I haven’t been able to decide how I felt about the case-of-the-week on last night’s episode of The Good Wife. It was certainly creative, and I enjoyed seeing Sam Robards as Jarvis Bowes — he played Greg Brock on The West Wing, the journalist Toby Ziegler leaked classified information to — but I don’t know if I liked the case or not.
For sure I thought that Bowes being drawn to Alicia was a stretch at best, and stupid at worst. I don’t know what we were meant to interpret from that, but it made no sense. In fact, it felt like the writers were just trying to draw Julianna Margulies back into the show after a prolonged period when she’s felt extraneous. Bowes claiming to want to hire Alicia to sue over illegal downloads of the song he wrote was mildly amusing — and definitely ironic — but his odd obsession with Alicia was whacky.
As for the case itself: Bowes wrote lyrics to a song that allegedly was about a murder that he committed. It was an interesting legal twist to try and bar him from collecting royalties on the song — it’s illegal to profit from a crime you committed, although try telling that to all the criminals out there writing autobiographies — and the investigation that Alicia and Kalinda conducted was engrossing, but the twist at the end with the song being about another murder that Bowes committed was weak. It’s okay to lose, too.
The ongoing saga of Kalinda Sharma is extremely grating. I just don’t care about her, and I certainly don’t feel for Peter and what the revelation of his affair with Kalinda might do to him and Alicia. Alicia doesn’t deserve to be hurt yet again by Peter, and she certainly doesn’t deserve to be hurt by a friend — were she and Kalinda friends at the time? — but let’s get this bombshell out there and finish the Florrick’s marriage off for good. I shared all of the positive feelings we were meant to feel when Alicia stood by Peter after he destroyed his life, but by now I find her to be weak and pathetic. I’m sorry, but at this point she’s basically given Peter a free pass to do whatever he wants to do, without any repercussions. Allowing him back into her life and her bed after he trampled on their marriage? Are we supposed to be impressed by her vast ability to forgive? There’s a line that, once crossed, turns you into a doormat.
As for Matan Brody (Chris Butler) keeping the news under his hat, I think it proves that Childs’ promise last week that everyone’s jobs were safe was a bit of a stretch; he’s in no position to make promises about what someone else will do once in office. At least Matan’s not stupid enough to believe him … he’s just stupid enough to believe Peter.
I admit that I was wrong about Eli Gold, as I have slowly grown to really enjoy the character. I still think watching him interact with Natalie Flores (America Ferrera) is creepy, but I enjoyed the way he “used his powers for good” last night. I was a little disappointed by the casual way illegal immigration was dealt with — I’m not saying it should have gone one way or another, but I think the topic deserves more than a tertiary, “dodged a bullet” plot. And how did pulling him out of jail when they did prevent Luis (Jaime Tirelli) from being deported? I thought he was lost once his name got into the system … I missed that.
As for the case? Upon reflection, not one of the show’s best. But there’s always next time!
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Mar 30, 2011 @ 15:00 EST5EDT
