Skip to main content

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"!)

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Host a Baby

-You have assumed responsibility for a mewling, puking ball of life, a yellow-lab pup. He will spit his half-digested kibble all over your shoes, all over your hard-cover edition of Jennifer Haigh's novel  Faith . He will eat your tables, your chairs, your "I {Heart] Montessori" magnet, placed too low on the fridge. When you try to watch Bette Davis in  Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte , on your TV, your dog will bark through the murder-prologue, for no apparent reason. He will whimper through Lena Dunham's  Girls , such that you have to rewind several times to catch every nuance of Andrew Rannells's ad-libbing--and, still, you'll have a nagging suspicion you've missed something. Your dog will poop on the kitchen floor, in the hallway, between the tiny bars of his crate. He'll announce his wakefulness at 5 AM, 2 AM, or while you and another human are mid-coitus. All this, and you get outside, and it's: "Don't let him pee on my tulips!" When...
3 comments
Read more

Joshie

  When I was growing up, a class birthday involved Hostess cupcakes. Often, the cupcakes would come in a shoebox, so you could taste a leathery residue (during the party). Times change. You can't bring a treat into a public school, in 2024, because heaven knows what kind of allergies might lurk, in unseen corners, in the classroom. But Joshua's teacher will allow: a dance party, a pajama day, or a guest reader. I chose to bring a story for Joshua's birthday (observed), but I didn't think through the role that anxiety might play in this interaction. We talk, in this house, quite a bit about anxiety; one game-changer, for J, has been a daily list of activities, so that he knows exactly what to expect. He gets a look of profound satisfaction when he sees the agenda; it doesn't really matter what the specific events happen to be. It's just about knowing, "I can anticipate X, Y, and Z." Joshua struggled with his celebration. He wore his nervousness on his f...
2 comments
Read more

Josh at Five

 Joshie's project is "flexibility"; the goal is to see that a plan is just an idea, not a gospel, not a guarantee. This is difficult. Yesterday, we went to a restaurant--billed as "open," with unlocked doors--and the owner informed us of an "error in advertising." But Joshie couldn't accept the word "closed." He threw himself on the floor, then climbed on the furniture. I felt for the owner, until he nervously made a reference to "the glass windows." He imagined that my child might toss himself through a sealed window, like Mary Katherine Gallagher, or like Bruce Willis, in "Die Hard." Then--thank the Lord!--I was able to laugh. The thing that really has therapeutic value for Joshie is: a firetruck. If we are out in public, and he spots a parked truck, he wants to climb on each surface. He breathlessly alludes to the wheels, the door, the windows. If an actual fire station ("fire ocean," in Joshie's parla...
Post a Comment
Read more