act). Alicia got around it with her attorney finding another conflict of interest - which underlines our current issue with corporations having more rights than individuals. The Supreme Court declaring a "Corporation" as a "person" under the Constitution opened that up a bit. As a result, somewhat ironically I might add, Alicia's attorney is able to cite conflict of interest and privilege with an outside party, the insurance firm, to prevent Alicia from betraying her client, the suspected terrorist, confidence. As a nice twist,
the government is unable to press criminal charges of suspected terrorism and perjury against Alicia's client, because the officer they call states he is not required to testify under grounds of immunity and well governmental "privilege". The judge throws out the case.
The government is hoisted on its own petard. Demonstrating the power game going on underneath the surface - both parties played with the same law, hunting loop-holes. Alicia's firm used the government's law against it. They won.
Will is thrust into a similar situation which he does not reveal to Diane. Carey and Dana threaten him with his embezzlement, attempting to use it as leverage to get him to betray Lamont Bishop's confidence. Furious - Will calls Caitlin into his office to witness it,
and states that they just committed a crime - attempting to extort privileged information about a client from him. Then he confronts Peter. Who in turn tells Dana and Carey to pursue the investigation into Will but leave him out of it.
*Alicia and Lockhardt/Gardner. Alicia figures out once again that Will does not have her back. Diane sends Alicia to deal with the Treasury Dept. with little guidance. Alicia falls into a trap - when the Treasury Department asks her to report if she hears her client mention a name of a place in Afghanistan. Alicia states that it is not her role to monitor her client for the Treasury Dept. She goes back, and the client ends up mentioning it to explain a lie that he made to his attorneys - he was visiting a patient, and went to this district to help an ill girl. Alicia speaks up and tells Diane and Will what happened at the Treasury Dept and the position she's now been placed in. They suggest she see "their" attorney who will guide her through it. Alicia wisely declines and decides to weigh her options - instead she hunts out Peter's attorney - who got Peter off of a problem last year.
Peter's attorney is Elsbeth Tascioni - who is portrayed by Carrie Preston and also plays Arlene in True Blood and was in LOST, amongst various other films and tv shows. An esteemed character actress. I swear The Good Wife has the best cast and guest stars. I'm amazed it doesn't clean up at the Emmy's. Okay maybe not, the Emmy's aren't necessarily the most reliable indicator of good taste in my opinion. Anyhow, she manages to aid Alicia, to the point that Alicia states I want to learn from you. Elsbeth has no idea what she is talking about, she didn't do anything. LOL! What she does is play the stereotype of the flaky female lawyer, and uses that to take her opponent by surprise.
The Treasury Secretary didn't know what hit him. No one takes her seriously, until it's far too late. Martha Plimpton played the same game in previous seasons - bringing her kid along.
By playing what the guy expects, she's able to do what he least suspects and is caught un-prepared.
Alicia is off the hook, but wary again about Will. Diane doesn't surprise her, Diane never had her back and challenges her. But Will is another story - Will claims to love her, wants to up their relationship to the next level - yet, it is becoming increasingly clear he'd shove her under a bus. Also his macho battle of words with Peter - indicates that maybe Will isn't into Alicia for well Alicia herself...maybe it is about power. I am wondering if the show wants me to like Will. Peter this year is coming out to be a lot more likable. Although both are playing interesting political games with one another, Alicia caught in the middle.
Of the two - Peter has more to lose - since Alicia's happiness affects his kids and their well-being.
The other player is Caitlin, who is ever the eager beaver, and very good at figuring out puzzles. She's also playing the partners, attempting to rise above Alicia to being mentored directly by them. Her agenda is clear - she wants power and to move up the ladder. It's not clear if she plans on gently rolling over Alicia to do it. I'm sort of wanting Alicia to call Michael J. Fox or Rita Wilson and join their firms. (unlike some fans, I adore Alicia and understand the character. In a way her quiet resolve and stoicism is her expression of power. It's a quieter power and in some respects more successful.)
The last scene is Alicia and Will talking in the dark as they watch the sexual harrassment video with the rest of the firm. He joins her during it. Both have their arms crossed and look uncomfortable. She looks pissed at him. And he looks wary. Both had to struggle during this episode for separate reasons.
* As an end note? I was rather thrilled that Will was finally outted as a conservative. Clearly a Republican. As he states to Diane - "With your Obama in Office, you'd think these things wouldn't still be an issue. And I was in DC during 9/11, I saw first hand what they did, how can we defend someone like that or could be like that..." (Oh, Will, I can beat you - I was in NYC and walked through the falling ash and debris on my way home from work that day. And no I don't agree. I agree with Diane. ) Diane neatly shuts him down - with the sexual harrassment. But he does get her to give up the case, at least partially, they do defend their client on the criminal grounds. This was also realistic, I had troubles buying that a top level defense firm was made up entirely of Liberal Democrats.
The only thing I missed was Eli. I so wanted an Eli scene. We got a little of Kalinda, but not a lot. Is it just me or are we getting a lot more of Carey and Peter this season and less of Kalinda? I did like Alicia's protectiveness of Kalinda. I wanted to state that Kalinda isn't Middle Eastern, she's Canadian by way of Persia. She might be Pakistania or Indian. But? Very realistic. Racial profiling has become a huge problem, actually it's always been a problem - the only thing that changes is who is being racially profiled.
So liked that subtle hint. It was subtle. Not preachy. Just realistic.
Great episode. Actually last night was a great tv night - my favorite tv night of the week is turning out to be Sundays - I adore Once Upon a Time and The Good Wife. Two favorite shows on right now, also the only one's I make a point of watching live - so I don't miss them due to DVR mishaps. As much as I enjoy the new tv show Revenge? It just doesn't hit the same chord in me that these two shows do. I don't really know why...mileage varies on this, I know. We all like what we like and that's all that should be said about that. Trying to figure out why we or someone else likes or really dislikes something is well...often impossible.
I've decided and I'm trying really really hard to abide by this rule - to not discuss in my blog tv shows or writers or books or films that I despise or really dislike. No good can come of it. But it is admittedly really hard sometimes, because...hey, it's fun to rant. Just not overly productive or conducive to internet correspondence.
As an aside? I think sometimes that the internet has heightened my tv and cultural geek quotient to an insane level. I wasn't this geeky about tv before the net. Really.