Tuesday, January 17, 2012

We watched the "bitcoin" episode of THE GOOD WIFE. I'm about ready to give up on this show.

When we started watching, THE GOOD WIFE was a sharply written character-based drama about a woman who'd been betrayed, torn between her untrustworthy husband and her boss. There was a procedural element, but we watched the show for the human drama. Which was was Alicia going to jump? Was she going to make it on her own? How would she raise her kids under all that pressure? Could she ever trust her husband again? Did she want to?

Now it seems as if it's become almost a pure procedural. Most of the bitcoin episode was a series of investigations about who Mr. Bitcoin might be. Sure, Bitcoin is interesting territory. But I'm not watching the show to watch about cryptographic currency.

The B story was an incredibly lame runner in which Alicia warns her son not to get too involved with his incredibly cute and polite girlfriend, because she heard him say "I love you." This was manufactured drama. Most parents know better than to tell their teenager not to date someone -- assuming you can affect the relationship at all, which is unlikely, you'll just drive your teenager into rebellion or deceit. ("Okay, fine, I won't bring her over. I'll just leave home and never come back!") And why would she object to the girlfriend, who's apparently a smart, hard-working, straight-A student? It rings false.

Somewhere along the line, it seems that the writers of THE GOOD WIFE forgot what was interesting about their main character. They had her ditch her husband permanently, sleep with the boss, and then ditch him too. She has no stakes in the episodes any more. There is no real jeopardy for her. All she seems to want is "to be a good lawyer." All the interesting plotlines go to Kalinda, who has some tough choices to make.

In general, they seem to have forgotten a lot about their characters. There was an episode where Diane Lockhart has to tell Eli Gold to make friends in the law firm. Eli Gold, of course, is a political fixer who knows everyone in Chicago. Nobody should need to tell him he needs allies.

Ah, well. Let me know if it gets better, would you?

Labels: watching tv

12:23 PM

6 Comments:

The B story was about Kalinda throwing Will under the bus to save Alicia. The human drama was still all there. The scene where Will, in the parking garage, actually looked terrified about going to jail more than made the episode for me.

By  Scot Boyd, at 1:52 AM  

I believe the pseudonym for the mysterious software developer was Big Coin. Or, is my hearing going bad from watching so many hours of TV to catch the different formats of each show?

By  Unknown, at 3:11 PM  

Scott,
Exactly. The human drama wasn't Alicia's. She used to be the main character. Now it feels like she's just part of an ensemble procedural. We're not in her POV anymore.

By  Lisa Hunter, at 5:04 PM  

Bitcoin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin.

So sorry about your hearing!

By  Alex Epstein, at 7:10 PM  

Alex, ny wife said the same thing! I should've asked her before I posted.

By  Unknown, at 7:46 PM  

Of course, now I can't spell either. I meant 'my' wife, not 'ny' wife.

By  Unknown, at 7:47 PM  

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