Unlike previous seasons of The Good Wife, we're not starting the new season with a large unanswered question. This time, we start with a bunch of smaller questions, and by the end, we have a few more.
As a result, the premiere feels slightly directionless, even as it hints at the major themes of the year (more on these shortly). I assume part of the reason for the lack of cohesiveness is Alicia's physical separation from the Lockhart Gardner troubles. Dealing with Zach's sass-induced arrest has no relation to the financial issues at LG.
In many ways, she's also emotionally separate: she's in a good place in her life, she doesn't need to have everything in her life neatly defined (this is HUGE character growth for her), and the events of the past three years have left her with numerous fallback options, professionally speaking.
All of a sudden, she's moving very easily from politics to parenting to lawyering. One can only assume this cometh before a fall, as the most common trait of the jacks (and jills) of all trades is taking shortcuts. We see her do this in every way possible: she leans on Cary to use his connections, she leans on Peter to use his connections, and at the end of the episode, she makes the false assumption that she can have all of that and still be everything to Will.
I'd like to think that her newfound confidence comes from having her trusty sidekick/best friend by her side.
But now sidekick's got her own story! And I'm not sure I like it. Part of it's my rampant hatred of Marc Warren, who bears the honor of starring in the worst episode of Doctor Who ever, new or old. Also he's just LAME, with his midnight sun tattoo and his muscle shirts and his silver chain. I trust the Kings to show why he's any kind of match for Kalinda, but its going to take some effort.
That said, I'm mostly excited for the New Normal. It seems like The Good Wife's a rehab clinic for actors who've long ago been typecast as hopelessly broad (Alan Cumming, hello), and I'm as shocked/pleased as anyone at Nathan Lane's restrained performance. And I hope Kristen Chenoweth returns to spoil Alicia's comfortable uncertainty about the state of her marriage and to spoil Eli Gold's piece of mind.
So where are we going this season? Here are my guesses at the major questions for the season:
- How will Alicia be affected by no longer being the most important character in Kalinda's narrative?
- Is Zach more of an Alicia or a Peter?
- What is the state of the Florrick marriage? Does it even matter? Should we just be rooting for Alicia to make it on her own after all
- What strange costume will David Lee wear to the office this year?
- How will Grace top herself in the department of incredible yet entertaining lack of logic?
- WILL CHRIS NOTH BE ON THE SHOW FULL TIME???
- Will Chandler Bing's show please be cancelled so he can smarm his way through Chicago politics full-time?
And MOST IMPORTANTLY, will any scene this season top the pure ridiculous hilarity of this scene?:
I look on the slight directionlessness as a positive, basically what this episode did was set up the season, but dammit it did it in such a way that I am really really excited to watch it and see which storylines go where, so I reckon it works. I am still surprised that there always seem to be fresh new storylines which seem (to me) so unexpected but are yet always a logical step from the previous ones. But maybe once you start writitng such complicated and interesting plots and characters that just happens of its own accord?
ReplyDeleteI loved all the Peter stuff in this episode though. After my opinion swung back and forth so many times I decided that trying to decide which Peter is the 'real' one and which a fake pose (a ruthless, shortcutting politician and slightly dodgy chap or a flawed family man worthy of a second chance?) is a false dichotomy. I think we see in his different actions this episode that for Peter both parts of that personaltiy are his true personality and he himself has no problem being both of them, he isn't faking his willingness to reconcile OR his penchant for taking quick effective morally/legally questionable shortcuts to get things he wants.
PS I loved Peter's 'GET OFF MY BUS' line at the end there.
I love that you obsess about Peter the way that I obsess about Alicia or Kalinda. I think your point is important though. Of all the characters, he's been the most assured; even after prison, he's lost none of his swagger. I think that's fascinating, and truly want to know more about what could possibly result in a man like that.
ReplyDeleteI'm also really excited about the season, which is maybe why I find the Kalinda subplot a little distracting. I'm going to start focusing back on her multiple accents to distract from my hatred of Marc Warren.