The Good Wife - Shiny Objects - Review - "I Don't Even Like Penguins!"

6.05 - "Shiny Objects"

Last week, skeletons fell out of the closet, and Alicia went from prospectively running to actively starting her campaign for State's Attorney of Cook County. In the midst of so many personal and professional changes being set into motion, we were treated to a glimpse of how Alicia may end up just as corrupt as any of the former State's Attorneys in recent memory, including her own husband, current Governor, Peter. This week, it's been teased that we're in for some catching up with Elsbeth Tascioni as she squares off against Alicia for the first time in the show's history. 

"We need to take her out."

This episode marks the return of Elsbeth Tascioni, perennial absent-minded lawyer wunderkind, in all her discordant glory! The first shot is of her staring intently forward, attempting to string together an argument for a following court proceeding, while jogging on a treadmill, listening to peculiar xylophone music. Long established in TGW is Elsbeth's tendency to lose herself in multiple thought processes when trying to attain something, like logical fault in a case. The slightest distraction can and has historically put her in precarious situations where she has to maneuver around her own inner monologue, which, in this episode for the first time defines itself as a barrage of visual cues that lead into tangential routes that sometimes lead her far astray, but other times bring her to unexpected breakthroughs in her case.


She joins her law firm partner Rayna Hecht (it's also nice to see Jill Hennessey again!) in court in order to change their angle for the case from sexism to business practice decision-making. She is then shocked (and excited) to hear that Alicia Florrick is representing the plaintiff on their case.

It was very much an exciting moment to have Alicia and Elsbeth going toe-to-toe in court this
episode. But I felt while watching it, there was something else going on: Alicia, still the protagonist, still "the good wife" was very much the villain in this case. She knew from excessive dealings with Elsbeth that she had a hard time with keeping a one-track mind thought process, and she blatantly exploited it with flashy images from magazines appropriately placed in time for Elsbeth to view them upon tending to the witness. It was played for laughs, as per usual, but seeing the effort and the discomfort on her face after a distraction was quite effective to unnerve me as a viewer. Everything about Alicia Florrick's character at this point seems to be a subversion of what one would expect from her. (I'll bring this thought up again later in this review)

The case of the week itself was not necessarily very interesting--at least not nearly as interesting as the mind games that Alicia was playing with Elsbeth--but it once again brought up the sexism and racism discussions. Alicia's client argued she was fired for being a woman when she behaved in a way that was similar to previous male occupants in the same role. When discussing the issue of
double standards and discrimination, Alicia was caught in an embarrassing moment when Dean called her out for an offhand, tone deaf comment she made regarding sexual/racial entitlement.

After a few skirmishes in court left Elsbeth and Alicia in a sort of stalemate, Josh Perotti (Twin Peaks is back in 2016!) saunters into the court and holds up a notice for the freezing of assets for Elsbeth's client. This stalls out the civil case that was being worked, and places Alicia and Elsbeth in a bit of a conundrum. This will be continued in the next episode.

"I feel like I'm in a Bruckheimer movie."

Early on in the episode, we can see a few factors start to weigh on Diane regarding working in the old t-shirt factory after having been accustomed to working in the gleaming L/G offices for so long. In the midst of her toils with leaky pipes, and flickering lightbulbs, she sees an email from "Alicia" and opens it... And then she activates a type of malware that shuts down the entire firm's network and holds their data hostage, which complicates all current cases at F/A. This is where Kalinda comes
into the picture, as they need to track down the purveyor of the ransomware... So, Kalinda does what she does best: emotional manipulation of FBI Agent Lana Delaney (it's nice to see Jill Flint again, as well!). At this point, this trope of Kalinda using others through sexual manipulation and convenient answers being spit out is a bit tired for me, but I'll accept it as it brings the zany, slightly relevant but awkwardly-handled hacker plot to an end. Kalinda tracks down the "cyber terrorist" and threatens to out him as an anti-Russian Administration advocate, so he quickly unlocks the hold put on the computers for his own safety. Thanks again Kalinda! It only took pawning yourself out to the vulnerable Lana Delaney while Cary lurked in the background worrying about you possibly cheating on him! (Wait, Cary was in this episode? Sheesh, I almost forgot.)

"That was fairly crass."

In the ongoing misadventure of the malware shenanigans, Diane found herself in her former office speaking with David Lee (it's so good to see him again, as well!) about an email that was sent to her former account with L/G... But after some initial posturing and slimy one-liners, it was made apparent that David was the one who needed a favor: Diane was the sole remaining individual who was listed on the lease for the floors that L/G inhabited. Later, she revealed to Alicia that she planned to push David Lee and Louis Canning out, and reclaim the physical location of the firm they left behind. To me, it's odd that David Lee would let something like that slip past him so long, he's usually quite gifted with making sure to dot his i's and cross his t's. But furthermore, it feels like recycling the scenery to stuff F/A back into the carcass of the original firm... Even if I do miss the premium feel the set gave to the show for 5 seasons. 

"Who's the one sucking it up?"

Finally, what seemed to be the true point of this episode: Alicia's announcement for her campaign. We received quite the series of parallels this episode, with contrary circumstances enforcing the parallels further. In the pilot, Alicia said nothing to Peter in the back hallway. She looked at him with controlled rage, and slapped him. This time, she was instructing him on how he was going to be there
for her on her day just like she was there for him during his campaign. When he pulled the "I'm a governor, you can't just ask me" card, she stated that if he doesn't show up, it's his problem. If he doesn't stand next to her as she did for him, it would take a tremendous toll on his ratings. This whole scene was electric. Alicia walks off seemingly over it all, (but I felt like it was more for rhetorical effect, after he started going on about things that were irrelevant to the situation) and Peter stands in the hallway.

Flash forward to the conference, where Peter unexpectedly shows up next to Eli to walk with Alicia (a la 1x23) and they share a scene on the stage that is picked apart by the media as the change from 2009 to 2014, the rise of Alicia as the good wife to the prospective state's attorney. Peter speaks lipservice to the press saying sweet things about his loving wife, which are just as deliberant as his "forgive me" speech when he stepped down as S.A. 6 years prior.

Alicia Florrick has harnessed her power, she's effectively a subversion of all expectations of her character defined by what others see in her, whether or not they are correct in their thoughts. But what will she do when she realizes this pageant is for a position as a public servant? When Johnny Elfman briefly reminded her of how these difficult situations would prepare her for future moments as a State's Attorney, she seemed utterly taken-aback by the notion of actually having to work in that office. So, let me ask again, Alicia... Why are you running for State's Attorney!?

Alright, now for the hard part. We need to talk about Kalinda.

Alright TGW Fans, it's time to acknowledge that Archie Panjabi is leaving the show. Having read the press release earlier last week, it made every scene with Kalinda in it this week all the more vital, and frustrating, as she remains stuck in a perpetual state of literally and figuratively screwing people over. The marginalization of her character since season 4 has been widely publicised, and it's probably the biggest thorn in the side of this show's delightful pedigree of quality television.

As you may know, I'm a very big fan of this show. I have watched it carefully take on many things in its run, and it's become my personal favorite show...possibly of all time. A big part of this was Kalinda Sharma's enigmatic presence sweeping in and out, building her relationship with Alicia. as well as other characters. Now, in regards to Alicia, I understand that their friendship in that capacity is over. I get it. Whatever. But, I wanted to take a moment to point out the incredible strain it puts on me as a fan to see such a previously well-written and depicted character just fall out of her place in the story. I don't want to believe all the gossiping about how possibly there are problematic things happening between people behind the scenes. To me, that's not even really relevant.

Here's my opinion, for better or for worse:

Whether or not there are differences between people behind the scenes should not ever feed into destabilizing or diminishing the strength of the writing for a show that puts itself in such a position to be so acclaimed for its writing, for its characterization, and which routinely brings up matters of racial and sexual marginalization in storylines for its poignancy.

I cannot say for sure whether or not that is completely fictional/imagined, or if it is the root cause for Panjabi's character to be diminished, routinely rehashed, and eventually written out at the end of season 6. But even if it's not, there is no reason that the two characters of Alicia and Kalinda should be completely separate for multiple seasons without end. It's unlikely, it's absurd, and it is wearing on me as a viewer.

Mark my words, fellow TGW fans: how they handle the final arc of Kalinda (especially in conjunction with Alicia's plot) will say it all. I sincerely hope they do right by Kalinda and give her the proper send-off she deserves. Personally, a lot of respect and thoughts of my own are on the line here, because this show handles issues fairly well within its narrative, but it remains to be seen how well those ideals and novel traits hold up in real life.

I don't mean to sound so severe in saying all this, but I have strong feelings for this show. :)

Sidenotes:

- Is it just me or is Josh Perotti completely creepy, and should be kept away from our precious Elsbeth?  He's slimy, he's corrupt, and he is so full of himself! I can't stand him, even if he does provide some interesting story twists here and there for Elsbeth's cases.

- No, but really, can everyone please stop saying "dear god?" it's driving me insane. I know given the other content in this show that the writers can come up with better things than having Alicia, Diane and now Cary saying "Dear God" and "friggin" all the damn time...

- Speaking of Cary... How random is it that Carey Zepps apparently speaks Russian? Interesting and slightly funny way of involving him in the hacking storyline.

- I really appreciated the expanded look into Elsbeth's thought process this episode, and how she felt like a lead character in the way her scenes were composed, but I think that the little figment montages could've been reduced in some form so that they weren't so prominent the whole episode... It diluted the original appeal that was set in the first scene when it kept popping up...

-  Carrie Preston brings so much heart and energy to this show in her appearances as Elsbeth, I can hardly stand it! 

What did you think of this week's episode? Start a discussion below in the comments!

About the Author - Wilson Crawford

Wilson is an avid fan of television, music, and the occasional video game. He enjoys well-written, thought-provoking characters and series that get better with age. Current favorites include The Good Wife and Mad Men. Past favorites include Damages, Fringe, Breaking Bad, 30 Rock, and Veronica Mars.

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