Dear Loyal Good Wife Fans,
We, like you, mourn the loss of Will Gardner. And while Will is gone, our beloved Josh Charles is very much alive and remains an integral part of our family.
The Good Wife, at its heart, is the “Education of Alicia Florrick.” To us, there always was a tragedy at the center of Will and Alicia’s relationship: the tragedy of bad timing. And when faced with the gut punch of Josh’s decision, made over a year ago, to move on to other creative endeavors, we had a major choice to make.
We could “send him off to Seattle,” he could be disbarred, or get married, or go off to Borneo to do good works. But there was something in the passion that Will and Alicia shared that made distance a meager hurdle. The brutal honesty and reality of death speaks to the truth and tragedy of bad timing for these two characters. Will’s death propels Alicia into her newest incarnation.
Death also created a new dramatic “hub” for the show. We’re always looking for these turning points—some event midway through the season that will spin everybody’s lives in new directions. These turning points keep the show from slipping into a numbing sameness, and keep the characters fresh: because you see how they react to a completely new status quo. Will’s death in many ways becomes a hub for the whole series, violently spinning everybody in new directions.
Finally, we chose the tragic route for Will’s send-off for personal reasons. We’ve all experienced the sudden death of a loved one in our lives. It’s terrifying how a perfectly normal and sunny day can suddenly explode with tragedy. Television, in our opinion, doesn’t deal with this enough: the irredeemability of death. Your last time with the loved one will always remain your last time. The Good Wife is a show about human behavior and emotion, and death, as sad and unfair as it can be, is a part of the human experience that we want to share.
Thank you for listening…and watching and caring and inspiring us to rise to the level of your passion and intelligence. There are seven wonderful episodes to follow this season and Josh will be directing one of them. We think you will enjoy them. It’s not all tears — there is comedy too. Michael J. Fox is back for four episodes. Dylan Baker. Dallas Roberts. Stockard Channing, as well as amazing new guest actors. And of course, Julianna does some of the best work of her life. Archie, Christine, Alan, Chris and Matt as well. Life does go on.
We’ve always taken as a guiding principle of this show that drama isn’t in the event; it’s in the aftermath of the event. We think you’ll find that true of this episode
Thank you for your devotion to the show – we are continually grateful.
With all our thanks,
Robert & Michelle King
We, like you, mourn the loss of Will Gardner. And while Will is gone, our beloved Josh Charles is very much alive and remains an integral part of our family.
The Good Wife, at its heart, is the “Education of Alicia Florrick.” To us, there always was a tragedy at the center of Will and Alicia’s relationship: the tragedy of bad timing. And when faced with the gut punch of Josh’s decision, made over a year ago, to move on to other creative endeavors, we had a major choice to make.
We could “send him off to Seattle,” he could be disbarred, or get married, or go off to Borneo to do good works. But there was something in the passion that Will and Alicia shared that made distance a meager hurdle. The brutal honesty and reality of death speaks to the truth and tragedy of bad timing for these two characters. Will’s death propels Alicia into her newest incarnation.
Death also created a new dramatic “hub” for the show. We’re always looking for these turning points—some event midway through the season that will spin everybody’s lives in new directions. These turning points keep the show from slipping into a numbing sameness, and keep the characters fresh: because you see how they react to a completely new status quo. Will’s death in many ways becomes a hub for the whole series, violently spinning everybody in new directions.
Finally, we chose the tragic route for Will’s send-off for personal reasons. We’ve all experienced the sudden death of a loved one in our lives. It’s terrifying how a perfectly normal and sunny day can suddenly explode with tragedy. Television, in our opinion, doesn’t deal with this enough: the irredeemability of death. Your last time with the loved one will always remain your last time. The Good Wife is a show about human behavior and emotion, and death, as sad and unfair as it can be, is a part of the human experience that we want to share.
Thank you for listening…and watching and caring and inspiring us to rise to the level of your passion and intelligence. There are seven wonderful episodes to follow this season and Josh will be directing one of them. We think you will enjoy them. It’s not all tears — there is comedy too. Michael J. Fox is back for four episodes. Dylan Baker. Dallas Roberts. Stockard Channing, as well as amazing new guest actors. And of course, Julianna does some of the best work of her life. Archie, Christine, Alan, Chris and Matt as well. Life does go on.
We’ve always taken as a guiding principle of this show that drama isn’t in the event; it’s in the aftermath of the event. We think you’ll find that true of this episode
Thank you for your devotion to the show – we are continually grateful.
With all our thanks,
Robert & Michelle King
See this is why fans need to take a step back, Josh wanted off the show its not like they deliberately kicked him off it. He wanted to leave so they thought of the most impact they could make with Will. I really can't wait to see the rest of the season and how the rest of the characters recover from it.
ReplyDeleteAs much i'm a fan of Josh Charles and like/hate Will i feel this the only way the character could go out myself. People should just let showrunners/producers tell the story they want, if it fails, then it fails (and that`s okay, at least they tried).
ReplyDeleteAnyway, so is Finn (Matthew Goode) suddenly a new main character on the show?
I haven't seen the episode yet (too much work, too many shows to follow), but reading the reactions I understand why creators prefer cable tv nowadays. Seems that those shows' audience is on a higher level of maturity than of the network shows. Just like it happened with Person of Interest earlier this season, viewers are like five year olds on a temper tantrum.
ReplyDeleteI hate when writers treat characters as mere plot devices and write them out just for the sake of "stirring up" an episode (like it happened with Ruben Santiago-Hudson's character in Castle), but when an actor wants to change and the writers give them a meaningful leave, that should be cheered, not being pissed of.
Will Josh Charles be missing from the show? Of course he will. Does it mean the end of the story? Maybe yes, maybe not, it depends on how the writers use this event. Will's death reshuffles the relationships, probably make a number of characters to reevaluate their goals, they POV about their lives and this can be good. Painful (as all well written and well played dramas are painful), but useful at the same time.
Of course if the audience only watched the show to ship them (not because of their story, only to watch the avatars appearing on the screen Sunday evenings), than all effort of a continuing storytelling will be futile. And it is also quite possible that the writers will not able to come up another story which would captivate the audience as much as their story did, but in case of good storytellers I always give them a chance to prove before judge.
I believe Goode is just guest-starring for a few episodes and Michael J Fox is coming back as well (I could see him becoming a regular next season perhaps)
ReplyDelete"but reading the reactions I understand why creators prefer cable tv nowadays. Seems that those shows' audience is on a higher level of maturity than of the network shows. Just like it happened with Person of Interest earlier this season, viewers are like five year olds on a temper tantrum".
ReplyDeleteIf there where a comment of the week-award you should have it.
I disagree. Have you see the tantrum the fans throw everytime someone in Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead dies? I think the difference is that fans have a lot more influence when it comes to network tv.
ReplyDeleteYes, I saw, but that never stopped the writers to go on with their story and in most cases it didn't even hit the show's popularity, viewership. (Usually it was just the opposite - it went up.) I don't think fandoms have a bigger influence in general on network shows, except the technical opportunity that while a cable show usually finishes its filming before the season starts, network showrunners' have the chance to correct on the fly if something is very much disliked by the audience. However, it is usually not something great twist what the random viewer doesn't like, more often it is simply a bad twist (badly written, badly placed, bad character, can be a lot of things) which should be corrected anyhow.
ReplyDeleteBut what I really wanted to point out it was that it was Josh Charles' decision to leave. It wasn't even a surprise decision, it was officially announced long ago. Now if somebody is such a great fan that feels the need of crying out loud on the internet that (s)he will never watch again, and how could they do this - I would expect that they follow the show at least on the level to hear about it. (GoT is a special case because there are many people who intentionally don't want to read or hear what are in the books.)
I still haven't caught up with the show but when I read what happened on another website I was in shock.
ReplyDeleteAllison, James, Beverly and now Will. Damn.
At least they gave an important character a worthy enough send off.
ReplyDeleteI hate it when someone who is essential to the show suddenly decides to move to Alaska or whatever and lives happily ever after.... I'd rather have them do something ballsy like this.
He was an intense character that influenced the show very deeply and his departure was also intense and will have lasting effects on the show.