The Good Wife (Season 1, eps 15-22)
Oct. 5th, 2012 06:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahn 1x15"Bang": OMG Eli Gold. AHAHAHAHA. Also, Diane just got compared to Sarah Palin? HEE. ...Also, is every single conversation in this episode with double layers to it? Oh Will-and-Alicia. Don't. Don't go there! (I was mildly spoiled for this, by which I mean I have a vague idea what's going to happen.) If it does happen, I get it, I understand, I really do, but... don't.
1x16 "Fleas": I KNEW it wasn't Cary. Not his style. Saint Alicia, not his style. No, no, he'd stab her in the back and smile, but he'd do it for something tangible and he'd play by the rules. This kind of catty thing just to poke at her, no. Oh, Alicia. I hope you apologize to him. Also? Will/Diane partnership is totally my non-romantic OTP for this show. No romantic vibe between them whatsoever, so much so that they totally joke about it. I also love how they're the only "couple" on this show that really has the knock-down drag-out fights that all the couples, romantic and not, need to have and are not really having, and they actually resolve things by doing so. Also! I guess the solution to unstable equilibrium = triangle! I HOPE SO. DO NOT DEPRIVE ME OF MY WILL/DIANE, SHOW. Also, I repeat: Eli Gold, HEE. Also also Murky Complicated Ethical Things OH MY HEART.
1x17 "Heart": Oh, it's the pregnant lawyer now with a baby I LOVE HER IN A TOTALLY EVIL WAY! So I have no idea why Will doesn't keep bringing up the 68 other couples in the same situation to EvilBaby!Lawyer. (Huh. I didn't meant to imply the baby was evil, but that is an unexpected bonus, so I shall let it stand.) Also, whoa, Christianity portrayed in a sensitive and nuanced fashion on a show about lawyers and politicians WHAT IS THIS SHOW. Also even more than that, I loved loved LOVED the scene between Peter and Will because it really played up the kind of show this is not, the show that is all about the powerful men talking while the woman is hidden in the corner, bringing the men coffee, silent, unimportant. It's a shock to the system, actually, because the show is so much not about that that it's a little like entering a foreign country. What is this place? And then Will and Peter both bring it back to Alicia (and Kalinda!), and we all breathe a sigh of relief. (While still being disturbed, because it's brought home to us how easily it can shift back to that, if the show weren't being so careful not to go there. It's the men who carelessly allow Alicia to play again.) OH THIS SHOW. Also, apparently Will is Logan. I, uh. Suddenly like Will less, now that I've made that comparison? Alicia is no Veronica, though, besides that core of flaming integrity both of them have. ...And the kiss. And the hot sex. I just totally get it. I understand. I really, really do. But OH ALICIA. OH WILL. OH PETER.
1x18 "Doubt": Oh it's my favorite judge! I mean, besides Abernathy. YAY! No, actually, this guy is my favorite. I love how he's always totally mocking both lawyers. I'm sad Diane turns out to be boringly straight after all, and attracted to ballistics guy (although I do like him a LOT, there were a lot of murky hormones in this one, on everyone's side, hi Alicia and Will!), but it was just about worth it to see her casually stride by his courtroom and then say she was in a hurry and GO BACK THE WAY SHE CAME. Let me give you a hint, Diane: this guy studies trajectories for a living. HE IS NOT FOOLED. You might as well come out and say you like him! Also, dear SGU, THIS is fine directing, not whatever crap you are doing with shaky cameras. Also, kill me, why don't you, show? I have the bad feeling this is just a prelude to Our Heroes starting to lose things over and over OUCH I was really enjoying them winning. Also THERE YOU ARE CARY MISSED YOU!
1x19 "Boom": So did we even find out how the trial ended, or is that for the next episode? Do I even remember what the trial was about after OMG STERN and OMG ALICIA YOU ARE COLD (re: Stern, I mean) and ELI GOLD I CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF HIM and ELI AND JACKIE HAHAHAHAHAHA BEST THING EVER MORE PLEASE and that super-tense scene with Peter and Kozko and Gold like some sort of dark avenging angel above them and I don't care if the choir singing "Ain't gonna study war no more" is totally obvious, it is also just great. (Another memo to SGU! This? Is good use of music.) Also WHAT IS THIS CARY? (I kind of sort of wish Cary had gone over to Stern's firm. It would have been a perfect move for him! I still don't really understand why he didn't.) Also, while I get why Alicia felt so betrayed, HELLO YOU JUST TOOK DOWN A MAN WITH DEMENTIA, I don't see that you have room to talk. (Also, OH PETER, of course.) ALSO ALSO. Will/Diane, let me just say how it made me all SQUEE with OTP-ness how they were standing together like the unified team they are (you know, when they're not busy backstabbing), and how that contrasts, again, to every other pair on this show, romantic or not, especially in this episode. (Oh! Except for Gold-Peter. ALL THE FEELS about Gold! But that's more of an impersonal thing.)
1x20 "Mock": Hm. Not a huge fan of this episode? But let us now take it for granted that WILL/DIANE NONROMANTIC SQUEE every time they're on the screen, ok? Do I even need to say this anymore? Also, yay Kalinda/Alicia!
1x21 "Unplugged": Moral of this story: be nice to your admin assistants! THEY KNOW ALL. (D also cultivates them because they also know where and when the free food is! But I digress.) And, hm, I wasn't going to say more about my utter love for W***/D****, but let me just say that I wasn't on board with Diane way back in the pilot (I was worried she was going to be the woman who only pays lip service to idealism and feminism and mentoring other women), but NOW SO MUCH LOVE. Also, let us take it for granted: I ADORE Eli Gold! "Are we talking about you or me?" "This is my kind and understanding face." BWAHAHAHAHA. "We're like family, right?" (...someone needs to write a crackfic with Eli and Alicia as suspicious parental types negotiating custody of Peter and/or anthropomorphic!campaign, with Alicia/Kalinda and Eli-Kalinda interaction as a bonus. JUST SAYING.) Also, this? is Cary's style. CARY. CARY!
1x22: COLIN SWEENEY. I am sad that it turns out he did the earlier thing (which I totally believe, although I could make a case for it being ambiguous, I... won't). AGH my confused conflicting feelings toward Sweeney, who is brilliantly acted. OMG WILL, stop infantilizing Alicia! Would you ever do this to Diane? No you would not! Also all my love to G***! The things that man can do with one canny glance... But what's wrong with his hair? The smackdown of the lawyer with the Kozko thing was awesome. CARY! AWWWW! Interestingly, I thought this one had really strong plot but I don't have as much to say about the character interaction (not that it wasn't brilliant, mostly that I thought it was setting up things, like 1x23), whereas mostly I'm the other way around with the episodes.
1x23 "Running": I feel kinda sorry for Cary, but he makes a GREAT villain, I have to say. Gold/Jackie FOR THE WIN. ALWAYS. "Shalom." HEE. It is sort of hilarious to me that in Will/Alicia, Will is the idealistic one in the relationship. He totally is. (Also, Will with the $8000 wine in the mug is hilarious!) Hi Ballistics Guy! Now that I'm resigned to Diane being straight, I'm totally into them because they're just soooo cute. I found Diane pulverizing Ballistic Guy's testimony really hot (and so did he, apparently). Also in terms of romance: KALINDA/EVERYBODY. Kalinda/Alicia! (awwww!) Kalinda/FBI!woman! Kalinda/DetectiveGuy! (sorry, I don't know anyone's name...) Also, Peter and Alicia are hashing out whether she's going to support him and whether she's going to work ONE HOUR before his press conference? You know what I'm going to say, but I'm going to say it anyway: Will and Diane would have fought and resolved such an issue MONTHS beforehand.
In conclusion: nonromantic OTP: Will/Diane! Romantic many-TP: Kalinda/Everyone!
1x16 "Fleas": I KNEW it wasn't Cary. Not his style. Saint Alicia, not his style. No, no, he'd stab her in the back and smile, but he'd do it for something tangible and he'd play by the rules. This kind of catty thing just to poke at her, no. Oh, Alicia. I hope you apologize to him. Also? Will/Diane partnership is totally my non-romantic OTP for this show. No romantic vibe between them whatsoever, so much so that they totally joke about it. I also love how they're the only "couple" on this show that really has the knock-down drag-out fights that all the couples, romantic and not, need to have and are not really having, and they actually resolve things by doing so. Also! I guess the solution to unstable equilibrium = triangle! I HOPE SO. DO NOT DEPRIVE ME OF MY WILL/DIANE, SHOW. Also, I repeat: Eli Gold, HEE. Also also Murky Complicated Ethical Things OH MY HEART.
1x17 "Heart": Oh, it's the pregnant lawyer now with a baby I LOVE HER IN A TOTALLY EVIL WAY! So I have no idea why Will doesn't keep bringing up the 68 other couples in the same situation to EvilBaby!Lawyer. (Huh. I didn't meant to imply the baby was evil, but that is an unexpected bonus, so I shall let it stand.) Also, whoa, Christianity portrayed in a sensitive and nuanced fashion on a show about lawyers and politicians WHAT IS THIS SHOW. Also even more than that, I loved loved LOVED the scene between Peter and Will because it really played up the kind of show this is not, the show that is all about the powerful men talking while the woman is hidden in the corner, bringing the men coffee, silent, unimportant. It's a shock to the system, actually, because the show is so much not about that that it's a little like entering a foreign country. What is this place? And then Will and Peter both bring it back to Alicia (and Kalinda!), and we all breathe a sigh of relief. (While still being disturbed, because it's brought home to us how easily it can shift back to that, if the show weren't being so careful not to go there. It's the men who carelessly allow Alicia to play again.) OH THIS SHOW. Also, apparently Will is Logan. I, uh. Suddenly like Will less, now that I've made that comparison? Alicia is no Veronica, though, besides that core of flaming integrity both of them have. ...And the kiss. And the hot sex. I just totally get it. I understand. I really, really do. But OH ALICIA. OH WILL. OH PETER.
1x18 "Doubt": Oh it's my favorite judge! I mean, besides Abernathy. YAY! No, actually, this guy is my favorite. I love how he's always totally mocking both lawyers. I'm sad Diane turns out to be boringly straight after all, and attracted to ballistics guy (although I do like him a LOT, there were a lot of murky hormones in this one, on everyone's side, hi Alicia and Will!), but it was just about worth it to see her casually stride by his courtroom and then say she was in a hurry and GO BACK THE WAY SHE CAME. Let me give you a hint, Diane: this guy studies trajectories for a living. HE IS NOT FOOLED. You might as well come out and say you like him! Also, dear SGU, THIS is fine directing, not whatever crap you are doing with shaky cameras. Also, kill me, why don't you, show? I have the bad feeling this is just a prelude to Our Heroes starting to lose things over and over OUCH I was really enjoying them winning. Also THERE YOU ARE CARY MISSED YOU!
1x19 "Boom": So did we even find out how the trial ended, or is that for the next episode? Do I even remember what the trial was about after OMG STERN and OMG ALICIA YOU ARE COLD (re: Stern, I mean) and ELI GOLD I CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF HIM and ELI AND JACKIE HAHAHAHAHAHA BEST THING EVER MORE PLEASE and that super-tense scene with Peter and Kozko and Gold like some sort of dark avenging angel above them and I don't care if the choir singing "Ain't gonna study war no more" is totally obvious, it is also just great. (Another memo to SGU! This? Is good use of music.) Also WHAT IS THIS CARY? (I kind of sort of wish Cary had gone over to Stern's firm. It would have been a perfect move for him! I still don't really understand why he didn't.) Also, while I get why Alicia felt so betrayed, HELLO YOU JUST TOOK DOWN A MAN WITH DEMENTIA, I don't see that you have room to talk. (Also, OH PETER, of course.) ALSO ALSO. Will/Diane, let me just say how it made me all SQUEE with OTP-ness how they were standing together like the unified team they are (you know, when they're not busy backstabbing), and how that contrasts, again, to every other pair on this show, romantic or not, especially in this episode. (Oh! Except for Gold-Peter. ALL THE FEELS about Gold! But that's more of an impersonal thing.)
1x20 "Mock": Hm. Not a huge fan of this episode? But let us now take it for granted that WILL/DIANE NONROMANTIC SQUEE every time they're on the screen, ok? Do I even need to say this anymore? Also, yay Kalinda/Alicia!
1x21 "Unplugged": Moral of this story: be nice to your admin assistants! THEY KNOW ALL. (D also cultivates them because they also know where and when the free food is! But I digress.) And, hm, I wasn't going to say more about my utter love for W***/D****, but let me just say that I wasn't on board with Diane way back in the pilot (I was worried she was going to be the woman who only pays lip service to idealism and feminism and mentoring other women), but NOW SO MUCH LOVE. Also, let us take it for granted: I ADORE Eli Gold! "Are we talking about you or me?" "This is my kind and understanding face." BWAHAHAHAHA. "We're like family, right?" (...someone needs to write a crackfic with Eli and Alicia as suspicious parental types negotiating custody of Peter and/or anthropomorphic!campaign, with Alicia/Kalinda and Eli-Kalinda interaction as a bonus. JUST SAYING.) Also, this? is Cary's style. CARY. CARY!
1x22: COLIN SWEENEY. I am sad that it turns out he did the earlier thing (which I totally believe, although I could make a case for it being ambiguous, I... won't). AGH my confused conflicting feelings toward Sweeney, who is brilliantly acted. OMG WILL, stop infantilizing Alicia! Would you ever do this to Diane? No you would not! Also all my love to G***! The things that man can do with one canny glance... But what's wrong with his hair? The smackdown of the lawyer with the Kozko thing was awesome. CARY! AWWWW! Interestingly, I thought this one had really strong plot but I don't have as much to say about the character interaction (not that it wasn't brilliant, mostly that I thought it was setting up things, like 1x23), whereas mostly I'm the other way around with the episodes.
1x23 "Running": I feel kinda sorry for Cary, but he makes a GREAT villain, I have to say. Gold/Jackie FOR THE WIN. ALWAYS. "Shalom." HEE. It is sort of hilarious to me that in Will/Alicia, Will is the idealistic one in the relationship. He totally is. (Also, Will with the $8000 wine in the mug is hilarious!) Hi Ballistics Guy! Now that I'm resigned to Diane being straight, I'm totally into them because they're just soooo cute. I found Diane pulverizing Ballistic Guy's testimony really hot (and so did he, apparently). Also in terms of romance: KALINDA/EVERYBODY. Kalinda/Alicia! (awwww!) Kalinda/FBI!woman! Kalinda/DetectiveGuy! (sorry, I don't know anyone's name...) Also, Peter and Alicia are hashing out whether she's going to support him and whether she's going to work ONE HOUR before his press conference? You know what I'm going to say, but I'm going to say it anyway: Will and Diane would have fought and resolved such an issue MONTHS beforehand.
In conclusion: nonromantic OTP: Will/Diane! Romantic many-TP: Kalinda/Everyone!
no subject
Date: 2012-10-05 03:46 pm (UTC)Okay, have to work, but quickly, reasons 1x22 is my favorite:
* The bar scene at the beginning. Every single thing about the bar scene. From "Are you trying to distract me?" to leveling up the Lockhart/Gardner traditions to the phone-wrangle to "Are you gay?" to "You two are so hot" and helpless laughter to JM's brilliant performance of inebriation and what happens when you hear the name "Colin Sweeney" when you're drunk.
* COLIN SWEENEY. Alicia walking in to find him covered in blood and cuffed to a corpse is one of the finest moments of the show.
* ELSBETH TASCIONI. "And I heard from a butterfly they weren't. Both are hearsay, your honor, and both are inadmissable." And my favorite, "Ms Tascioni, you are ridiculing established Illinois law." / "Yes, your honor, gleefully!" ... I really, really love her. A lot.
Aaagh my Kalinda feels will have to wait for when I have more time but for now, I do love "Running" – and I love Kalinda's guilt about screwing up with Tony (Detective!Guy), and her ongoing ~thing with Lana (FBI!lady), and THAT SHOT UNDER THE STORAGE ROOM DOOR, SHOW HOW YOU SO BRILLIANT.
In short, *throws confetti*. ONWARD AND UPWARD, with the warning that S2 comes with some more hardcore ouch than S1 does. *throws more confetti*
no subject
Date: 2012-10-05 08:14 pm (UTC)Hm. I think the thing with Tascioni is that I am still missing Golden (love you, Golden, with your smarmy gifts to Alicia!) and haven't quite seen enough of her yet. But I am willing to fall in love with her!
Ohh, the storage room door. And Will being all "Have you been running?" HEE. I love, in general, the total inappropriateness of both the Tony/Kalinda and the Lana/Kalinda thing and how Kalinda's all, eh, whatever!
Do we ever find out what happens with the wife tipping off the drug dealer, and the fact Tony knows it now?
no subject
Date: 2012-10-06 04:03 am (UTC)I liked Golden's character a lot – and loved the scenes about the gift basket – and would have loved to see him interact with Eli, but having loved the actor as Henry on Eureka, I couldn't quite make the cognitive dissonance work. (I do love that the explanation for his disappearance is that he went to work for the Obama White House, which makes perfect and lovely sense.) Elsbeth has a few more STELLAR appearances that took me from vague appreciation to deep, deep love, so that when I rewatched "Hybristophilia" I spent her scenes just squealing. (And I sort of think she probably DOES really talk to butterflies.)
... I can't not read Kalinda/Tony and Kalinda/Lana back through later stuff, but suffice to say that I think those scenes represent the beginning of an arc of Kalinda's Difficulties With Intimacy that I just adore, however difficult I find it to watch (because feeeeeelssss). I love how unbalanced she makes Lana.
And no, we don't – surprise! The Good Wife left a plot thread dangling! But I do think it's sort of implied that Tony goes off to nail that lady and clear his name.
Also, other things. The scene where Childs recruits Cary -- my favorite thing about it is that GLENN CHILDS IS A MALCOLM GLADWELL READER. How perfect is THAT. My reaction when I first watched it was "Noooo, Cary, don't go darkside!", but it plays pretty beautifully.
And my Will/Diane feels just keep growing. You'll know the S2 moment that we have to shriek about together when you see it.
ELI AND JACKIE: hearts forever. I love how much she freaks him out, and how she's just about the only person who CAN freak him out.
I also didn't like "Mock" much, but I do kind of love what Will's romance with Giada tells us about his character ("How's your masculinity now?") – and Will swigging her $8,000 wine out of his coffee mug is pretty pricelessly Will.
Re: what you say about the problematic belatedness of Alicia and Peter figuring things out at the eleventh hour: I've always read that as Alicia having decided that Peter and his political career will just be irrelevant to her until and unless something comes up that requires her to make an immediate decision. It's like a coping mechanism for her, distancing herself as much as possible while still fulfilling basic obligations when she has to. I like that they're not processy together – she has him so entirely compartmentalized, in a way I find really believable. But YMMV, etc. (I would also be able to believe in Peter as a character in a completely different way, and probably have a lot more feelings about him and him/Alicia, if he were played by ANYBODY but Chris Noth, who just hits my Sleaze Buttons way too hard in ways that are sometimes really effective but sometimes really get in the way of my capacity to empathize with him. Blame Sex and the City.)
I am NOT resigned to Diane being straight. Because, you know, I am Like That. This nonspoilery Kalinda/Diane(ish) fic does a nice job of evoking some of how I think Diane's interest in women would play.
... I guess I'll stop there. God, I could go on forever. Show! ♥!
... Completely irrelevantly, have started reading Code Name Verity, and I'm only about thirty pages in, but it's doing such LOVELY things with stuff that's almost impossible to do well. LADYPILOTS would be enough to sell me, but the deft touch of style in the narrator's tone is just so satisfying. And it's doing smart things with stock tropes that makes me really trust Wein to pull the whole thing off. I so do not have the emotional capacity for a novel like this right now, but I almost don't care, it's that good. Will keep you posted.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-06 05:45 pm (UTC)YES this all the way! THIS.
Eli and Jackie: the other thing I didn't realize I loved about it, until he said, "Shalom," is how alien her whole world is for him, a world where he is unwelcome and outclassed, for all his power and connections. Wow this SHOW.
It's like a coping mechanism for her, distancing herself as much as possible while still fulfilling basic obligations when she has to.
Oh yes, I don't disagree at all! (And though I was a big fan of Alicia/Peter in the early days, once he came home I have become somewhat less so, and I'm having trouble articulating why. But let me try anyway! I really liked, I think, the political/strategic relationship between them, and now that's being overshadowed by the domestic/campaign relationship (when I said "political" before, I meant both of them coming to the table with political agendas that might dovetail but were distinct, whereas here they have to at least appear to have the same agenda).) All I'm saying is: not nearly as healthy as WILL/DIANE. NOT THAT I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS PAIR OR ANYTHING.
(The funny thing is that taken individually, I like Diane but don't find her as compelling as, oh, Gold, or Kalinda; and I am not really all that taken with Will's character in general although I think he is very well acted. But together... I don't even remember the last time I've been so interested in a pair of characters. Probably because I tend to be anti-romantic, and there aren't enough anti-romantic pairings! :) And, to be fair, because most of the shows I imprint on have ensemble dynamics I care very much about, whereas TGW excells in its pair-dynamics more than ensemble dynamics.)
Oh, Code Name Verity. ...Yeah. If you don't have the emotional capacity (which I totally understand, it took me a month to get myself up to handling it, myself), I'd say, put it down right now! Right now, before you get to the point where you have to finish it! But then do finish it, because it really is that good :)
no subject
Date: 2012-10-08 04:00 pm (UTC)