Earlier this week, I wrote about how terrific this season of “The Good Wife” has been, and tonight’s episode was a cut above even what’s come before. A few specific thoughts coming up just as soon as I put my pants on so we can have a quorum…
“The Good Wife” is usually at its best when it’s focused on a single storyline with lots of scrambling and countermoves by the different players, and it’s even more compelling when all the players work – or used to work – together. So it was fun to simply watch all the dominoes fall once Diane told a dumbfounded (and then furious) Will what Alicia and Cary were up to, particularly from the opening scene through Alicia’s perp walk to the elevator. Will is rarely my favorite thing about “The Good Wife,” but my word was Josh Charles great throughout that sequence. As omniscient viewers who’ve seen everything Will, Diane and David Lee have done over the years, we know things are a lot more complicated than he’s making them out to be when he calls Alicia awful, but we also understand why Will would feel this way in this moment.
After Alicia, Cary and Cary (did we know the brunette guy was Another Cary) got booted from Lockhart Gardner, the excellent moves kept on coming, from Kalinda thoroughly playing Cary to both parties getting restraining orders in the ChumHum lobby. I particularly enjoyed all the bits of business relating to Will having Alicia’s phone, from him ending an otherwise contentious call with Alicia by passing on Grace’s message to the marvelous level of contempt in Peter’s voice as he says “Will?” Peter’s decision to help Alicia out – and to pass Diane over for the Supreme Court slot – also brings the political satellite world of the show into a much tighter orbit around the rest. I don’t really care about Peter’s attraction to Melissa George, but anything that can give Chris Noth something to do that feels vital to what Alicia’s up to professionally is a good thing.
All in all, this was “The Good Wife” cooking with gas, and the great thing about it is that the war is far, far from over. No matter what new status quo the show eventually settles into, it’s going to involve a good chunk of the regular characters in opposition to one another, and based on what we’ve seen so far this season – and especially tonight – I’m really looking forward to that.
What did everybody else think?