Posted by Janie Logan Sep 29, 2010, 18:13 GMT
Alicia (Julianna Margulies) continues to be torn between the work and the family she loves, and the men in each of those worlds, on Season 2 of The Good Wife. Photo courtesy of CBS.
Now that we’ve spent a summer apart, I can decidedly say that The Good Wife is my favorite returning show from last year’s crop of newbies. Really, it takes seeing this fall’s underwhelming group to appreciate the quality and staying power of the 2009 series. As much as I love to escape to Mystic Falls with The Vampire Diaries and laugh at the dynamics of the Pritchett-Dunphy clan on Modern Family, I relish the subtlety of the acting and the compelling dramatic stories told on The Good Wife.
I thought Season 1 got better with each week, and I had few complaints, although I was slightly irked by the seemingly childish cliffhanger of Alicia faced with the decision of answering Will’s phone call or joining Peter at the podium. The first scene of the Season 2 premiere changed my view, however.
Will left her a voicemail saying they should leave things alone, before stiffening his resolve, calling her back, and accepting her challenge—it’s not just about the sexual tension that’s been building between them. He admits he’s in love with her, and probably has been since their school days, and that he will meet her anywhere, anytime, to come up with a plan.
Unfortunately, Alicia left her phone in the hands of Eli Gold when she went to stand with Peter in his press conference. Eli listened to the second voicemail, and deleted it. A little too easy that Will ended the message by saying Alicia could ignore it if she didn’t feel the same and they would go back to a normal working relationship with no awkwardness? Perhaps. But then again, I guess Will wouldn’t have wanted to suffer through a painful explanation from Alicia if she didn’t love him back. Giving her an out wasn’t an easy plot device—it was a character understandably making possible rejection easier on himself.
So things return to the way they were, with Alicia none the wiser. She’s probably better off not having to agonize over the Peter/Will decision, but obviously it wasn’t Eli’s place to take that choice away from her. On the one hand, I love Eli because Alan Cumming is SO GOOD in the role (see: discussion with Peter’s mother about “keeping in touch” when he needs help). He’s a manipulative bastard, but so smart and fascinating.
And yet, I hate him for making Josh Charles sad! Will’s doing a good job of hiding his feelings because he’s making an effort to do what he told Alicia and pretend their kiss/his declaration never happened. He’s bound to start suppressing his feelings for Alicia and filling the void with other women.
The Florrick scandal was back at the forefront of the public eye, not only because Peter’s election campaign is back in full swing, but also because of similar charges leveled at a Colorado politician with a “good wife” of his own. I liked the body language comparison, and Alicia’s reaction to it—she clearly thought giving meaning to the direction of one’s feet was stupid at first, but she noticed it later on Will.
Eli did well in preparing Alicia for the kinds of tactics Childs would use to smear Peter—sadly, it was young Grace who was targeted. I hate that you can see the realization dawning on her face that the cute guy flirting with her was just trying to spread gossip about her parents, and that she’s going to have to become just a little more cynical to be prepared for that in the future.
As so often happens on this show, Alicia’s case was resolved in a way I didn’t see coming. I’m inclined to roll my eyes whenever somebody has a conspiracy theory like this guy’s—the government killed my business partner to cover up their misdeeds—and chuckled that there’s an actual legal term for it: a “unicorn defense.” So then when Kalinda investigated the issue and uncovered some stuff, I started to believe the guy. Plus, Alicia was giving him good advice that uncovered convincing evidence against the prosecution’s case.
Suddenly, we have Alicia bringing the trial to a swift conclusion and urging her client to take a plea bargain because she knows he did it and 5 years in jail is a gift since he's guilty of murder. Wait, what?! When did she figure it out? Was I the last one to know, because Will seemed to have some idea, given that he told Alicia to play the jealousy angle with the paranoid woman, and Kalinda and Blake (newcomer Scott Porter, from Friday Night Lights) urged Alicia to wrap things up when the gun was being checked for prints.
I love the cases on this show because they’re often able to blindside me. And in this case, the plea bargain was obviously a victory for Alicia and the firm, which made me happy because it meant that smug Cary hadn’t been able to beat her. How can he be so overconfident when she’s the one who impressed the partners more often and beat him out of a job?
Things at Lockhart & Gardner are being shaken up by a merger and the introduction of a new partner, Derek Bond (Michael Ealy), about whom we know almost nothing except that he’s got a great reputation and some interesting ideas on changes for the firm. There’s a seed of doubt planted in our minds by Will and Diane when they ask themselves if they’re being played.
With thoughts of Will still lingering, we don’t know how Alicia’s feeling about her husband these days, but she certainly wasn’t complaining in that steamy bathroom scene. All I can say is—CBS! I didn’t know you had it in you…
Mandi Bierly over at EW asked executive producers Robert and Michelle King about that very scene that left her sympathizing with “Team Peter” more than usual:
“We had a… shall we say ‘delicate’ collaboration with Standards & Practices. We went to them early to describe the scene, and why it was important for character development that Alicia be the more passive sexual participant. To our mind, it was never going to be a gratuitous scene. It was about how desire is ignited through Peter’s observation of his wife asserting power. And it had to be a scene of Peter being the active participant because it had to demonstrate his desire and not necessarily hers.
So there you have it, the opener to a season that promises many good things, including more Titus Welliver and Alan Cumming, more tension, and a deeper look at the enigmatic Kalinda (Emmy-winning Archie Panjabi). I, for one, can’t wait to see where it’s going.
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