I'm really enjoying it. Not enjoying that "All Access" has a cost.. and still airs commercials.
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The Good Fight - Season 1 ("Good Wife" Spinoff - CBS All Access) (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Adam Lenhardt
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- all access cbs the good wife
Loved having Carrie Preston back on here - The Good Fight has an amazing cast of supporting roles to draw on from The Good Wife yet it knows not to overuse them and make their appearances worthwhile.
This week's episode continued the intrigue, but it also showed why the show can use a less-censored format in a thoughtful way to discuss issues.
Often when you hear a show would be TV-MA or whatever you'd think the show is going to be lots of sex or violence. But, it would be very difficult to carry on a fitting discussion around hate speech, online threats, troll accounts, etc. without detailing what makes it toxic and how to work to deal with it.
Often when you hear a show would be TV-MA or whatever you'd think the show is going to be lots of sex or violence. But, it would be very difficult to carry on a fitting discussion around hate speech, online threats, troll accounts, etc. without detailing what makes it toxic and how to work to deal with it.
Adam Lenhardt
Senior HTF Member
Finally found a means to watch this, but I've got to squeeze it into a week. I'll be posting my thoughts as I go.
Episode 1x02 - "First Week"
Episode 1x03 - "The Schtup List"
Episode 1x02 - "First Week"
This episode wasn't as strong as the pilot, but it did a pretty good job providing an idea of what a "normal" episode would look like.
Rose Leslie continues to be a fascinating counterpoint to the rest of the cast of characters. Julianna Margulies's performance as Alicia, right from the get-go, was pretty inscrutable. She rejoined the workforce with years of experience as a politician's wife that trained her to only reveal what she wanted to reveal. By contrast, Maia Rindell is an open book. You see everything on her face. Even when her words are noncommittal, her expression says everything.
Lucca Quinn in this episode was something of a crusader, seeing a good case and wanting to pursue it on the merits alone, profit margin be damned. It's an interesting color for a character we first met in probate court, where time is money and volume talks rather than quality. And as she did with Diane in the pilot, Maia is benefiting from the support of another strong female mentor.
Diane was a bit more in the background this week, continuing to deal with the fallout as the bad financial news just keeps on coming. Diane is making an enemy in Barbara Kolstad, who was disinclined toward her from the get-go. It's one of the weaker plot developments so far, as Barbara sees that Diane rejected all of the black applicants for the assistant job in favor of a white girl with a wealthy background, while not being present for the development that got Marissa the job. Hopefully wherever they're going with Diane and Barbara, it's more interesting than it appears to be, and doesn't rely on bad timing to generate conflict.
Speaking of Marissa, how wonderful it was to have her back. All of the qualities that made her endearing on "The Good Wife" were on display here, without her getting bogged down in Eli's drama or Alicia's drama. And after seeing years of her flit through life, hopping from one dead end job to the next, it's nice to see her demonstrate some ambition. She wants a career now, and she's willing to use her considerable talents to advance her own interests. Seeing her chase down names for the class action was a thing of beauty. I don't think I've enjoyed the pure art of investigation this much since Kalinda left. Robyn had her moments, but the show could never lock Jess Weixler down for long enough stretches to fully utilize the character. I always respect and admire people who are very good at things I'm not any good at, and the skill set needed to be a good investigator is definitely outside my wheelhouse. As such, those scenes have an energy that the drier legal stuff does not.
One advantage "The Good Wife" had in the early going was that Peter was behind bars. As such, the sensationalism of the case was very much in the background and the focus was on Alicia managing the downsizing to a condo and getting the kids into new schools and making the numbers add up. But in this case, only Maia's father is behind bars and the family drama is very much front and present. Certain developments, like Maia's mother lying about the cancer and Maia walking in on her and the dreaded Uncle Jacques, felt straight out of a soap opera. Not that such things couldn't happen, but they feel just a bit too colorful and a bit too scripted. The show should be better, and realer, than this.
Nice to see Julius Cain pop up here as managing partner at the new firm, another Lockhart etc. and Associates survivor. And it's interesting to see the different culture at work in the firm. The firm in its various forms from "The Good Wife" takes on predominantly wealthy clients with deep pockets who could afford to pay the firm directly. The new firm takes on a predominantly working class clientele who can't afford to pay up front. As a result, the firm utilizes algorithm-based litigation finance that covers the cost of the lawsuits in exchange for a cut of the payout of any settlement or jury award.
Besides Julius and Marissa, we get a couple other returning faces in the form of Christine Lahti's West Coast corporate litigator Andrea Stevens and Denis O'Hare's always enjoyable Judge Charles Abernathy. And just when I was beginning to wonder if any "Good Wife" sets had survived the jump to the new series, it was comforting to see the courtroom exactly as we'd last left it.
Delroy Lindo’s Adrian Boseman brings that badly needed masculine ego that "The Good Wife" lost when Will died and never really recovered afterward. Lindo seizes every moment the show gives us with his character to tell us more about who Adrian is. The way he leveraged the scandal surrounding Maia's family to get a judge more favorable to the financiers' algorithm was extremely well executed.
The show can still be a bit ham-fisted at times with the live wire that is race relations, obviously more at the forefront in this show because of the way it's structured and the cast of characters and settings it's assembled. But there are moments of undeniable power, as when they're providing pro bono legal advice to the union members and Maia's line is four times longer than the other lines despite her being the least experienced lawyer, because she is the only white lawyer present.
Rose Leslie continues to be a fascinating counterpoint to the rest of the cast of characters. Julianna Margulies's performance as Alicia, right from the get-go, was pretty inscrutable. She rejoined the workforce with years of experience as a politician's wife that trained her to only reveal what she wanted to reveal. By contrast, Maia Rindell is an open book. You see everything on her face. Even when her words are noncommittal, her expression says everything.
Lucca Quinn in this episode was something of a crusader, seeing a good case and wanting to pursue it on the merits alone, profit margin be damned. It's an interesting color for a character we first met in probate court, where time is money and volume talks rather than quality. And as she did with Diane in the pilot, Maia is benefiting from the support of another strong female mentor.
Diane was a bit more in the background this week, continuing to deal with the fallout as the bad financial news just keeps on coming. Diane is making an enemy in Barbara Kolstad, who was disinclined toward her from the get-go. It's one of the weaker plot developments so far, as Barbara sees that Diane rejected all of the black applicants for the assistant job in favor of a white girl with a wealthy background, while not being present for the development that got Marissa the job. Hopefully wherever they're going with Diane and Barbara, it's more interesting than it appears to be, and doesn't rely on bad timing to generate conflict.
Speaking of Marissa, how wonderful it was to have her back. All of the qualities that made her endearing on "The Good Wife" were on display here, without her getting bogged down in Eli's drama or Alicia's drama. And after seeing years of her flit through life, hopping from one dead end job to the next, it's nice to see her demonstrate some ambition. She wants a career now, and she's willing to use her considerable talents to advance her own interests. Seeing her chase down names for the class action was a thing of beauty. I don't think I've enjoyed the pure art of investigation this much since Kalinda left. Robyn had her moments, but the show could never lock Jess Weixler down for long enough stretches to fully utilize the character. I always respect and admire people who are very good at things I'm not any good at, and the skill set needed to be a good investigator is definitely outside my wheelhouse. As such, those scenes have an energy that the drier legal stuff does not.
One advantage "The Good Wife" had in the early going was that Peter was behind bars. As such, the sensationalism of the case was very much in the background and the focus was on Alicia managing the downsizing to a condo and getting the kids into new schools and making the numbers add up. But in this case, only Maia's father is behind bars and the family drama is very much front and present. Certain developments, like Maia's mother lying about the cancer and Maia walking in on her and the dreaded Uncle Jacques, felt straight out of a soap opera. Not that such things couldn't happen, but they feel just a bit too colorful and a bit too scripted. The show should be better, and realer, than this.
Nice to see Julius Cain pop up here as managing partner at the new firm, another Lockhart etc. and Associates survivor. And it's interesting to see the different culture at work in the firm. The firm in its various forms from "The Good Wife" takes on predominantly wealthy clients with deep pockets who could afford to pay the firm directly. The new firm takes on a predominantly working class clientele who can't afford to pay up front. As a result, the firm utilizes algorithm-based litigation finance that covers the cost of the lawsuits in exchange for a cut of the payout of any settlement or jury award.
Besides Julius and Marissa, we get a couple other returning faces in the form of Christine Lahti's West Coast corporate litigator Andrea Stevens and Denis O'Hare's always enjoyable Judge Charles Abernathy. And just when I was beginning to wonder if any "Good Wife" sets had survived the jump to the new series, it was comforting to see the courtroom exactly as we'd last left it.
Delroy Lindo’s Adrian Boseman brings that badly needed masculine ego that "The Good Wife" lost when Will died and never really recovered afterward. Lindo seizes every moment the show gives us with his character to tell us more about who Adrian is. The way he leveraged the scandal surrounding Maia's family to get a judge more favorable to the financiers' algorithm was extremely well executed.
The show can still be a bit ham-fisted at times with the live wire that is race relations, obviously more at the forefront in this show because of the way it's structured and the cast of characters and settings it's assembled. But there are moments of undeniable power, as when they're providing pro bono legal advice to the union members and Maia's line is four times longer than the other lines despite her being the least experienced lawyer, because she is the only white lawyer present.
Episode 1x03 - "The Schtup List"
This episode didn’t have the huge plot developments of the pilot, but it was a big step up from the second episode and quality-wise fits in with the top notch early season episodes of “The Good Wife”, which centered around razor-sharp episodic court plots while continuing to inch the ongoing plotlines forward in interesting ways.
There were a number of moments where I thought the show was going to zig, and instead it zagged. When the firm’s investigator confronted Marissa about her work on the class-action, I thought he was going to be an antagonist who would make her life miserable. Instead, she respected his role, went to him the next time she was asked to look into something, and he in turn made use of her when the Muslim woman refused to speak with a man (or perhaps, left unsaid but not unheard, a black man). It was just a smarter, more interesting development.
The character of Lucca continues to be far better utilized on this than she ever was on “The Good Wife”. She has a wonderful playfulness that offsets her sarcastic cynicism. Seeing her and Diane find their equilibrium together was fun to watch, and rewarding to see. She also has real chemistry with Justin Bartha’s A.U.S.A. character; the “Good Wife” consistently fizzled in this area after Will was killed off.
And the payoff to the case – that the military was just using the trial as a delay tactic so they could draw out the terrorist brother and bomb him while they knew where he was – was the kind of staggeringly cynical yet completely sensible twists that I’ve so missed since the original show went off the air.
Erica Tazel’s character is the least developed so far, so it was nice to see Barbara outside of the context of her antagonism toward Diane. The dynamic between Adrian and Barbara is superficially very similar to the old Will and Diane dynamic, but with clearly a lot more troubled history behind them. But for all of their verbal sparring, there’s a clear warmth and enjoyment of each other’s company. The plotline with the major client threatening to bolt is an example of the kind of stories that the new firm opens up that weren’t possible with the old firm. When I administered government contracts, M.W.B.E. requirements were a huge part of the job, and they’re a huge part of the lifeblood for many minority-owned businesses. But it’s not something that “The Good Wife” would have had reason to touch upon, which makes it fertile new ground to explore on this show.
The racial stuff as a whole still isn’t handled as gracefully as I’d like, but they’re doing a much better job than “The Good Wife” did when it suddenly discovered it as a plot engine in the last couple seasons. Most effective so far are the little moments when Diane, Marissa and Maia – presumably tolerant Chicago liberals all with a heartfelt commitment to equality for all – are confronted with racial considerations that they’d never previously had cause to think about because, before they started working for a predominantly black law firm, they never directly encountered them.
Michael Boatman’s subplot as the firm’s only Trump voter was a wonderful reminder of how good of a supporting character Julius Cain could be before “The Good Wife” unceremoniously wrote him off so he could star in his Nick at Nite sitcom. But it’s also that, again, he’s given more interesting stuff to do here than he ever was over there. And the final beat, potentially setting up his exit from this show down the road, was perfectly executed.
The sordid plotline with the Ponzi scheme and Maia’s increasingly horrifying family continues to be the show’s weakest link. But for the first time, we saw some Rose Leslie inject some of that Ygritte backbone into Maia. The scene at her Uncle’s house was the first time I really believed she could make it as a real player in this game.
There were a number of moments where I thought the show was going to zig, and instead it zagged. When the firm’s investigator confronted Marissa about her work on the class-action, I thought he was going to be an antagonist who would make her life miserable. Instead, she respected his role, went to him the next time she was asked to look into something, and he in turn made use of her when the Muslim woman refused to speak with a man (or perhaps, left unsaid but not unheard, a black man). It was just a smarter, more interesting development.
The character of Lucca continues to be far better utilized on this than she ever was on “The Good Wife”. She has a wonderful playfulness that offsets her sarcastic cynicism. Seeing her and Diane find their equilibrium together was fun to watch, and rewarding to see. She also has real chemistry with Justin Bartha’s A.U.S.A. character; the “Good Wife” consistently fizzled in this area after Will was killed off.
And the payoff to the case – that the military was just using the trial as a delay tactic so they could draw out the terrorist brother and bomb him while they knew where he was – was the kind of staggeringly cynical yet completely sensible twists that I’ve so missed since the original show went off the air.
Erica Tazel’s character is the least developed so far, so it was nice to see Barbara outside of the context of her antagonism toward Diane. The dynamic between Adrian and Barbara is superficially very similar to the old Will and Diane dynamic, but with clearly a lot more troubled history behind them. But for all of their verbal sparring, there’s a clear warmth and enjoyment of each other’s company. The plotline with the major client threatening to bolt is an example of the kind of stories that the new firm opens up that weren’t possible with the old firm. When I administered government contracts, M.W.B.E. requirements were a huge part of the job, and they’re a huge part of the lifeblood for many minority-owned businesses. But it’s not something that “The Good Wife” would have had reason to touch upon, which makes it fertile new ground to explore on this show.
The racial stuff as a whole still isn’t handled as gracefully as I’d like, but they’re doing a much better job than “The Good Wife” did when it suddenly discovered it as a plot engine in the last couple seasons. Most effective so far are the little moments when Diane, Marissa and Maia – presumably tolerant Chicago liberals all with a heartfelt commitment to equality for all – are confronted with racial considerations that they’d never previously had cause to think about because, before they started working for a predominantly black law firm, they never directly encountered them.
Michael Boatman’s subplot as the firm’s only Trump voter was a wonderful reminder of how good of a supporting character Julius Cain could be before “The Good Wife” unceremoniously wrote him off so he could star in his Nick at Nite sitcom. But it’s also that, again, he’s given more interesting stuff to do here than he ever was over there. And the final beat, potentially setting up his exit from this show down the road, was perfectly executed.
The sordid plotline with the Ponzi scheme and Maia’s increasingly horrifying family continues to be the show’s weakest link. But for the first time, we saw some Rose Leslie inject some of that Ygritte backbone into Maia. The scene at her Uncle’s house was the first time I really believed she could make it as a real player in this game.
Adam Lenhardt
Senior HTF Member
Episodes watched last night:
Episode 1x04 - "Henceforth Known as Property"
Episode 1x05 - "Stoppable: Requiem for an Airdate"
Episode 1x04 - "Henceforth Known as Property"
This was the weakest episode so far. Two of the three plots – the case of the misappropriated embryo and Mike Kresteva’s attempt to smear the firm to cut down on police brutality cases – were effective, but the execution of the third storyline – Maia’s name getting smeared by fake news – was deeply problematic.
I loved the case of the week. It’s a true, wrenching issue, one made worse by the fact that both parties are not coming to the table looking for an amicable solution. The case also provided a chance to break Barbara and Diane out of the rather boring holding pattern of hostility. Barbara gets to see what an effective lawyer Diane is, but more importantly, she gets to see how much Diane cares about the client, in this instance someone that she herself has had a long, personal relationship with. That leads to a truly great scene toward the end where the two women sit in Barbara’s office, sharing a drink and relating to each other as human beings, and as accomplished career women who have made significant personal sacrifices to achieve their success.
It was also fun to see Peter Gerety back as the family court judge. He was wonderful in this episode. At first a dispassionate servant of the law, even when he clearly didn’t want to be, until the facts of the case finally became so egregious that he went along with the path Diane and Lucca laid out to ensure a just outcome (even if it may not be the technically correct outcome).
I continue to enjoy the dance between Lucca and the A.U.S.A. We’ve seen this sort of playful flirtation many times before on many different shows, but there’s something about the writing and both performances that elevates it to a notch above here.
The return of Mike Kresteva is interesting, because it very much serves as a benchmark of how much the world has changed since his initial appearance on the original show. At the time, his extremely loose relationship with the truth was actually shocking. That someone seeking the governorship of a state would so blatantly violate the public trust and not just distort but wholesale fabricate facts to suit his agenda was, at that time, stupefying. Since then, the political world has caught up with him. It turns out that he was a trendsetter, not an outlier – a harbinger of things to come.
The first strike against the Maia subplot was Marissa using a firm laptop to solicit sex from the Twitterbot, and then opening the nude photos on said laptop. They shouldn’t have been doing that on firm time, and they definitely shouldn’t have been doing it using firm resources. As they escalate the online war against Maia’s ex-boyfriend, the strikes just keep piling up. The larger problem is that Maia is a brand-new lawyer at the bottom of the firm’s food chain. She should be like Cary was during the first season of “The Good Wife” – working insane hours, putting everything into the job. Every episode where Maia isn’t working on a case undermines the reality of the series. I did love the scene where Adrian walks into an ugly situation and stands up for Maia. It spoke volumes about the difference between this firm and the old firm, and why this firm isn’t plagued by the same infighting.
The way Kresteva’s manipulations of the truth and the social networking and fake news fabrications of Maia come together at the end is elegant, but the journey to get there demonstrated the sloppiness of the later seasons of “The Good Wife”, which this show had previously avoided.
I loved the case of the week. It’s a true, wrenching issue, one made worse by the fact that both parties are not coming to the table looking for an amicable solution. The case also provided a chance to break Barbara and Diane out of the rather boring holding pattern of hostility. Barbara gets to see what an effective lawyer Diane is, but more importantly, she gets to see how much Diane cares about the client, in this instance someone that she herself has had a long, personal relationship with. That leads to a truly great scene toward the end where the two women sit in Barbara’s office, sharing a drink and relating to each other as human beings, and as accomplished career women who have made significant personal sacrifices to achieve their success.
It was also fun to see Peter Gerety back as the family court judge. He was wonderful in this episode. At first a dispassionate servant of the law, even when he clearly didn’t want to be, until the facts of the case finally became so egregious that he went along with the path Diane and Lucca laid out to ensure a just outcome (even if it may not be the technically correct outcome).
I continue to enjoy the dance between Lucca and the A.U.S.A. We’ve seen this sort of playful flirtation many times before on many different shows, but there’s something about the writing and both performances that elevates it to a notch above here.
The return of Mike Kresteva is interesting, because it very much serves as a benchmark of how much the world has changed since his initial appearance on the original show. At the time, his extremely loose relationship with the truth was actually shocking. That someone seeking the governorship of a state would so blatantly violate the public trust and not just distort but wholesale fabricate facts to suit his agenda was, at that time, stupefying. Since then, the political world has caught up with him. It turns out that he was a trendsetter, not an outlier – a harbinger of things to come.
The first strike against the Maia subplot was Marissa using a firm laptop to solicit sex from the Twitterbot, and then opening the nude photos on said laptop. They shouldn’t have been doing that on firm time, and they definitely shouldn’t have been doing it using firm resources. As they escalate the online war against Maia’s ex-boyfriend, the strikes just keep piling up. The larger problem is that Maia is a brand-new lawyer at the bottom of the firm’s food chain. She should be like Cary was during the first season of “The Good Wife” – working insane hours, putting everything into the job. Every episode where Maia isn’t working on a case undermines the reality of the series. I did love the scene where Adrian walks into an ugly situation and stands up for Maia. It spoke volumes about the difference between this firm and the old firm, and why this firm isn’t plagued by the same infighting.
The way Kresteva’s manipulations of the truth and the social networking and fake news fabrications of Maia come together at the end is elegant, but the journey to get there demonstrated the sloppiness of the later seasons of “The Good Wife”, which this show had previously avoided.
Episode 1x05 - "Stoppable: Requiem for an Airdate"
The problems with Maia’s story continue with this episode. Her illegal actions on behalf of her father in the third episode now require the firm to seek outside counsel. Considering that we’ve yet to see her achieve some great victory that makes her indispensable, I just can’t see why the firm wouldn’t cut its losses and dump her. Maybe not now, since it would make them look guilty, but surely soon after the Kresteva business is wrapped up.
But that was my only issue with this episode, which was otherwise a showcase of how the Kings writing in this world provide pleasures that no other show on television provides. This was a densely plotted piece of television that expertly balanced the personal and professional, and the way the two things can become uncomfortably intertwined.
This episode centers around a ripped from the headlines case where NBC has buried an SVU episode that was in turn ripped from the headlines, dramatizing one of the more serious allegations against President Trump during the campaign, for sexual abuse of a minor. As adapted here, however, the case itself starts as a proxy for the firm’s strategy to move into entertainment law and later becomes a sales pitch for the kind of aggressively liberal firm that Neil Gross is looking for when they discover he's looking to find new representation for his Chicago interests.
It was interesting to see the deconstruction of Amber Wood-Lutz, the network's lawyer. The show is wisely rebuilding its ranks of top-notch, three-dimensional supporting characters.
Last but certainly not least: The return of Elsbeth Tascioni was everything you’d hope it would be. I just about died when they revealed that her newest office was a spare exam room in a dentist’s office, because she’s “just someone who finds good deals on offices.” Everything that followed was pure joy, as Kresteva found himself completely unprepared for someone who embodies tactical chaos like Elsbeth. She wields the truth as creatively and dexterously as he wields misinformation and intimidation. The business card on his desk in his personal study was the coup de grâce. The voice recording was just flogging the horse after it'd already been killed.
But that was my only issue with this episode, which was otherwise a showcase of how the Kings writing in this world provide pleasures that no other show on television provides. This was a densely plotted piece of television that expertly balanced the personal and professional, and the way the two things can become uncomfortably intertwined.
This episode centers around a ripped from the headlines case where NBC has buried an SVU episode that was in turn ripped from the headlines, dramatizing one of the more serious allegations against President Trump during the campaign, for sexual abuse of a minor. As adapted here, however, the case itself starts as a proxy for the firm’s strategy to move into entertainment law and later becomes a sales pitch for the kind of aggressively liberal firm that Neil Gross is looking for when they discover he's looking to find new representation for his Chicago interests.
It was interesting to see the deconstruction of Amber Wood-Lutz, the network's lawyer. The show is wisely rebuilding its ranks of top-notch, three-dimensional supporting characters.
Last but certainly not least: The return of Elsbeth Tascioni was everything you’d hope it would be. I just about died when they revealed that her newest office was a spare exam room in a dentist’s office, because she’s “just someone who finds good deals on offices.” Everything that followed was pure joy, as Kresteva found himself completely unprepared for someone who embodies tactical chaos like Elsbeth. She wields the truth as creatively and dexterously as he wields misinformation and intimidation. The business card on his desk in his personal study was the coup de grâce. The voice recording was just flogging the horse after it'd already been killed.
Adam Lenhardt
Senior HTF Member
Next couple:
Episode 1x06 - "Social Media and Its Discontents"
Episode 1x07 - "Not So Grand Jury"
Episode 1x06 - "Social Media and Its Discontents"
Of the episodes that I've watched so far, this one most reminded me, unfavorably, of the sputtering final season of “The Good Wife”. The lines between the personal and professional continue to blur in problematic ways, and the big political hot potato at the center of the episode felt like the Kings lecturing the audience in Kelley- or Sorkin-esque fashion.
When it came to Julius Cain, they went the obvious route. Adrian and Barbara having him and only him investigated was one of those implausibly dumb and sure-to-backfire moves that writers employ when they don’t have a better, more organic way to generate conflict or move the plot forward. And having Julius suddenly become the standard-bearer of all things conservative turned someone who had promise as an interesting character into a mouthpiece for the opposing view in the ideological debate the show wanted to have. When the politics flows from the characters, it works for me. When they use the characters to debate politics, it works less well for me.
By my count, we haven’t actually seen Maia perform any legal work on behalf of the firm since the second episode. Instead, her Machiavellian family’s schemes and circular firing squad continue to grow as a vulnerability for the firm. I can see where they’re going with it, I can see why it’s a story they're interested in telling, but the show doesn’t spend nearly enough time – or really any time – developing Maia as an asset to the firm in a way that justifies putting up with her baggage. With Alicia, the benefit was built-in: having the First Lady of Illinois in-house was a huge competitive advantage. Maia has no such built-in argument. On the plus side, Rose Leslie’s American accent continues to improve.
And the show certainly goes through great pains to show what a horrifyingly disgusting family the Rindells are, throwing an opulent party with servants while the people they ripped off are struggling to stave off insolvency. It begs the question, though, where the money comes from when all of their assets are frozen. It’s one of those shortcuts that feels beneath the show, lazy and counterproductive.
This television universe has one of the best rosters of guest actors on the small screen, period. Given that, the show had big shoes to fill casting its Milo Yiannopoulos surrogate character, Felix Staples. There was perhaps only one actor who could fill those shoes, and that’s who they cast: Hedwig herself, John Cameron Mitchell. He's brilliant in this role, and is the only reason that the storyline worked despite the deep structural and conceptual problems bogging it down. However, it defies belief that they would settle on an appeals process involving in-person hearings with the name partners of Chum Hum’s Midwest law firm. The very idea is absolutely ridiculous. Again, I can understand why the writers would want their name partners in the room with this creature, but the execution to make it happen was sloppy and counterproductive.
Even the storyline between Lucca and Colin Morello, which I’ve mostly enjoyed up until now, felt this time around like it was slipping into that weird uncomfortable place that Alicia occupied with Jason Crouse. It doesn’t feel sexy and it doesn’t feel dangerous. It just feels angry and ill-at-ease.
The one storyline that worked for me without reservation was the P.I. and Marissa investigating the alt-right movement. It’s a fact that there are plenty of people who would clam up with a black man but would happily loosen their tongues for a cute young woman who flatters them and plies them with affirmation. That’s the kind of window into race that the show’s premise opens up without the writers having to stop and Make A Point.
I also liked the final beat when Morello tried to warn Lucca by leaking the false information that Elsbeth had told Maia to tell her father. Thus confirming, seemingly conclusively, that Maia’s father is a no-good piece of shit.
When it came to Julius Cain, they went the obvious route. Adrian and Barbara having him and only him investigated was one of those implausibly dumb and sure-to-backfire moves that writers employ when they don’t have a better, more organic way to generate conflict or move the plot forward. And having Julius suddenly become the standard-bearer of all things conservative turned someone who had promise as an interesting character into a mouthpiece for the opposing view in the ideological debate the show wanted to have. When the politics flows from the characters, it works for me. When they use the characters to debate politics, it works less well for me.
By my count, we haven’t actually seen Maia perform any legal work on behalf of the firm since the second episode. Instead, her Machiavellian family’s schemes and circular firing squad continue to grow as a vulnerability for the firm. I can see where they’re going with it, I can see why it’s a story they're interested in telling, but the show doesn’t spend nearly enough time – or really any time – developing Maia as an asset to the firm in a way that justifies putting up with her baggage. With Alicia, the benefit was built-in: having the First Lady of Illinois in-house was a huge competitive advantage. Maia has no such built-in argument. On the plus side, Rose Leslie’s American accent continues to improve.
And the show certainly goes through great pains to show what a horrifyingly disgusting family the Rindells are, throwing an opulent party with servants while the people they ripped off are struggling to stave off insolvency. It begs the question, though, where the money comes from when all of their assets are frozen. It’s one of those shortcuts that feels beneath the show, lazy and counterproductive.
This television universe has one of the best rosters of guest actors on the small screen, period. Given that, the show had big shoes to fill casting its Milo Yiannopoulos surrogate character, Felix Staples. There was perhaps only one actor who could fill those shoes, and that’s who they cast: Hedwig herself, John Cameron Mitchell. He's brilliant in this role, and is the only reason that the storyline worked despite the deep structural and conceptual problems bogging it down. However, it defies belief that they would settle on an appeals process involving in-person hearings with the name partners of Chum Hum’s Midwest law firm. The very idea is absolutely ridiculous. Again, I can understand why the writers would want their name partners in the room with this creature, but the execution to make it happen was sloppy and counterproductive.
Even the storyline between Lucca and Colin Morello, which I’ve mostly enjoyed up until now, felt this time around like it was slipping into that weird uncomfortable place that Alicia occupied with Jason Crouse. It doesn’t feel sexy and it doesn’t feel dangerous. It just feels angry and ill-at-ease.
The one storyline that worked for me without reservation was the P.I. and Marissa investigating the alt-right movement. It’s a fact that there are plenty of people who would clam up with a black man but would happily loosen their tongues for a cute young woman who flatters them and plies them with affirmation. That’s the kind of window into race that the show’s premise opens up without the writers having to stop and Make A Point.
I also liked the final beat when Morello tried to warn Lucca by leaking the false information that Elsbeth had told Maia to tell her father. Thus confirming, seemingly conclusively, that Maia’s father is a no-good piece of shit.
Episode 1x07 - "Not So Grand Jury"
This hour, on the other hand, was just a great episode of television—my favorite since the pilot. And the pilot had the advantage of seismic developments on a scale few episodes can match. Everything this time around worked. Lightning fast pacing, buoyed by twists and turns that come fast and furious.
This was a true showcase episode for Elsbeth. She renders Kresteva impotent at every turn. Even when he sees the move coming, he’s ultimately powerless to stop it.
Just when I was wondering why Reddick Boseman & Kolestad hadn’t dropped Diane and Maia like a hot potato, we get that wonderful scene between Adrian and Diane in Adrian’s office, and Diane more or less asks just that question. And he reaffirms, again, why this firm has a very different culture than the Machiavellian chess match that was Diane’s old firm.
Most importantly, Maia finally provides value to the firm in a big way. She stands by the people who have stood by her, and sells her father out to save Diane and the firm. The look on her dad's face when the death blow descended was a thing of beauty.
And I loved the way Lucca used raw sex appeal to keep Colin Morello off his game. We saw similar tactics on “The Good Wife” a few times, but never executed with this proficiency. Seeing the way she stuck the pen in her mouth, I just about died.
It was a smart bit of writing to have Marissa crack the secret of the numbers on the Schtup List because she remembered seeing one of the numbers on her paystubs from the old firm. It was even smarter writing to have her crack it too late, with Diane learning what they’d figured out in the grand jury room. But it really stretched credibility that the firm’s investigator didn’t recognize the numbers as EIN numbers. They’re a crucial identifier when stringing together a paper trail, and they’re public information. They’re in SEC filings for publicly-traded corporations. TIN numbers for non-profits are on IRS Form 990s.
This episode was also one of the better ones at grappling with thorny issues of race. Race is fundamental to the reality of this minority-owned firm, but it was deployed here in a purely pragmatic manner. The grand jury testimony, especially when lilywhite Marissa Gold was put on the stand, was absolutely priceless.
Finally, I can't discuss this episode without noting the greatness of Elsbeth’s expression when she opened Kresteva’s present and it was her Aida. Yes, he’d basically put her on notice that he’s coming after her. Yes, the present was intended as a giant middle finger. But swept up in the moment of the reunion, all other considerations for Elsbeth were swept aside.
This was a true showcase episode for Elsbeth. She renders Kresteva impotent at every turn. Even when he sees the move coming, he’s ultimately powerless to stop it.
Just when I was wondering why Reddick Boseman & Kolestad hadn’t dropped Diane and Maia like a hot potato, we get that wonderful scene between Adrian and Diane in Adrian’s office, and Diane more or less asks just that question. And he reaffirms, again, why this firm has a very different culture than the Machiavellian chess match that was Diane’s old firm.
Most importantly, Maia finally provides value to the firm in a big way. She stands by the people who have stood by her, and sells her father out to save Diane and the firm. The look on her dad's face when the death blow descended was a thing of beauty.
And I loved the way Lucca used raw sex appeal to keep Colin Morello off his game. We saw similar tactics on “The Good Wife” a few times, but never executed with this proficiency. Seeing the way she stuck the pen in her mouth, I just about died.
It was a smart bit of writing to have Marissa crack the secret of the numbers on the Schtup List because she remembered seeing one of the numbers on her paystubs from the old firm. It was even smarter writing to have her crack it too late, with Diane learning what they’d figured out in the grand jury room. But it really stretched credibility that the firm’s investigator didn’t recognize the numbers as EIN numbers. They’re a crucial identifier when stringing together a paper trail, and they’re public information. They’re in SEC filings for publicly-traded corporations. TIN numbers for non-profits are on IRS Form 990s.
This episode was also one of the better ones at grappling with thorny issues of race. Race is fundamental to the reality of this minority-owned firm, but it was deployed here in a purely pragmatic manner. The grand jury testimony, especially when lilywhite Marissa Gold was put on the stand, was absolutely priceless.
Finally, I can't discuss this episode without noting the greatness of Elsbeth’s expression when she opened Kresteva’s present and it was her Aida. Yes, he’d basically put her on notice that he’s coming after her. Yes, the present was intended as a giant middle finger. But swept up in the moment of the reunion, all other considerations for Elsbeth were swept aside.
Adam, thanks so much for offering opinions on these episodes. I'm not reading them (yet) since I haven't seen the remainder of the show past the pilot but when (not if) I do, I'll return to this thread to read what you had to say about them and share my own thoughts.
GlennF
Supporting Actor
Well, I have seen them all except for the last one. It is available on cable television in Canada on, of all things, The Women's Network.
Love this show. The writing is smart, the acting great and a never ending series of surprise guest stars. Very much like The Good Wife, but with a little more profanity, due to the fact it is not on network television in the U.S. Sorry this week is the last episode for this year
Love this show. The writing is smart, the acting great and a never ending series of surprise guest stars. Very much like The Good Wife, but with a little more profanity, due to the fact it is not on network television in the U.S. Sorry this week is the last episode for this year
Will Krupp
Senior HTF Member
I FINALLY got to see the last episode (after nearly a week) because CBS All Access shit the bed by doing a platform upgrade that had the unfortunate side effect of knocking all roku users out of the loop (NOTHING would actually load but the new design IS pretty
)They've finally fixed it. I have to concur that the sequel is a great show all the way through, though I have to admit it
DOES make me miss the old characters and the old 'team" from the Good Wife days.
One of the beauties of CBS all access though (when it works, heheh) is that I'm also able to make my way through GOOD WIFE from the beginning to visit all of my old friends. I decided to pay the higher price to get all the shows without commercials which is great but, once I make it through the original run of GW again (I'm currently on Season 5) I"m probably not going to keep it.
Adam Lenhardt
Senior HTF Member
Final three of this first season:
Episode 1x08 - "Reddick v Boseman"
Episode 1x09 - "Self Condemned"
Episode 1x10 - "Chaos"
Episode 1x08 - "Reddick v Boseman"
Another plot device that “The Good Fight” shares with “The Good Wife” is the prodigal name partner, who sweeps back into town after a long absence. In the context of this show, and in the context of what we know about Reddick, Boseman & Kolstad, you couldn’t do much better in the casting department than Louis Gossett Jr. He is one of the only black cinematic icons of his generation who hasn’t retired or passed away, and an Academy Award-winning talent with the skill set this show demands to jump in with the top-shelf series regulars. While Carl Reddick is completely different than Jonas Stern, they both have that gravitational pull that comes with being a walking, talking institutional memory. But whereas Stern was a shark, the consummate lawyer, Reddick carries this whole other legacy to which the practice of law is secondary, a means and not the ends. Despite that major difference, they are both fierce stallions who will not be put out to pasture without a fight.
It was a good episode to get insight into Barbara, who finds herself caught between this giant of her past and the man who has shared the load with her in the present. One of the best parts of the early seasons of “The Good Wife”, before the perniciousness of the infighting at Lockhart Gardner grew unbearable, was the warmth and depth of feeling in the partnership between Will and Diane. Delroy Lindo and Erica Tazel have that wonderful platonic chemistry in spades.
The one danger with this subplot is that it could infect this show with the toxicity of all the Machiavellian crosses and double crosses that eventually wore out their welcome on “The Good Wife”. One of this show’s strengths is that Adrian has worked hard to create an environment of trust, support and comradery. I hope they don’t throw that away to tread over ground that “The Good Wife” had already trampled thoroughly.
Along with Gossett, this episode featured another two all-time great character actors in new roles.
Fisher Stevens’s storefront lawyer presents as pretty half-baked and underdeveloped. I feel like we’ve seen this character many times before, and this iteration didn’t really put a new or interesting spin on the archetype. It doesn’t help that he so recently played a very different kind of lawyer who felt comparatively fresh and original on “The Blacklist”. Stevens made the most of this material that one could, but it’s the kind of character he can play in his sleep.
On the other hand, Andrea Martin took a character who could have felt like a stereotypical Italian mother as written, and elevated her into someone I want to see more of. That she’s so good in yet another scene centered around the awkwardness of white liberals around people of color is even more of a triumph.
Turning back to our series regulars, it was another great episode for developing Lucca. The writing, for her, was on point the whole way through, and Cush Jumbo did a great job of subtly expressing Lucca's headspace the whole way through. To the extent that the scene at Colin’s birthday party works, Martin aside, it works because the scene stays completely in Lucca’s point of view. She’s someone who is used to being a token, and spoken to as a token. But it’s Clarence’s blunt assessment that really wounds her. She saw what Alicia went through, saw the toll that politics takes, and saw how it commoditizes spouses. Given that, the idea that Colin has political aspirations is bad enough. But it’s the idea that Colin sees her the way that everybody else at the party does, as a pretty black face who is well-spoken and not too black, that’s truly devastating. Is that a reflection of the way Colin really feels? Almost certainly not. But once Clarence places the idea in her head, she can’t quite shake it. The breakup scene is executed perfectly, and just crushing in its honesty: Lucca’s unshakable composure when she cuts him loose quickly crumbles into ugly, full-body sobs as soon as she's safely inside the car.
The case of the week was on the high end of the middle of the road. It was nice to see Frankie Faison back as Pastor Jeremiah. As cynical as the mothership made me, I was expecting the allegations to be proven true and was very happy when they were proven false.
The investigative scenes with Jay and Marissa continue to be highlights. The show is clearly working to lay the groundwork for Marissa to be an independent investigator in her own right, but I hope they don’t shuffle Nyambi Nyambi out the door once she gets her license. It’s rare on television to see real mentor-mentee dynamics, and the one between Jay and Marissa is really great to watch. I especially love seeing two people with different knowledge bases and skill sets leverage each other’s strengths to accomplish things together that neither would have been able to accomplish so efficiently on their own.
Maia’s family continues to be poison. We got to see her working as a lawyer this episode, but she didn’t actually accomplish much of anything before she got sucked back into the family drama. Her father ambushing her in the parking garage was an astonishingly self-absorbed move, even if she did just stab him in the back inside that courtroom. I did think the suicide attempt, both in the execution and in the payoff, was superb. And Bernadette Peters did some really emotionally complex work as Lenore negotiated her allegiances to the two most important men in her life, as her daughter looked on.
It was a good episode to get insight into Barbara, who finds herself caught between this giant of her past and the man who has shared the load with her in the present. One of the best parts of the early seasons of “The Good Wife”, before the perniciousness of the infighting at Lockhart Gardner grew unbearable, was the warmth and depth of feeling in the partnership between Will and Diane. Delroy Lindo and Erica Tazel have that wonderful platonic chemistry in spades.
The one danger with this subplot is that it could infect this show with the toxicity of all the Machiavellian crosses and double crosses that eventually wore out their welcome on “The Good Wife”. One of this show’s strengths is that Adrian has worked hard to create an environment of trust, support and comradery. I hope they don’t throw that away to tread over ground that “The Good Wife” had already trampled thoroughly.
Along with Gossett, this episode featured another two all-time great character actors in new roles.
Fisher Stevens’s storefront lawyer presents as pretty half-baked and underdeveloped. I feel like we’ve seen this character many times before, and this iteration didn’t really put a new or interesting spin on the archetype. It doesn’t help that he so recently played a very different kind of lawyer who felt comparatively fresh and original on “The Blacklist”. Stevens made the most of this material that one could, but it’s the kind of character he can play in his sleep.
On the other hand, Andrea Martin took a character who could have felt like a stereotypical Italian mother as written, and elevated her into someone I want to see more of. That she’s so good in yet another scene centered around the awkwardness of white liberals around people of color is even more of a triumph.
Turning back to our series regulars, it was another great episode for developing Lucca. The writing, for her, was on point the whole way through, and Cush Jumbo did a great job of subtly expressing Lucca's headspace the whole way through. To the extent that the scene at Colin’s birthday party works, Martin aside, it works because the scene stays completely in Lucca’s point of view. She’s someone who is used to being a token, and spoken to as a token. But it’s Clarence’s blunt assessment that really wounds her. She saw what Alicia went through, saw the toll that politics takes, and saw how it commoditizes spouses. Given that, the idea that Colin has political aspirations is bad enough. But it’s the idea that Colin sees her the way that everybody else at the party does, as a pretty black face who is well-spoken and not too black, that’s truly devastating. Is that a reflection of the way Colin really feels? Almost certainly not. But once Clarence places the idea in her head, she can’t quite shake it. The breakup scene is executed perfectly, and just crushing in its honesty: Lucca’s unshakable composure when she cuts him loose quickly crumbles into ugly, full-body sobs as soon as she's safely inside the car.
The case of the week was on the high end of the middle of the road. It was nice to see Frankie Faison back as Pastor Jeremiah. As cynical as the mothership made me, I was expecting the allegations to be proven true and was very happy when they were proven false.
The investigative scenes with Jay and Marissa continue to be highlights. The show is clearly working to lay the groundwork for Marissa to be an independent investigator in her own right, but I hope they don’t shuffle Nyambi Nyambi out the door once she gets her license. It’s rare on television to see real mentor-mentee dynamics, and the one between Jay and Marissa is really great to watch. I especially love seeing two people with different knowledge bases and skill sets leverage each other’s strengths to accomplish things together that neither would have been able to accomplish so efficiently on their own.
Maia’s family continues to be poison. We got to see her working as a lawyer this episode, but she didn’t actually accomplish much of anything before she got sucked back into the family drama. Her father ambushing her in the parking garage was an astonishingly self-absorbed move, even if she did just stab him in the back inside that courtroom. I did think the suicide attempt, both in the execution and in the payoff, was superb. And Bernadette Peters did some really emotionally complex work as Lenore negotiated her allegiances to the two most important men in her life, as her daughter looked on.
Episode 1x09 - "Self Condemned"
This was an episode devoid of so many of the things that I love about the show. But because most of the things that frustrate me about the show were also missing, it ended up being one of the best episodes of the season.
There are only two storylines, with no interaction between them.
In the first story, Lucca represents Maia at the FBI as she has agreed to provide witness testimony under a proffer that provides her with immunity from any crimes discussed, as long as the testimony is truthful. What quickly becomes clear, however, is just how tricky being truthful can be when you’re talking about events from nine years ago. Jane Lynch is brilliant here, as a folksy and low-key FBI agent who never the less is extremely adept at using the factual record to slice through Maia’s recollection of events like a knife through butter. There’s a bit, owing to a strange trick of the light as it reflects off the building, which causes a plethora of birds to fly directly into her office window to their deaths. Over and over and over again. It's one of those bits of surreal, repetitive humor where just when it’s on the verge of not being funny anymore, it swings back around and becomes absolutely hysterical.
By the end, we have no clear answers about what happened nine years ago, but we do know that Maia is in a good deal of legal trouble, as the episode title is revealed to be a spoiler.
In the second story, Adrian and Diane head down to the local lockup to pick up a man who was brutalized by a cop. The man in question happens to be, in defiance of their expectations, the infamous Colin Sweeney. Dylan Baker has always been absolutely phenomenal in this role, but it was always a two person show between him and Alicia. Given that, it’s interesting to see him bounce off new players. While they ultimately do get him off on the charges that he was facing, their hopes of another $6 million payout go out the window. Sweeney is trying to buy his way into the ambassadorship to the Holy See, whether out of ego or sheer delight at the blasphemy of a sex pervert and murderer being America's official diplomatic link to the Pope, and he doesn’t need the distractions such a law suit would bring.
Two confined, well-told stories with abrupt, sobering endings.
There are only two storylines, with no interaction between them.
In the first story, Lucca represents Maia at the FBI as she has agreed to provide witness testimony under a proffer that provides her with immunity from any crimes discussed, as long as the testimony is truthful. What quickly becomes clear, however, is just how tricky being truthful can be when you’re talking about events from nine years ago. Jane Lynch is brilliant here, as a folksy and low-key FBI agent who never the less is extremely adept at using the factual record to slice through Maia’s recollection of events like a knife through butter. There’s a bit, owing to a strange trick of the light as it reflects off the building, which causes a plethora of birds to fly directly into her office window to their deaths. Over and over and over again. It's one of those bits of surreal, repetitive humor where just when it’s on the verge of not being funny anymore, it swings back around and becomes absolutely hysterical.
By the end, we have no clear answers about what happened nine years ago, but we do know that Maia is in a good deal of legal trouble, as the episode title is revealed to be a spoiler.
In the second story, Adrian and Diane head down to the local lockup to pick up a man who was brutalized by a cop. The man in question happens to be, in defiance of their expectations, the infamous Colin Sweeney. Dylan Baker has always been absolutely phenomenal in this role, but it was always a two person show between him and Alicia. Given that, it’s interesting to see him bounce off new players. While they ultimately do get him off on the charges that he was facing, their hopes of another $6 million payout go out the window. Sweeney is trying to buy his way into the ambassadorship to the Holy See, whether out of ego or sheer delight at the blasphemy of a sex pervert and murderer being America's official diplomatic link to the Pope, and he doesn’t need the distractions such a law suit would bring.
Two confined, well-told stories with abrupt, sobering endings.
Episode 1x10 - "Chaos"
Maia’s father is the biggest piece of shit alive. I mean, obviously you have to be a pretty colossal piece of shit to play a shell game like he did with people’s life savings. But to throw your own daughter under the bus where she’s facing five years in prison for trying to protect you from the fallout of a crime you now have fully admitted to committing… Wow. Just wow.
The main thrust of the episode finally addressed my biggest concern with the series: That Maia wasn’t making herself an essential asset to the firm. Presumably during all of the offscreen time, she was doing the kind of grueling, unglamorous work that first year associates are usually saddled with. But with only two notable exceptions prior to this episode that I can think of, we only saw her dealing with the never-ending nightmare that is her family. Seeing her come through in the clutch and successfully stare down the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois was a badly needed win to help me as an audience member accept the firm sticking with her through all of the, as this episode called it, “distractions”.
Jason Biggs was a shifty bastard on “The Good Wife”, and he was a shifty bastard in this finale. They way they leveraged Staples to help the feds arrange a trap that Bigg's character walked right into was a thing of beauty. John Cameron Mitchell continues to knock it out of the park as a man who get both more appalling and more watchable with each appearance. The one-two punch of Colin Sweeney last week and Felix Staples this week demonstrates the strength of the rogues gallery the show is developing.
I continue to adore the dynamic between Jay and Marissa. Her telling him forthrightly that she’s gunning for his job, and him continuing to train her anyway was a wonderful bit of character work. And Diane wanting to give Marissa some constructive criticism, presumably about her issues with boundaries and discretion, but completely forgetting to amidst all of the craziness going on, was wonderful.
In a lot of ways, the friendship between Lucca and Maia feels more believable and real than the friendship between Lucca and Alicia. They’re much closer in age, for one thing. But mainly, with Alicia, it always seemed like they were trying to force Lucca’s square peg into the round hole left by Kalinda. With Lucca and Maia, it can be its own thing. And around Lucca, we finally see Maia unclench a little bit.
I also liked where they left things with Lucca and Colin Morello. There obviously a lot of hurt there, but neither of them were vindictive about it. And Lucca, who is normally so closed off and fiercely protective of herself, takes the opportunity to let Colin know that she knows he wasn’t coming after her. Strangely enough, I’m shipping them more now than when they were actually moving toward a relationship.
Normally shows completely lose me when one partner cheats and the other partner finds a way to move past it. That kind of betrayal of trust just crosses a line that you can come back from, in my mind. It leaves a blemish on the relationship that can’t be scrubbed away. But in spite of everything, I still like Diane and Kurt together. If anything, the rocky road they’ve endured since “The Good Wife” finale makes their relationship more interesting to watch. Diane was deeply hurt, but she also still deeply cares about Kurt. And Kurt, despite crossing that line, still clearly adores Diane. Seeing him risk his life to save that baby, and not only not take credit for it but be embarrassed about the attention, was a good mechanism to give her a reason to crack the door open a little bit. I was rooting for her to drive away at the end, but part of me was really glad when she turned off her headlights and went inside with him.
When Adrian and Diane have their chat about the state of the world at the end of the episode, and the camera pulls back to reveal Barbara sitting just on the other side of the doorway, listening silently, on the outside looking in at her own firm, it was a very powerful beat. Erica Tazel was great in every single moment she got this first season. But she’s definitely the character that got the least exposure, and has the most room for development in the second season.
All in all, an excellent showcase of the show’s possibilities, with some well-executed and organic parallels to the pilot while brimming with the adeptly navigated chaos that the Kings do so exceptionally well. And this cast is just top notch from beginning to end. I’ve enjoyed Delroy Lindo in a lot of things, but I don’t think he’s ever been better than he is here.
The main thrust of the episode finally addressed my biggest concern with the series: That Maia wasn’t making herself an essential asset to the firm. Presumably during all of the offscreen time, she was doing the kind of grueling, unglamorous work that first year associates are usually saddled with. But with only two notable exceptions prior to this episode that I can think of, we only saw her dealing with the never-ending nightmare that is her family. Seeing her come through in the clutch and successfully stare down the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois was a badly needed win to help me as an audience member accept the firm sticking with her through all of the, as this episode called it, “distractions”.
Jason Biggs was a shifty bastard on “The Good Wife”, and he was a shifty bastard in this finale. They way they leveraged Staples to help the feds arrange a trap that Bigg's character walked right into was a thing of beauty. John Cameron Mitchell continues to knock it out of the park as a man who get both more appalling and more watchable with each appearance. The one-two punch of Colin Sweeney last week and Felix Staples this week demonstrates the strength of the rogues gallery the show is developing.
I continue to adore the dynamic between Jay and Marissa. Her telling him forthrightly that she’s gunning for his job, and him continuing to train her anyway was a wonderful bit of character work. And Diane wanting to give Marissa some constructive criticism, presumably about her issues with boundaries and discretion, but completely forgetting to amidst all of the craziness going on, was wonderful.
In a lot of ways, the friendship between Lucca and Maia feels more believable and real than the friendship between Lucca and Alicia. They’re much closer in age, for one thing. But mainly, with Alicia, it always seemed like they were trying to force Lucca’s square peg into the round hole left by Kalinda. With Lucca and Maia, it can be its own thing. And around Lucca, we finally see Maia unclench a little bit.
I also liked where they left things with Lucca and Colin Morello. There obviously a lot of hurt there, but neither of them were vindictive about it. And Lucca, who is normally so closed off and fiercely protective of herself, takes the opportunity to let Colin know that she knows he wasn’t coming after her. Strangely enough, I’m shipping them more now than when they were actually moving toward a relationship.
Normally shows completely lose me when one partner cheats and the other partner finds a way to move past it. That kind of betrayal of trust just crosses a line that you can come back from, in my mind. It leaves a blemish on the relationship that can’t be scrubbed away. But in spite of everything, I still like Diane and Kurt together. If anything, the rocky road they’ve endured since “The Good Wife” finale makes their relationship more interesting to watch. Diane was deeply hurt, but she also still deeply cares about Kurt. And Kurt, despite crossing that line, still clearly adores Diane. Seeing him risk his life to save that baby, and not only not take credit for it but be embarrassed about the attention, was a good mechanism to give her a reason to crack the door open a little bit. I was rooting for her to drive away at the end, but part of me was really glad when she turned off her headlights and went inside with him.
When Adrian and Diane have their chat about the state of the world at the end of the episode, and the camera pulls back to reveal Barbara sitting just on the other side of the doorway, listening silently, on the outside looking in at her own firm, it was a very powerful beat. Erica Tazel was great in every single moment she got this first season. But she’s definitely the character that got the least exposure, and has the most room for development in the second season.
All in all, an excellent showcase of the show’s possibilities, with some well-executed and organic parallels to the pilot while brimming with the adeptly navigated chaos that the Kings do so exceptionally well. And this cast is just top notch from beginning to end. I’ve enjoyed Delroy Lindo in a lot of things, but I don’t think he’s ever been better than he is here.
Adam Lenhardt
Senior HTF Member
Stan
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- May 18, 1999
- Messages
- 5,177
That is what killed this show for me. Everybody wants more and more money. A few bucks here, a couple more there, suddenly you're spending an extra $100 a month. I just refuse to cooperate any longer.
Switched my DISH package to a more reasonable version, about $60 or so a month. Lost BBCA so I can't get "Doctor Who" any longer. It would cost me $40 to upgrade to get one channel I'm missing.
CBS All Access, $6 or $10 a month, not that much, but little by little it adds up and I'm getting tired of it.
Would love to see this show, but I'll wait. Eventually it will show up as a RedBox rental, or some other cheaper version.
Will Krupp
Senior HTF Member
Well that's just it in a nutshell. We all have different priorities and some things you're happy to wait for while I'm not. I'm sure there are things you need to have right away that I either don't care about or don't care about enough to need right away. This was a priority for ME (and one I was willing to pay for) because I think the GOOD WIFE was one of (if not the best) show of the last decade and, like Veruca Salt, I wanted it NOW, heheh. I'm dumping CBS now that it's over, at least I will be dumping it once I make my way back through the original series again (I'm currently near the end of that roller coaster ride of nuclear bombs known as Season 5.)
Stan
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- May 18, 1999
- Messages
- 5,177
Yeah, I can wait. Looks like a pretty decent show. Thank you Adam for spoiling everything
Just teasing, I'm rarely bothered by spoilers and you kept things well hidden.Looks like it has been renewed for a second season, so must be doing something right. Seems like it wouldn't work without Julianna Margulies but apparently doing quite well.
I'll probably give in and pay for it. I just hope the woman who played Alicia's mother isn't involved. Wow, one of the most annoying TV characters ever written.
Never knew it, but just found out Julianna and I share the same birthday, June 8th. Good luck to all Geminis !!!
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I finally got to see the ten episodes of the first season. Overall, I greatly enjoyed them, and it's a worthy continuation of the beats and tones of The Good Wife.
Rather than rave about all the good parts, let me simply state a few aspects of the show I didn't like.
Just because the show is on cable and can use all the profanity it wants doesn't mean it has to. Too much profanity for my tastes.
The entire Maia subplot was given too much attention for something so very obvious (there was never any doubt in my mind that her father and uncle were guilty and her mother was complicit). She's too gullible, weak, and vacillating (yes, she did have one big outburst in court to show her drive and moxie, but the rest of the season she was such a wimp that I found myself actually rooting against her for all the bad decisions and the fluttery helplessness she constantly displayed).
It was GREAT to see so many familiar faces from The Good Wife showing up again for multiple episodes though a little of Mike Crestiva (Matthew Perry) goes a long way since we know what a lying snake he is, and by now his reputation should have spread through all of Chicago so that NO ONE would go near him to give him a position of power.
Watching these episodes drove me right back to The Good Wife, and I started rewatching season two, one of the greatest in the show's history. Made me realize how valuable characters like Alicia, Kalinda, Will, and especially Cary were to the show's success. Though I like some of the new characters (especially Delroy Lindo's wily lawyer despite his overuse of profanity), they can't replace those original masterful characters.
Rather than rave about all the good parts, let me simply state a few aspects of the show I didn't like.
Just because the show is on cable and can use all the profanity it wants doesn't mean it has to. Too much profanity for my tastes.
The entire Maia subplot was given too much attention for something so very obvious (there was never any doubt in my mind that her father and uncle were guilty and her mother was complicit). She's too gullible, weak, and vacillating (yes, she did have one big outburst in court to show her drive and moxie, but the rest of the season she was such a wimp that I found myself actually rooting against her for all the bad decisions and the fluttery helplessness she constantly displayed).
It was GREAT to see so many familiar faces from The Good Wife showing up again for multiple episodes though a little of Mike Crestiva (Matthew Perry) goes a long way since we know what a lying snake he is, and by now his reputation should have spread through all of Chicago so that NO ONE would go near him to give him a position of power.
Watching these episodes drove me right back to The Good Wife, and I started rewatching season two, one of the greatest in the show's history. Made me realize how valuable characters like Alicia, Kalinda, Will, and especially Cary were to the show's success. Though I like some of the new characters (especially Delroy Lindo's wily lawyer despite his overuse of profanity), they can't replace those original masterful characters.
I have avoided clicking on the link to this thread as I have only seen episode one of the series.
So I came right to the end and just loosely scanned the last few posts...
No word on a disc release yet, huh?
So I came right to the end and just loosely scanned the last few posts...
No word on a disc release yet, huh?
No, I have not gotten any press release from CBS/Paramount about any forthcoming commercial release of season one. The minute I do (if I get one), I will post it here, and I'm sure Ron will post the press release in the TV on DVD and Blu-ray forum.
Adam Lenhardt
Senior HTF Member
Michael Boatman and Nyambi Nyambi promoted to series regulars for Season 2
I think it's great news since they're great actors playing enjoyable characters. I'm a bit surprised that Boatman's going to be a regular, though, given that they seemed to be writing Julius out of the show.
EDIT: An additional casting: Broadway legend Audra McDonald is joining the show as a series regular. She guest starred in a Season 4 episode of "The Good Wife" as a federal prosecutor who tried to prosecute Lemond Bishop, only to be stymied by the illicit tactics of Wallace Shawn's insidious Charles Lester. She will reprise that character, who "The Good Fight" will reveal is actually the ex-wife of Delroy Lindo's Adrian Boseman.
I think it's great news since they're great actors playing enjoyable characters. I'm a bit surprised that Boatman's going to be a regular, though, given that they seemed to be writing Julius out of the show.
EDIT: An additional casting: Broadway legend Audra McDonald is joining the show as a series regular. She guest starred in a Season 4 episode of "The Good Wife" as a federal prosecutor who tried to prosecute Lemond Bishop, only to be stymied by the illicit tactics of Wallace Shawn's insidious Charles Lester. She will reprise that character, who "The Good Fight" will reveal is actually the ex-wife of Delroy Lindo's Adrian Boseman.
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Thanks for the information. I'll look forward to these developments in season two.
Nuts. I thought the bump would be word of a disc release...
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