Of all the television shows I watch (and believe it or not, there aren't really that many) my feelings towards The Good Wife is perhaps the strangest. It is well-written, acted, and produced, and directed. But frankly, I wouldn't like any of these people if I knew anybody remotely like them in real life-which I hope I never do. But then again, that just proves the actors bring their A-Game. I don't think we're really supposed to like any of these people. And that is even including the title character, Alicia Florick, a stand-by-your-man kind of politicians wife whose heart isn't really in it.
Will Garnder, one of her bosses at the law firm of Lockhart-Garner, wants to wife her too, and he is in the process of making his case, on up until this season's finale, right up to where Alicia tells him that, before she gets anything started in earnest, she wants to see the plan. Will is sure Alicia will make him a good wifey, and so sends her a text message, just as she is about to join husband Peter Florick on stage in time for him to announce his candidacy for election to his old seat as States Attorney. She freezes in mid-wifey, and we fade out.
Peter is kind of a creep. He had been in jail for using public funds to pay off prostitutes, and his successor, Childs, is out to get him. He failed to make a broader corruption case, so Peter is back in the game, and determined to be not just any old States Attorney, but a great one.
I sense a would-be assassins bullet in his future, somewhere down the line, and maybe even when the series resumes this fall. That would pretty much force Alicia's wifey priorities to reset. Plus, she has her kids to consider. She does love them, at least. I'm glad she does, as I don't like them any more than I do any of the other characters.
I don't know, maybe its the setting-Chicago. Every time I think of it, I think, ahhh, a bunch of Chicago politicos and corrupt attorneys. What's not to hate? How can anything that thrives there to any appreciable degree not be polluted? Unfortunately, this view was reinforced by the current case in play. A corrupt cop was caught and wants to turn states evidence against other corrupt cops in his special unit-a Glenn Child's special undercover drug operation. Right away, Alicia is strongly reproved by an investigating FBI agent that this could raise questions of conflict of interest, but she stays put. Which is unfortunate, because the guy is whacked by a meth dealer, and the main suspects are his allegedly corrupt cop pals. Only it turns out, in what might well be a first on this show, they were clean all along. The guilty party is his wife, who warned the meth dealer of an up-coming bust, and who now wants-and gets-a wrongful death settlement of half a mill, even after the attorneys discover her involvement.
Good ol' Will is philosophical about the matter. All that matters is how good a job they do for their client.
Now I understand the whole attorney-client privilege thing, but really? These high-powered lawyers never heard of the concept of firing their clients, recusing themselves from a case, and referring said client to another attorney? After so long, at what point do you cross the line over from attorney-client confidentiality to the point of unindicted co-conspirator? True, its a moot point, as she received the settlement after they learned the truth. And really, the rough economy has pretty much put the firm in a real bind, especially after former partner Stern left and took half his clients with him. But we are led to believe there was no other action they could have taken regardless, ethically speaking. Undoubtedly, this is going to come back to bite them-and Peter and Alicia-next season, especially since lead investigator Kalinda (a bisexual seemingly torn between one of the allegedly corrupt but amazingly innocent cops and the female FBI agent) let the cat out of the bag to the cop, after he pretty much told her to go to hell when he found out she suspected him of corruption.
This of course just promises to be one of the many areas of tension amongst the characters, but the show dropped the ball in so many ways in the finale, this was almost easy to overlook. I kept watching eagerly, and almost expected a big black pillar of smoke to engulf the press conference at the end of this series finale and fling Peter Florick across the room. Unfortunately, the States Attorney In Black never made an appearance in The Good Wife finale-all we were left with was Cary, who after being dismissed from the firm in the last episode was easily lured over to the dark side by Titus Welliver's character.
Yet, for all of Cary's edgy and menacing sarcasm during the deposition, he never caught on to the bereaved widow's true plan, which would not have been that hard if he or someone else in Child's office had simply considered tracing all the calls the meth dealer had received on the night he killed the corrupt cop, and was then himself killed by that cops partners. Turns out she called the meth dealer from the home of an aged invalid, on the night she was listed as his in-house duty nurse. While the deposition was going on, Gardner and Madame Lockhart were pondering as to whether they made the right decision in hiring Alicia over Cary for the Associate's position. Yep, I would say they did.
As for Peter Florick and Glenn Childs, these are really two oily, slimy characters. They don't just want to beat each other, they want to ruin each others lives and careers. They are absolutely determined to destroy each other, and if necessary, their families along with them. Yet, in one episode, they are seen shaking hands with each other.
Floricks mother, who helped Alicia with the kids while Peter was stewing in prison, is one of these kinds of waspish women who really seem out of place in today's society. She's really a kind of anachronism, a good old fashioned-well, throwback. She looks with disdain on Peter's PR guy, Eli Gold, whom she addresses dismissively as "Mr. Goldman", and is incensed that her son is using a black church in order to gain political points. Not just because of the hypocrisy, but because she is an Episcopalian and her son is allowing this black pastor to discourage Peter from returning to politics by warning him about the seductive nature of power. She confronts the preacher, and tells him, in so many words, that his God has nothing on her, and so he would be well advised to back off.
See now why I don't even like the kids on this show? There's just no way anything from this household can turn out good.
Don't let that throw you, though. The show is good, even if the characters are just-well, two faced lawyers and politicians. True, some of them are not totally evil. Well, all right, none of them are. Some of them are even approaching close to half-way good. You just don't care if they ever cross the line over into the light, because the dark is so much more compelling. Hey, its fucking Chicago, right? Even when these lawyers take a case based on making a positive contribution, you don't see altruism, you see PR.
And like I said, maybe that's just the way its supposed to be.
