The Good Wife Season 4 (1 Viewer)

[Ockeghem]

Please delete.

 

[DaveF]

I think Nick is dead; Kalinda killed him. I was expecting that to be a storyline at the start of season.

 

[Matt Hough]

I think that Nick is gone, possibly murdered, and that Kalinda will be implicated in his death and need Alicia or Cary to defend her in a trial. She will be innocent but the evidence will point to her death. It may end up that old FBI girl friend of hers was the killer. I'm just playing would-be TV writer. I have no idea if Nick will even be mentioned again.

 

[Matt Hough]

Boy! Was Audra McDonald bitchy to our Alicia tonight! I think the new investigator will be a fun addition to the cast. Wish we had seen a little more of Wallace Shawn's behind-the-screen machinations, but I guess keeping us in the dark was the best idea.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Great episode tonight. It really did a good job of showcasing what "The Good Wife" does well.

Boy! Was Audra McDonald bitchy to our Alicia tonight!

To be fair, if I'd seen what her character had seen over the course of this trial, I think I'd be more than just bitchy. Through most of the episode, I was wondering if she was making it up to win. I think the revelations in the last act made it pretty clear she wasn't

I think the new investigator will be a fun addition to the cast.

Jess Weixler has been on my radar since Teeth, and it was great seeing her pop up here as another very unconventional investigator. I just hope the writers aren't introducing her character so they have a replacement Kalinda in place if they decide to have her covering for Cary backfires and both characters sent out the door.

Wish we had seen a little more of Wallace Shawn's behind-the-screen machinations, but I guess keeping us in the dark was the best idea.

Whoever thought of casting Wallace Shawn as a drug lord's enforcer is an absolute genius. What a great performance. His introduction is a punchline, the very idea of him in that role is a punchline, but Shawn does a great job selling it. If he'd gone very over the top or very different from a usual Wallace Shawn performance, the whole thing would have crumbled and been laughable. But it's the very fact that it is a typical Wallace Shawn performance, affable and very slightly cartoonish, that made it so chilling. You get the idea that the Wallace Shawn persona is the real performance, and we as viewers never get to see who the real man is underneath. A couple times where he allows a little iciness in, just a little, help sell it. But the fact that we as viewer don't know what exactly he does to change outcomes it what makes him frightening. The unknown is always scarier than the known.

 

[NeilO]

Another good episode. I wish John Noble was going to become a recurring character rather than what seems to be a one-shot appearance.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I really, really loved Peter using Mike Kresteva's own sociopathic tactics against him. I also enjoyed the way the episode experimented with structure, both with the flashbacks and with everybody out and about instead of on the standing sets. Lots of laughs good laughs mixed in.

Another good episode. I wish John Noble was going to become a recurring character rather than what seems to be a one-shot appearance.

He's absolutely phenomenal in everything he does, and this role was no exception.

 

[mattCR]

Yeah, we really mixed it up tonight with a lot of issues and different direction style. But I did love Peter turning the tables.

 

[Matt Hough]

Since John Noble could never seem to land a much deserved Emmy-nomination for all his years on Fringe (and he's still eligible for this season if he submits), maybe he can score a guest star Emmy nod for this episode.

Really enjoyed the show despite its being on 45-minutes later in the East due to basketball. Especially enjoyed the Alicia-Will flashbacks.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

CBS just renewed "The Good Wife" for a fifth season

 

[Matt Hough]

CBS just renewed "The Good Wife" for a fifth season

Along with 13 other shows.

Not among them yet: Criminal Minds, CSI: NY, Vegas, Golden Boy, Two and a Half Men (though they are in negotiations for another season of it).

 

[DaveF]

That was awesome. It was a set of character vignettes, letting all the primes have a moment to shine.I enjoyed that, for a family holiday drama, they chose St. Patrick's Day. I don't recall St. Party's being a go-to TV family drama holiday.

 

[mattCR]

One of the best dirty lines I have ever heard in a TV show...

"So, this is where located that night"
"Yes"
"and you were with him, what were you doing."
"Anal"

Bwahahahahahahah

 

[Patrick Sun]

And she repeated it!

 

[Matt Hough]

Only three episodes left in the season, and I have no idea where they're going to go with it. I don't think Dianne will be a justice, but I do think Peter will be governor which will spur Alicia to make the decision to either stay with him or to divorce. By showing Cary with the crappy office, it makes me think by season's end he'll decide to go off on his own.

I am kind of liking the new investigator.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

How do you make Sweeney a little bit sympathetic? Give him a ball and chain who's even more of a psychopath. I love his episodes... so twisted. I too am liking the new investigator.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

Morena Baccarin was smoking.

As for the "Anal" comment, my wife and I both looked at each other agape. Sometimes you're just cruising the countryside, obstensibly paying attention, then you run over a bump or pothole and you suddenly are paying attention at a heightened level that puts your previous level of attention into question. I just couldn't believe I saw that on network TV. Times, they are a changing.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Great "ripped from the headlines" episode tonight. There were a lot of elements taken more or less directly from a case in Steubenville, Ohio where last August two high school football stars raped an incapacitated 16-year-old girl at a party and repeatedly violated her sexually. The perpetrators documented their actions across social media, posting photos and videos over a six hour period. Both the prosecutor and the judge had to recuse themselves because they had ties to the football team. A crime blogger took up the case, backing up all of the social media posts in case they were deleted and basically keeping the case in the public eye. In January Anonymous (it's a real, if loosely defined, group) posted a video of the perpetrators joking about what had transpired. Rallies, complete with the Guy Fawkes masks, were held. Last month the two perpetrators were convicted of rape.

This episode also borrowed from the story of Savannah Dietrich, a 17-year-old Kentucky girl who had been sexually assaulted in 2011. The perpetrators in that case had reached a plea deal in juvenile court, and because the accused were under the age of 18 at time of the crime Kentucky state law required the case to be sealed. The prosecutor told her to "get over it and see a therapist." Infuriated at what she felt was a slap on the wrist for her assaulters, Dietrich tweeted their names with the message "Protect rapist is more important than getting justice for the victim in Louisville." The boys' attorneys asked the court to hold her in contempt of court for violating the judge's order.

As a result, it appeared that the perpetrators would get off with 50 hours of community service while the victim would receive 180 days in prison and a $500 fine. After online outrage brought lots of publicity to the case, the boys' attorneys dropped the contempt charges.

These sorts of cases raise real questions about justice in the modern age. On one hand, it obviously undermines the rule of law and the rules the underpin legal proceedings. On the other hand, there's an argument to be made that the justice system is skewed against rape victims, and justice was achieved for victims of an unspeakable crimes, justice that might have been denied without the intervention of bloggers and hackers that don't play by the rules. Speaking personally, it unsettles me deeply but the pre-digital status quo might bother me more.

This episode took the details of those incidents and pushed the details to their more extreme conclusions, but I think it did a nice job of capturing the legal issues involved. I'd forgotten about Jason Biggs's character, but he's wonderfully devious while maintaining a very unassuming pose. Another example of a great bench of guest actors.I thought they were setting up the new investigator to replace Kalinda, but now I'm not so sure. Clearly there's something fishy about her. Either there's something in her past incriminating enough that having people think she shot her brother was a preferable alternative to the truth, or the truth isn't enough for her and she needs to spice things up. If the former is true, it might or might not be a career-ender. If the latter is true, it almost certainly is since you can't trust what she gives you if she doesn't stick to the truth.

I also loved the meeting between Diane and the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois. Jeffrey DeMunn is one of our great living actors, and the habitual arrogance he brought to the role felt dead on for an appointed justice. That's one detail the show seems to have gotten wrong though, because state supreme court justices in Illinois are elected, not appointed. They run in a primary and then a general election just like other politicians, and then are subject to non-political retention elections every ten years thereafter.

And Florrick/Ago (potentially) lives!

 

[mattCR]

I t hought this episode was incredible; but bringing back up BitCoin was also an incredible reminder of how timely this show has been over the years.

The use of Anonymous to undo the plea of a rapist is so recent that the show writers had to be looking at this and thinking all of the cards fell to them.
This is one of the most timely, well done episodes of a season full of timely, well done episodes.

Editted to add this (since I wrote this on iPad)

When I saw this episode, I was instantly reminded of the much more recent case in Canada, where a young girl was raped and video/photos of her were distributed online; she committed suicide after there was no prosecution. Anonymous took up the case and posted videos online last week (April 10) which made this story incredibly timely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_D_zvizzKA

What I really appreciated about this episode is that they avoided many claims.. like "she was drunk.. so she bares some of the blame" "maybe she wanted it" and other typical woman-shaming practices; in the end, the onus is on everyone else to do the right thing and not rape anyone

 

[Matt Hough]

Thanks, Adam, for that very interesting and valuable background information. I loved the episode, but knowing all of this made it even more timely and fascinating.I absolutely love Alicia and Cary together either in court or out of it, so the thought of a Florrick/Agos agency is exciting. I'm eager to see what transpires with this, but with only two episodes left of the season, I'm not sure we're going to get anything but a cliffhanger.