The Good Wife season 5 (US pace)

furiousox

Just watched episode 19 'Tying The Knot'.

Oh dear...does not bode well for the future.
Pretty much the weakest and worst episode of TGW I've seen.
The first half was awful, rushed, frantic and disjointed.
It improved in the second half but it's like they're trying too hard to compensate for the loss of the Josh Charles character.
It's a shame but if this is the direction they're taking, I don't think it will keep it's audience.
It was always such a clever and well written series but this episode was like watching an inferior American cable drama show.

Fred Swanson

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dark crystal

The mourning can't go on forever, though. This has always been a show that thrives on depicting the frantic pressure of fast moving cases and the complex relationship between lawyer and client. As clients go, Dylan Baker as the creepy yet charming sociopath, Colin Sweeney, is one of the best. I love his character!

If this episode was losing its way, well, more shows could do with losing their way this brilliantly.

expectationlost

furiousox wrote: »

Just watched episode 19 'Tying The Knot'.

Oh dear...does not bode well for the future.
Pretty much the weakest and worst episode of TGW I've seen.
The first half was awful, rushed, frantic and disjointed.

um that was the point

ah i like how it does different things every now again

Hyzepher

This episode was complex

It's a sign of how the power shift is starting to begin and how things are going to radically change

Fred Swanson

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Agent Coulson

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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I think a lot of this is down to Michael J Fox becoming available.

I think the merge would have happened already but with his own show being canceled just in time to write him into this story line they ran with bringing him back.

_Whimsical_

I have to say I'm not enjoying TGW nearly as much as I did other seasons. I'm sure it must be tough trying to maintain the high quality calibre of writing and plot lines but this season it's completely fallen off a cliff.
From topical,interesting,complicated storylines every week to dull Will v. Alicia stuff for months only for it to end so pointlessly was so disappointing.
I thought they picked up an interesting thread out of that story with the idea of prosecutors placing defendants in unsafe conditions to try and wheedle a settlement to a plea bargain out of them, but we were used to that level of well considered plots every week in other seasons.It certainly was not worth sacrificing Will for!

I hope next season sees a massive shift in gear and a return to form or they might lose me!

FloatingVoter

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

I have to say I'm not enjoying TGW nearly as much as I did other seasons. I'm sure it must be tough trying to maintain the high quality calibre of writing and plot lines but this season it's completely fallen off a cliff.
From topical,interesting,complicated storylines every week to dull Will v. Alicia stuff for months only for it to end so pointlessly was so disappointing.
I thought they picked up an interesting thread out of that story with the idea of prosecutors placing defendants in unsafe conditions to try and wheedle a settlement to a plea bargain out of them, but we were used to that level of well considered plots every week in other seasons.It certainly was not worth sacrificing Will for!

I hope next season sees a massive shift in gear and a return to form or they might lose me!

The actor playing Will wanted to leave earlier than he did. He stayed on as a favour to Julianna Margulies. The fact that MJ Fox is currently available for work in the longer term probably means script rewrites as was alluded to above. That'll leave it a little messy this season. I do like this show - it doesn't have the hype factor going for it and it doesn't always deliver. But when it does, its worth the wait.

_Whimsical_

FloatingVoter wrote: »

The actor playing Will wanted to leave earlier than he did. He stayed on as a favour to Julianna Margulies. The fact that MJ Fox is currently available for work in the longer term probably means script rewrites as was alluded to above. That'll leave it a little messy this season. I do like this show - it doesn't have the hype factor going for it and it doesn't always deliver. But when it does, its worth the wait.

I think it was poor long before the messy business with Will. The NSA story looked to be like something that could develop into a very strong undercurrent with an explosive discovery but it just went nowhere really.All character driven stories were shunted to the back burner for the silly "my firms better than your firm" stuff. Kalinda,Eli,Diane, Peter, the kids all went completely unutilised. Just because one character is leaving is no excuse to fire out 14 substandard episodes up until his departure.
I thought the show used to deliver once a week for the most part other seasons. This year I'd say there's been at most 2 maybe 3 interesting cases. The rest has been the usual old ding dong filler we expect from other shows.

expectationlost

so this wasn't on last night

red dave

expectationlost wrote: »

so this wasn't on last night

Yes it was. Episode 20

FloatingVoter

red dave wrote: »

Yes it was. Episode 20

With an important lesson about the anonymity of bitcoin for all of you familiar with Silk Road. Not that anybody here would be.

hoodwinked

ok that finale was so confusing!


i get they are running with the fast paced everythings changing spiral set off by will's death but i feel dizzy after watching that

it's like Diane is being played by david and louis, she knows this has kalinda on side and still can't save Lockhart Gardner, so she has offers of states attorney and instead decides to try and join Florrick agos, although i would love to see her with Alicia and Cary again, who's left in lockhart gardner that we the viewers give a damn about? surely david lee knows if canning kicks the bucket he won't be enough to keep it going?, and i thought with florrick agos they couldn't afford to have both robyn and kalinda?



and then you get to Alicia V Cary and the cracks starting to open up there, and how easily they turned on one another, and then all that filler with the graduation, although i do love a good jackie v Veronica scene i felt they could have added better comic relief between the two, their scenes were very dull,

it just felt like they tried to cram everything into one episode and it all got too much, and too fast paced to keep up,

dark crystal

Yeah, I was slightly disappointed with that finale too, given that this season has been one of the best to date.

I really like the Cary and Alicia dynamic, I loved their new firm, it was all going pretty well for them. I feared a merger with LG would break that dynamic up somewhat, so was really happy that Diane decided to move to them instead. But then....

The whole State's Attorney thing just complicates the story, when it really doesn't need to. Firstly, I like seeing Alicia practice law and all the frenetic excitement that brings to each episode; seeing her sitting behind a desk dealing with the beaurocracy of the law would be much less interesting.

Secondly, surely there would be a conflict of interest. Not only would Peter be seen to be using nepotism in his role as governor, but also, it's unlikely Alicia would want to work so closely with her estranged husband anyway.

Definitely some weird choices made in that episode, I thought.

FloatingVoter

dark crystal wrote: »

Secondly, surely there would be a conflict of interest. Not only would Peter be seen to be using nepotism in his role as governor, but also, it's unlikely Alicia would want to work so closely with her estranged husband anyway.

Definitely some weird choices made in that episode, I thought.

You're elected states attorney, not appointed. However, I can't see them going down the SA route. No drama involved. Hopefully David Lee will still be included in the next season...I like to see a moral vacuum walking about the place.

ElNino

hoodwinked wrote: »

and i thought with florrick agos they couldn't afford to have both robyn and kalinda?

I think that with the $37 million of billable clients that Diane would bring with her that might change

FloatingVoter

ElNino wrote: »

I think that with the $37 million of billable clients that Diane would bring with her that might change

...and Kalinda will be happy to jump ship. Anytime she's in a room alone with MJ Fox or Dave Lee you can hear the murderous voices in her head.

hoodwinked

ElNino wrote: »

I think that with the $37 million of billable clients that Diane would bring with her that might change

maybe, but if Chumhun or whatever its called is worth twice that 75million, and they can only afford one....maybe i am thinking about it too much

_Whimsical_

hoodwinked wrote: »

maybe, but if Chumhun or whatever its called is worth twice that 75million, and they can only afford one....maybe i am thinking about it too much

What exactly happened with the chumhum thing? One minute Canning and David Lee were plotting to destroy Florrick Agos in 48 hours by stealing Chumhum and the next minute that was all brushed under the carpet and not mentioned again. It had something to do with the wife of the owner of Chumhum.

hoodwinked

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

What exactly happened with the chumhum thing? One minute Canning and David Lee were plotting to destroy Florrick Agos in 48 hours by stealing Chumhum and the next minute that was all brushed under the carpet and not mentioned again. It had something to do with the wife of the owner of Chumhum.

i think it's one of the cliff hangers.... but thats what i meant when i said too much was going on, they left bits and pieces lying around forgotten about.

red dave

Slightly dissapointed with that finale. I thought Alicia and Carrie's blow up was a bit off key. The district attorney offer at the end really did nothing for me. I'd definitely prefer seen Diane and Kalinda jump ship and get some good cases for a while. Certainly felt overloaded and too much to take in which is a shame as there were some fantastic episodes throughout the season. Either way, I'm still looking forward to next season.