Does anyone watch this show?
I really enjoy it, but my daughter and her boyfriend were over tonight and I couldn’t hear it very well.
Can someone tell me… what was the gist of the dialog between the two investigators, Blake and Kalinda? I didn’t hear most of it, though it looked pretty steamy. And what specifically did the Blake say about Kalinda’s husband after she hit him with the bat?
Well, Kalinda was playing Blake for information. He admitted that he less an investigator than a fixer for Bond, & that he had worked for Will when Will was in Baltimore. Kalinda asked if he’d done something illegal for Will, Blake just said, “he owes me.” Kalinda told Blake that she had been offered a job working for FBI (true) to deny that she’d given Blake’s name to FBI (which she had of course). As for your question, I think it was just that Blake had spoken to her husband.
Can anyone fully explain the relationship between Blake and Kalinda?
How is it that they can go from
trying to get each other a lengthy prison sentence
to
nearly naked and on the verge of making out
to
Kalinda breaking his ribs with a bat
to
Kalinda making a phone call for medical assistance for Blake’s broken ribs
all in the space of a single episode?
Well, the second one is what we call, “screwing with the audience’s heads.”
Sorry for bumping a very old thread … but I’m watching Season 2 now so this is the right thread. 
I enjoy Good Wife but something baffles me. The law firm often does things that must be blatantly criminal. For example, in the Season 2 finale Will Gardner deliberately speaks while a juror is in earshot in order to contaminate that juror, and force alternates for delay. Surely that’s against the rules? There are other examples.
Obviously there are many shows in which major players are criminal. But AFAICT, the writers of Good Wife make no effort to build on any criminal personae of these players. What am I missing? (Is it just a plot device with ethics/criminality irrelevant? Are lawyers held in such low esteem that impropriety doesn’t matter?)
I think the idea is that there is a lot of gray area between what is absoultely acceptable and what is absolutely unacceptable. And different characters have different ideas about where the line within that gray area is. And sometimes they cross it. And sometimes they feel bad about it, and other times they don’t. And sometimes there are repercussions, and other times there aren’t. IANAL, but I suspect that’s pretty much how it happens in real life as well.
I can’t remember the incident you mention specifically, but it doesn’t surprise me. Jurors get contaminated for different reasons. As long as the juror is replaced, the trial can continue. If the contamination was accidental, there would be no penalty. Can it be proven that it wasn’t accidental?
As you’ve noticed, that’s the sort of thing the show plays with.
Rather than start a new thread, I’ll use this one to ask WTF is up with TGW? They started the season in the beginning of January, showed two episodes, then promptly went on hiatus again until March 1. Was Margulies pregnant, or are they just being assholes?
There could be a better explanation but I think it had to do with making a slot for The Mentalist to prepare for its shutdown. It did seem weird, especially if that’s all it was. Since I like both shows it was okay with me and I didn’t question it all that much.
I think the show went on hiatus because of all the award shows airing on Sunday nights in February: first it was the Super Bowl, then the Grammys on Feb 8, and the Oscars on Feb 22. They would rather not compete with those shows for viewers.
No, they’re running The Mentalist later in the week; I think at 8pm on Wednesdays. So it’s not a conflict with that show. And when The Mentalist was on Sundays, it was at 10pm, after The Good Wife.
Edited to add, my guess is that’s partly the awards shows and other events in February plus the need to have enough episodes for later in the season.
Thanks. I like the idea that SaharaTea put forth better than the TM one anyway. 
I’m glad someone revived this thread. I never watched the series in its original run, but about six weeks ago, I started watching it on AmazonPrime and have plowed through the first five seasons. I’m now about four episodes into the current season.
I’ve been wanting a thread to discuss the characters–
For openers, I don’t like Alicia AT ALL. She is so wimpy and smiley and she sets my teeth on edge.
Peter- I gotta hand it to Chris Noth. What other moderately famous actor has created three long-term series characters? Mike Logan on the original Law & Order, Big on Sex and the City and now the Governor. He must be rolling in dough.
Diane- Her character is not too different from when she played Cybill’s sidekick on the series of the same name. Her hair has gotten steadily better (something one would only notice when binge-watching as I’m doing).
Will- I knew him as the geeky, never-gets-the-girl sportscaster on the fabulous, short-lived Sports Night, so I never could see him as sexy and powerful. Miscast IMHO. Still… what happened to him shouldn’t happen to a dog.
Kalinda- at first I really liked her and liked her cool efficiency. But during the period where her cruel, abusive husband showed up and she was drawn to him and couldn’t tell him to take a hike, I lost all respect for her. She did kill him, right? Well, he seriously needed killing. Now, her monosyllabic dialogue, secrecy about her past, scrambled loyalties-- these things are wearing thin, and her character pretty much disgusts me. I do love her wardrobe, however.
Eli- I adore Alan Cumming, but Eli: ewww. He plays him well and handles the American accent nicely! Have you noticed that his hair has gotten blacker over the seasons.
Love Elsbeth!
Would love to hear other people’s thoughts on the characters. Do you like/admire ANYONE? I don’t.
Random comment: having Lemond Bishop as a client and attempting to keep his legal and illegal businesses separate was JUST PLAIN STUPID.
Something else you wouldn’t notice unless you’re binge-watching:
Season 1 episode titles all had one word
Season 2- two-word titles
Season 3- three-word titles
Season 4- four-word titles
Season 5- back to three-word titles
Season 6- two-word titles
Does this presage that Season 7 will be the last? We’ll all be exhausted by then.
I’ve heard rumors about this season or season 7 being the last. With the show’s ratings and critical reviews still very high, they’d be pretty stupid not to do at least one more season. I know that Archie Panjabi is leaving the show for good at the end of this season, which frankly is a good thing because her character has been wasted for a long time.
ThelmaLou: As I’m sure you know, hating or liking characters is a good sign that the actors are doing an outstanding job. These are not supposed to be likable characters; they’re lawyers, for cripes’ sake. The only likable people in the series are the non-lawyers like the kids and Alicia’s brother, but the rest are fun to watch.
Panjabi is not that good an actress IMO, which is why, I think, they limit her dialog and even reduce her role at times to nodding significantly. She has almost no facial expression change. Perhaps that’s because her role is that of a sort of sociopathic personality. I like the idea of her character, but can’t get past the wooden acting, and I won’t miss her when she’s gone.
Alicia started out as a doormat, but they’ve developed her character into someone with more steel, who is far less likely to take anybody’s shit. Will was annoying, and the character was becoming less and less relevant; it was smart to kill him off.
I’m not a fan of Christine Baranski, but she does okay in this role. The interplay between her and her right-wing-gun-nut boyfriend was entertaining.
The David Lee character is delightfully nasty, and played to perfection by Zach Grenier, who completely upstages everyone in every scene he’s in.
How cool is this? I don’t think I’ve ever been the OP on a zombie thread brought back to life! I’m not surprised about Will doing that. It’s been shown he doesn’t always follow the rules; and can in fact be a real asshole sometimes.
Personally I think Alicia is awesome. Like ChefGuy points out she starts off the series a doormat, but now can hold her own against the likes of her husband.
I don’t remember if they killed off Kalinda’s husband, but if I’m not mistaken his character was hated so much that the writes had to write him out of the show a lot sooner than expected. Elsbeth is AWESOME. So flighty and brilliant.
Chefguy; oddly enough I hate Alicia’s kids’ characters the most. Especially Zach. I never really cared for Christine Baranski until this show. I think she’s great in this role. Regarding David Lee; Zach Grenier is a brilliant actor… because David Lee is a DICK and I couldn’t stand to be around someone like him even for a second!
On Alicia’s kids, I actually really like Grace. She’s basically used only when Alicia needs something, but I find her to be one of the most nuanced and truthful portrayals of modern Mainline Protestant Christianity on a network show in like… forever.
It’s odd - I interpret this the exact opposite. I think the show does a great job of having the characters understand the ethical considerations of their actions and there isn’t anything that the main characters do (Alicia, Diane, Cary, Will) that is blatantly unethical. I see it as a celebration of self policing ethical behavior, especially Alicia and Cary.
The Good Wife Drinking Game
A shot whenever
Anyone says, “I have NO idea!” or “I have ABSOLUTELY no idea!”
Kalinda says, “I’m on it!”
All the lawyers stand up in court and shout at the same time (may continue drinking until judge bangs the gavel).
I can’t be the only person who thinks Kalinda’s opaqueness is a function of (or reaction to) the writing. I think it’s less that Archie Panjabi is generally wooden, and more that Kalinda just became a very hard character to play early on, due to writers trying to imply a “mysterious past.” So Archie started playing her completely blank and inscrutable.
Could be. I don’t think I’ve never seen her in anything else.