The Good Fight - Stoppable: Requiem for an Airdate - Review: "She's gonna be trouble."

1.05 - "Stoppable: Requiem for an Airdate"

This week, the firm seeks legal counsel as Mike Kresteva continues to prod and ask questions. Diane comes upon a pressing deadline, while Maia finds herself possibly implicated in her father's alleged illegal dealings. Lucca and Colin bond over milkshakes.

"Try fair use."

The case of the week was especially meta in this episode, as it was an episode about an unaired episode of television, and another avenue of commentary on the current political climate. Adrian has a case (which, by the way, what happened to the duo that used to parse these things out with an algorithm? has that been scrapped already?) in which his client uploaded an unaired episode of television that depicted a Donald Trump-like character on trial for sexual assault. The episode remained unaired after Trump actually ended up winning the presidential race, and the writer of the episode found it appalling that a corporation would fold to perceived pressure from the new administration to not air anything inflammatory towards the new administration in the White house. In response, the network was suing the writer for $12 million in damages.

From the beginning, the case itself was weak. Even the argument they went with (Diane suggested fair use) was pretty hollow. I even remember "fair use" in high school meant that I could use a few seconds of a soundtrack, or something to that extent. Not an entire 40+ minute of a television series. Julius called Adrian on it, citing he was bringing politics into it (and really, he wasn't far off) however, when Barbara calmly asked what he was planning, (as the case itself was basically unwinnable) Adrian said it was all for a chance to expand into the Chicago entertainment industry.

So, throughout the episode there is a back-and-forth, Adrian doing his best to antagonize the corporate lawyers of the network in question, but the opportunity never really arises. So it seems to be a dead end.

Diane, however, ends up running into Neil Gross while at lunch with the partners, and finds that he's primed and ready to jump ship to a new firm, especially one that's fighting against the new administration in Washington. With this information in mind, Adrian goes into preachy West Wing mode in order to vehemently represent his writer client.

Even at that point, their case really was never based on anything but bluster. However, the morning of the verdict, a certain President of the United States posted a tweet, congratulating the network on fighting off the efforts of the liberal writers on their series, and therefore validated the entire effort. 

This wins the case, as well as a new super-rich client, Neil Gross's ChumHum.

"You pay me to be suspicious."

The best part of the episode was Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston). She steals any scene/episode she's in as the zany off-kilter lawyer who can absolutely annihilate anyone she puts her mind to -- in this case, Mike Kresteva. After Kresteva returns to the firm to continue prodding around, citing fake news to implicate Maia in wrongdoing, the partners look for counsel that can represent the entire firm. After a terrible first audition by a really unsettling bro-lawyer guy, Lucca sets up to meet with Elsbeth Tascioni, as Alicia Florrick recommended in the past. After a worrisome first impression, Elsbeth is given 1 day to get the ball rolling on her investigation into Kresteva.

She starts by following him around and listening to his conversations at lunch. Cornering others on their lunchbreak is a classic Elsbeth move. She shows up all bright-eyed, and kind of annoying as someone encroaching on another's space, but then she switches it up and makes herself known. Kresteva, being the icky, immoral, lying politician that he is, immediately threatens to go after her personally for being involved in the Reddick case.

Maia and Elsbeth meet for the first time in a somewhat funny, somewhat terrifying moment, as they try to figure out how Kresteva has gotten Maia's father out on bail, not long after he was arrested in the first place. In working through the connections, Elsbeth realizes that the only person that can be used as a connection between Henry and Maia's firm is Maia herself. But that would require her father to be actively trying to betray his daughter. After the realization, Elsbeth recommends that Maia just avoid her father from then on. Maia, of course, rightfully looks appalled.

Later, as Kresteva comes home from a late night, he finds that Elsbeth has conned her way into his personal life. She already knows multiple silly stories about him from his wife, as they drink wine and eat ice cream... She's already been through his study (and left a card for him to know her by), she's already got a lunchdate with his wife Deirdre later that week. She's in. She may or may not have found compromising evidence in his study. He doesn't know. So, he escorts her out, claiming he'd have her disbarred, however, for her last trick, she pulls out her phone with a recording of their first encounter in the diner, where he threatened to go after her personally. (Also a classic Elsbeth move. She always has recordings, receipts, and a startlingly precise knowledge of surveillance laws and their loopholes)

Mike is speechless as Elsbeth sweetly yells goodbye to Deirdre, and drives away.

"I don't get hurt by boys."

Colin and Lucca flirt some more during the case of the week. Colin gloats about helping Lucca's firm with Kresteva, Lucca glibly tells Colin now Kresteva's going after the firm in multiple ways. Colin is "pissed" by that news, and then they have a date night with milkshakes and "dinner" (which is defined by Lucca as 'fucking'). She tells him she has no friends, and he takes that as his cue to 'save her.' She later amends that statement, likely citing her friendship with Alicia Florrick, as someone who she truly felt was a friend, but hadn't spoken to her in a while. I really liked this moment, for some reason. It felt mostly right. I still don't know about how they're selling Lucca as the care-free, edgy, sarcastic type, though. I think Cush Jumbo does a phenomenal job, but the writing isn't great for her yet.

"I think I'm seeing a caveat here..."

Barbara and Adrian finally nailed Diane with her deadline to bring a capital contribution to the firm. I appreciated the discussion around it -- Adrian seemed to let Barbara be the "bad guy" the whole time, when it came to upholding their partner bylaws. Barbara lets Diane know that by the end of the week, if she doesn't have her capital contribution, she's no longer a partner, and is only 'of counsel' -- which did not sound very good, though I hadn't the slightest idea at the time what that meant.

In the middle of her planning to downsize yet again, Kurt stops by to ask a favor. She helps him in a series of proper Kurt-Diane moments, when she forces him to loosen up and update a speech to be more informal, and then even shows up as moral support for him as he speaks in front of 500 people.

While helping him figure out how to come across to others, she uses her ties to Neil Gross to make a bold move at her firm. Upon learning that the tv series case was a win, Neil Gross confirms with Diane that he'll move to their firm. She brings the news to the name partners, with a catch: her capital contribution would come from the ChumHum earnings (which are immense), and she'd be made a name partner. Of course they had to accept her terms, looking both impressed and wary all at once.

Notes:

- So, Adrian and Barbara only had 1 lawyer in mind for their legal counsel? And it was that loser? It worked for comedic effect, but damn, they have to have better connections than that...?

- Marissa calling out Neil Gross for his weird need to legitimize the firm for being all-black was great. He was being so condescending. But, that's Neil Gross.

- Oh, so like, Neil Gross was always trouble in the original series, and he left Diane high and dry... That's likely why she wasn't pursuing him at first, but she can't really trust to rely on him this time, can she? He's a snake, and he just likes to have his way. He dropped his representation in front of them to speak to Diane... But hey, Diane needs a win. Let her have it.

- The moment where Maia insinuates to her father that her mother was sleeping with Jax to persuade him to not turn on Henry--did he admit to knowing that they were banging? What is up with these people? That was weird.

- Colin's "Now I'm pissed" was weak as hell. I don't know if it was supposed to come across that way, but I almost laughed at how flimsy it sounded as he said it.

- Hon. Thomas Glatt is a returning judge from late in the run of The Good Wife. He was probably my least favorite judge, as he was completely unhinged half the time when the councilors got heated, and I remember him making terrible snap decisions. HOWEVER, He was toned down and more impartial this go-round, and I enjoyed his presence in this case.

- Where's Amy!? Is she gonna show up as opposing counsel, or is she gonna like pop up and have a date night with Maia? I miss her. We need more Amy!

- I don't know why but the Alicia Florrick mentions always make me excited.

- The saga of Elsbeth's missing in action assistant Fantasia continues! This is my favorite running joke of the entire series, I'm pretty sure.

- Yesha Mancini continues to be a really great up-and-coming lawyer, and it was really funny watching her react to Maia's and Elsbeth's conversation about the Rindells and how her father was out on bail. She looked mortified.

- Kresteva's face when he realized how fucked he was...that made my day. I can't wait to see this unfold in the courtroom.


Alright, now it's your turn. What did you think? Join the discussion in the comments section below.