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TV Love

I promise this will be my final "Good Wife" post.


I watched most of Season Five--the fabled season, the one where "Good Wife" regained its momentum--and I agree with the world that "The Last Call" is a special hour. Basically, Season Five chugs along like a freight train, and it reaches maximum speed shortly after Will's death--and then the train slows down a bit (and then, in Seasons Six and Seven, the train just melts into a puddle of mush).


The brilliant thing about "The Last Call" is its subversive approach to death. The writers take time to imagine, in depth, what a "day after" would resemble for each of the major characters, and the many smart decisions are surprising and memorable:


*Eli, political genius, marches right toward his next speech. He forgets that the teleprompter is not his friend, so he finds himself cracking jokes about "my nervous husband" and "the man I spend my bed with."

*Kalinda, beloved figure from a noir-ish cartoon, taunts Will's killer with a belt. "See this? ....You could kill yourself...." Like a dominatrix, Kalinda watches her scene-partner coolly--then she withholds the belt.

*Diane attacks an irritating intern, who uses Will's death for a personal melodrama. (This is my favorite.) Diane approaches the twentysomething and says: "Are you done? Are you done crying?" Drily, Diane waits for an answer. "Great," she says. "Pack your things and do not return. You're fired."

*Alicia: Obviously, this is a great story. Alicia discovers she has a final ambiguous voice mail from Will--and she spends the hour trying to guess what the motive-for-calling might have been. For a while, we all believe Will was planning to scream some more. Then, in the eleventh hour, we learn that his anger that day was directed toward a *male* colleague ("You're poaching my clients....."). So....could Will have placed the call to extend an olive branch? We'll never know, and Alicia will never know. JUST AS IN ACTUAL LIFE....


(I did go ahead and watch the series finale--and I *don't* agree with Emily Nussbaum. The finale seemed hasty and "unearned." Oh, well. Onward to "The Good Fight"!)

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