The Good Wife season 5 (US pace)

dark crystal

**This is the US pace, so there are spoilers for anyone not up to date with the US episodes**



So with all the excitement of the Breaking Bad finale and the return of big hitters like Homeland last Sunday, the new season of The Good Wife seems to have been overshadowed somewhat.

This has probably been one of the most consistently great dramas on US television and the new season opener was no exception.

After last season's surprising finale, we now find Alicia frenetically trying to delay a prisoner's execution, whilst having to keep her imminent departure from Lockhart Gardner a secret from Will, Diane and the other partners. She's having doubts, though and it will be interesting to see if she follows through with her promise to Cary to leave with him and the others, or stay loyal to Will.

Meanwhile, Peter is finding himself attracted to his new, beautiful ethics advisor (Angel from Home and Away, no less!) and so promptly gets Eli to 'promote' her. Out of sight, out of mind, but will she stay out of sight for long?

Once again, the pace was fast and punchy and the dialogue smart and engaging.

By far, my favourite show of the new season.

expectationlost

yeah this is a fun show, loved the telecommuter!

FloatingVoter

Is she the lady I go to see about my bus pass ? If only.

VincentLeB

Holy crap, did you guys see "Outside the Bubble"? Great stuff. The promo for "Hitting the Fan" looks electrifying too. "POISON!"

dark crystal

I was disappointed Diane ratted Alicia out at the end. I understand why she did it, but I hoped with Will being such a shit to her recently, she may have let it slide as a bit of a F you to him.

Another cracking episode. Can't wait to see what happens next week. Also, more Kalinda this season please!

delboy85

Absolutely adore this show and Season 5 has got off to a cracking start. I wish there was more Kalinda though.

FloatingVoter

+1 for Kalinda. Hmm, my dick is very good at typing.

VincentLeB

Yeah. I was perplexed with her solemnly looking at her office. What did you make of that? It felt like to me that she was considering trying to stay.

hoodwinked

i love it, and this season has been one big hitter after another so far. there is so much going on it would be easy to get confused,

between the storyline triangle of Alicia Cary and Will, and the love quadrangle of Alicia - will - peter - new girl in his office (sorry cannot remember her name)

the question is will Alicia end up at square 1? jobless, loveless and this time without Will on her side?


i cannot wait to see how it all plays out....

ElNino

This is probably the the US show that I look forward to most every week although the quality can vary. Next week should be really good. Most of the 4th year associates seem to be idiots so I wonder if she has made the right decision.

VincentLeB

ElNino wrote: »

This is probably the the US show that I look forward to most every week although the quality can vary. Next week should be really good. Most of the 4th year associates seem to be idiots so I wonder if she has made the right decision.

Yeah. It's generally very good, but certainly not up there with Breaking Bad or anything.

I like the other "Carey" guy (as opposed to Cary) — he'll become a good character. But that other guy who emailed the video... what an ass.

The thing that bugs me most is that this really feels like a storyline that only came into the works just before this season. It feels like there's no long-term planning. (I don't count Cary asking her to move as long-term planning — that could have gone either way.)

Like we have never seen any of these fourth years before. Same with the partners. Like where is Julius Cane? The only partners we've seen before are David Lee and Howard Lyman, and the head of Cane as head of litigation is just not there, when he's always involved in this kind of stuff.

Plus, Howard Lyman was supposed to be a graveyard partner — suddenly now he seems to be everywhere.

Robert and Michelle King are great — but I wish they though ahead at least two seasons in advance.

With the way the ratings are going now, though, I'm not sure we'll have another season. At best, one more.

dark crystal

VincentLeB wrote: »

With the way the ratings are going now, though, I'm not sure we'll have another season. At best, one more.

The ratings thing is largely due to the fact it's aired straight after the football in the US, which almost always runs a good bit over and people have been complaining about it's time slot for the last two seasons. It's a shame, because this is one of the most consistantly good dramas on US tv at the moment and deserves better.

Back to the show, I was only thinking, what will happen to Diane's judgeship now that she's ratted Alicia out. Peter is ostensibly her boss and he surely won't take kindly to the betrayal.

VincentLeB

dark crystal wrote: »

The ratings thing is largely due to the fact it's aired straight after the football in the US, which almost always runs a good bit over and people have been complaining about it's time slot for the last two seasons. It's a shame, because this is one of the most consistantly good dramas on US tv at the moment and deserves better.

Yeah, I know. I always see thousands of Facebook comments where people are complaining about this.

dark crystal wrote: »

Back to the show, I was only thinking, what will happen to Diane's judgeship now that she's ratted Alicia out. Peter is ostensibly her boss and he surely won't take kindly to the betrayal.

That's something I hadn't thought of at all! As I said: the way she was looking at her office made it seem like she didn't want to leave at all. But also, either she had them and the show did a pretty crappy job of letting us know, or she didn't seem to have any though processes or think this over very much in relation to her judgeship.

In reality, though, I'm pretty sure it would be odd enough for a Governor to appoint a non-judge straight to the state Supreme Court, no matter how well respected she is.

Also, did anyone feel like her old friend coming back to spite her was a bit ridiculous? I mean that's like school playground stuff.

hoodwinked

dark crystal wrote: »

Back to the show, I was only thinking, what will happen to Diane's judgeship now that she's ratted Alicia out. Peter is ostensibly her boss and he surely won't take kindly to the betrayal.

but on the other side she's done peter a massive favour by completely severing the connection between Will and alicia, so maybe he'll throw her a party!

expectationlost

VincentLeB wrote: »

Yeah. It's generally very good, but certainly not up there with Breaking Bad or anything.

I like the other "Carey" guy (as opposed to Cary) — he'll become a good character. But that other guy who emailed the video... what an ass.

The thing that bugs me most is that this really feels like a storyline that only came into the works just before this season. It feels like there's no long-term planning. (I don't count Cary asking her to move as long-term planning — that could have gone either way.)

Like we have never seen any of these fourth years before. Same with the partners. Like where is Julius Cane?

on another tv show or two http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0090225/

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

dark crystal

Now THAT was an episode! Simply brilliant.

Loved Peter coming to bat for his wife in her hour of need - I suspected Diane would come to regret spilling to Will. I can see this coming back to bite Peter on the ass in the future though, seeing as they've made his promise on ethics such a big feature of his term this season.

I'm team Florrick/Agos all the way now. Can't wait for next week!

FloatingVoter

"Go to hell"
"You go to hell - oh eh....your daughter rang - she needs a permission slip for a field trip".
That pair are married and they don't even know it.

dark crystal

Well, another brilliant episode. After some initial advantages won by Florrick Agos, Lockhart Gardner are now starting to gain some ground, with a mightily pissed off Diane back on board. This battle's going to be epic!

Some questions...

What's up with Grace and her weird behaviour?

Wills new nympho girlfriend with baby fever...will Will soon find himself faced with a possible Will Jr., or is this new woman a wee bit of a head case? Not sure about her at all.

Also, there's no way Marilyn's pregnancy could have anything to do with Peter - is there...? I really hope not, I'd love to see Peter and Alicia make a real go of things and end the whole 'will they, won't they' business with Alicia and Will once and for all.

hoodwinked

dark crystal wrote: »

Well, another brilliant episode. After some initial advantages won by Florrick Agos, Lockhart Gardner are now starting to gain some ground, with a mightily pissed off Diane back on board. This battle's going to be epic!

Some questions...

What's up with Grace and her weird behaviour?

Wills new nympho girlfriend with baby fever...will Will soon find himself faced with a possible Will Jr., or is this new woman a wee bit of a head case? Not sure about her at all.

Also, there's no way Marilyn's pregnancy could have anything to do with Peter - is there...? I really hope not, I'd love to see Peter and Alicia make a real go of things and end the whole 'will they, won't they' business with Alicia and Will once and for all.

that is EXACTLY what i was thinking also, it would be funny both Will and Peter having babies at the same-ish time with women who aren't her.... but then i thought its too obvious,

maybe she'll say its his and Alicia will end up in court arguing for a DNA test to prove his innocence,

that or she's faking being pregnant to get Alicia on side (mother to expectant mother) and snoop around Alicia's for more people than just 'peter'...

dark crystal

Yeah, it would be a rather spectacular fall from grace, Peter having an illegitimate child with his ethics advisor!

Like you say, it does seem a tad too obvious, though.

FloatingVoter

Nah.. Peter goes for white trash - Bill Clinton style. Alicia might accuse him of it in a moment of fury but short of DNA proof..she wouldn't actually mean it. I reckon Daddy is a someone she met at a Powerpoint conference. That'll be one boring child.

As for Will's headcase - yes, that should run and run. I hope he's using condoms and burning the used ones immediately after the fact. Otherwise, Will's a daddy. Should be a funny couple of episodes on the way.

hoodwinked

well last nights episode, was strange, all the new things in last weeks were suddenly dropped and we were right back in the thick of it, with twists turns and betrayals!



so glad Alica's brother finally pointed out to Will

that she did this because she loves him and to avoid him, loved how he described it as her setting off the nuclear bomb,

as it best describes the situation

also the grace thing :eek: why was the camera on

Alica's computer

also on in that case?

dark crystal

I think this could be my favourite season yet - the twists and turns just keep coming.

Delighted to see Nathan Lane back as a regular. Hopefully, he'll help Florrick Agos succeed, as I'm rooting for them more every week, especially now Lockhart Gardner are playing so dirty.

Surely the guy who defected back to them as a partner could be done for making that false statement about Alicia in the deposition. If it goes to court, he could be done for perjury, no? Didn't get how he could just lie like that. I hope Alicia sues their arses.

ElNino

dark crystal wrote: »

Surely the guy who defected back to them as a partner could be done for making that false statement about Alicia in the deposition. If it goes to court, he could be done for perjury, no? Didn't get how he could just lie like that. I hope Alicia sues their arses.

It is quite easy to see David Lee suborning perjury but I find it hard to believe that Diane or Will would stoop that low. When Will finds out he will surely fire the guy especially since he now knows that Alicia still has feelings for him.

It was good to be back to dealing with client cases again at least for LG. Hopefully things will get back to normal sooner rather than later.

dark crystal

Jason O'Mara - oh yes please!

Seems like a great character, I hope he sticks around and doesn't do a Nathan Lane and inexplicably disappear after a few episodes. I just wish he'd joined Florick Agos instead. I'm really starting to dislike Will more and more each episode. I just want him and LG (ugh) to fail abysmally now.

You also have to laugh at the fact the new Irish character was immediately portrayed with a pint of the black stuff in his hand and the gift of the gab

So Judge Jeffrey Tambor wants to 'have coffee' with Alicia....I wonder what's going on there then? Perhaps something to do with the now vacant Supreme Court judgeship (thanks to a very steely Jackie - hell hath no fury indeed)?

Talking of which, surely they wouldn't just introduce a great actress like Mary Stuart Masterson into the show and then only give her 5 minutes airtime in one episode. Hopefully we'll get to see more of her again somewhere down the line.

expectationlost

scabbit oooh harsh look at a website like reddit that defames a guy after a milwaukee bombing with crowdsourced red circle photos

and of course an irish actor has to exaggerate his irish accent in order to play irish on tv

ElNino

That was a good episode probably helped by the lack of Florrick kids teen drama. The script writers have written a good character for Damian albeit a bit racist with the Irish drunk overtones. Hopefully he tones down the Oirish accent a bit. Kalinda seems to be totally taken by him.

FloatingVoter

ElNino wrote: »

That was a good episode probably helped by the lack of Florrick kids teen drama. The script writers have written a good character for Damian albeit a bit racist with the Irish drunk overtones. Hopefully he tones down the Oirish accent a bit. Kalinda seems to be totally taken by him.

They cover the Oirish allegations quite well - he admitted to the judge he's not actually Irish - just a chancer from Queens.

expectationlost

FloatingVoter wrote: »

They cover the Oirish allegations quite well - he admitted to the judge he's not actually Irish - just a chancer from Queens.

i thought that was a joke, later kalinda asked him how long he'd been in the country he said 15 years she didn't query that part.

VincentLeB

FloatingVoter wrote: »

They cover the Oirish allegations quite well - he admitted to the judge he's not actually Irish - just a chancer from Queens.

expectationlost wrote: »

i thought that was a joke, later kalinda asked him how long he'd been in the country he said 15 years she didn't query that part.

Yes, it was a joke — definitely.

I'm not sure if I like his character. He reminds me a bit of Kalinda's husband in how annoying he is. He kind of pisses me off, but I hope it turns around.

He's apparently there for a six-episode arc.

Hyzepher

He'll end up being Will's downfall

expectationlost

where was the hot blonde this week,... the two of them

FloatingVoter

Actually that raises a point - he'll lie to the judge on an informal basis and spot Kalinda not using her brain in the vetting process. So we have someone who doesn't worry about the mob ties - everybody needs a defence and all that.
Yet this wee Oirishman does not need anyone digging into his deeper past. Ahh, ye auld peace process and the ****e it drags up.

dark crystal

Hyzepher wrote: »

He'll end up being Will's downfall

Oh God I hope so....

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

expectationlost

*splutter*


i didn't think last weeks case was over

hoodwinked

they will probably get back to it later...

again a great episode! to be fair the cliff hanger on the end made it

Sleepy

Not much of a cliff-hanger but Eli's reaction was fantastic...

Really think they need to kill Will off at this point. The "will they, won't they" stuff has been kicked to death as a storyline at this stage. Especially when Peter has easily been the most moral character in the show since his release from prison and has made genuine efforts to get his marriage to Alicia back on track. It's beginning to seem as if they intend to turn Alicia into the "the bad wife" to complete her story arc. She's been less and less sympathetic as a character and has been slipping further and further into the amorality of the law as the show has progressed.

FloatingVoter

Eli's reaction needs an Oscar for best silent comedy moment of this year or any since Chaplin stopped making movies.


Therefore I believe it was quite good, yes (adjusts tie and leaves).

omicron

Never going to get this song out of my head!

hoodwinked

omicron wrote: »

Never going to get this song out of my head!

it addictive alright gave me a little heart attack though, i thought they were doing what Scrubs and grey's and a few others have done and were going to do a musical episode thankfully they are not.


for those interested its from last nights plot in which

Get ready to see the cast of The Good Wife like you've never seen them before. In the Sunday, Jan. 5 episode of the CBS drama titled "Goliath and David," Alicia (Julianna Margulies) represents guest star Matthew Lillard's band who is suing a TV show for copyright infringement. The song in question, "Thicky Trick," is now a real thing thanks to CBS, and E! News has the music video featuring the cast and crew of The Good Wife getting down.

also while googling for the above information (to see if they were doing a musical) i found this preview for the next episode;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azxrAl9MqFw

looks like Alicia

finds peter out, kind of glad to see him get a come uppence, especially considering i was starting to go soft on him myself

dark crystal

Goes without saying, another great episode. However...

....I just wish Will would grow up and get over Alicia already. His childish vendetta is getting a tad boring now and is making the character extremely unlikeable. It was great to see Alicia and Cary get one over on the smug prat this episode.

Also, I really hope Eli can get Peter out of this latest pickle, as I actually really like Peter lately. Shame he's been so underwritten this season.

omicron

dark crystal wrote: »

Goes without saying, another great episode. However...

....I just wish Will would grow up and get over Alicia already. His childish vendetta is getting a tad boring now and is making the character extremely unlikeable. It was great to see Alicia and Cary get one over on the smug prat this episode.

Also, I really hope Eli can get Peter out of this latest pickle, as I actually really like Peter lately. Shame he's been so underwritten this season.

I suppose it's the easiest way of making the whole of Lockhart Gardner (LG!) be involved in it still despite Alicia not being there anymore.

expectationlost

what did yerman do at the eletion with that box again?

brilliant show, really nicely riffed off the glee thing, best thing on tv

FloatingVoter

Bit of a meh episode in my opinion. That said I'm not a Glee / reality crap fan. The cameo from Peter Bogdanovich had me in stitches though.
And yes - still one of the few shows thats kept up strength through four - five seasons,

P_1

expectationlost wrote: »

what did yerman do at the eletion with that box again?

brilliant show, really nicely riffed off the glee thing, best thing on tv

He stuffed the ballot but it turned out that he didn't actually need to

Quality stuff again but what else would you expect with Ridley Scott at the helm

QikBax

Outside of helping the show get picked up initially, Ridley Scott has nothing to do with the show.

expectationlost

like when they bring in current events but why would the dea need the nsa to wiretap a known drug dealer

very clumsey parralel construction

what was the original warrent the nsa had, the marwat? warrent

ah this explains it

It’s the NSA—a plot line we first heard about back in October. The NSA originally tapped Alicia’s phones because she defended a translator accused of assisting the Taliban. The warrant was broadened once the NSA honed in on Zach’s Somali ex-girlfriend

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/03/the-good-wife-review-parallel-construction-bitches.html

the nsa have tapping them since that ep

expectationlost

hang on sec i totaly missed a episode somewhere these guys were already introduced

JP Liz V1

Whose side is Kalinda on?