PLEASE MAKE it stop. “The Good Wife” has been on my guilty pleasure list since it debuted, but it’s getting hard to watch after only three episodes into this season. The poster here gives you an idea where the CBS hit began, which this season bears no resemblance so far.
It begins with the story line behind Archie Panjabi’s Emmy-winning character Kalinda Sharma, but the problems don’t stop there. Lockhart-Gardner is in a financial pickle, making the entire drama about something no one watches this show to see. Nathan Lane is fine as the man trying to save the law firm, but who cares?
Christine Baranski’s character has gone from a high powered sensual tigress to a dry corporate pro. As for her great style, that’s gone, conservative mom bob is in.
It’s also become a sexless drama of angst and frustration, with a lesbian bed scene including Kalinda Sharma thrown in amid a weird relationship the character’s having with her ex that no viewer believes Kalina would abide.
And in the era of Kelsey Grammar’s “The Boss,” why are they wasting Chris Noth, who would make one hell of a villain or crusader if they’d unleash him through a character that went beyond a cameo to get the “Sex and the City” audience.
For those who watch, everyone knows what the food scenes were about, ending in his small knife and Kalista’s big one. Again, who cares? It’s only believable if Kalinda plunges in the knife then calls a fixer to wipe the murder away.
Will reaches for Alicia’s hand, but misses, and the next minute she’s whining “I’m cursed.” Seriously? CBS needs to meditate on the the poster above to remember why we used to love this show.
The Daily Beast takes on the calamity unfolding for “The Good Wife” through dueling critiques of this season’s plot line. “She said” nails it.
He Said: I completely disagree, and I see both the ice cream cone scene and the omelet scene entirely differently. In both cases, it’s a power play in which Nick tries to regain his ownership over Kalinda. In the ice cream scene, it’s about trying to turn her on sexually in this public place, which she subverts. In the omelet sequence, it’s about him attempting to force her in the role of a dutiful wife, using language that screams “traditional gender roles.” He wants her to cook for him, to please him, to offer herself up. She’s little more than an object to him, something to be owned. In both cases, she kicks off—sometimes violently—those shackles. With the ice cream cone scene, she denies any pleasure from the encounter, emasculating him in the process. With the eggs, she swings both a skillet and a knife at him. He has a dangerous hold over her. Even though she’s repulsed and scared by him, she’s also excited at the same time. He has a psychosexual hold over her that is intentionally fraught with peril for the audience. But just like Alicia’s season finale theme (the question of whether you can ever truly go home again), Kalinda’s represents a darker side of the coin: what happens when your past catches up to you? I feel like Kalinda is who is she is because of this man and the terror and chaos he created in her life. He sees the fact that she didn’t run this time as an opening to worm his way into her life. I see it as the fact that she’s trying to hold her ground, even if she’s given to bouts of temporary weakness when it comes to their sexual past.
She Said: None of those explanations makes for good storytelling. That’s my problem here. I understand what Nick is doing. I just don’t care. I don’t buy that the Kalinda we were introduced to would react to him this way now. She turned her world upside down to end that horrible situation and the person we’ve seen completely kick ass, for example, where Blake was concerned, just would not fall in this trap again. Too much time has passed. If they wanted to go this way with her, they needed to show the audience hints of this in her psyche and character prior to Nick’s arrival. It’s a weak story.
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