The Brotherhood and Samaritan continue to establish themselves as major threats, with both Elias and The Machine’s team suffering casualties as a result, in another compelling run of episodes.
“Hail Mary” is a hectic, tense hour of The Good Wife, but its parts don’t quite add up to a totally satisfying whole.
The first half of Madam Secretary Season one has come to a close with ‘Game On,’ the fall finale, where we get some momentum in the investigation of former Secretary of the State’s murder. The season has been very consistently well paced offering interesting characters and political drama with an underlying intrigue of a murder conspiracy that has been building throughout the season, which included the possible involvement of White House Chief of Staff Russell Jackson and the President of the United States, which has now resolved within this last episode. The resolution is indicative of the type of series that Madam Secretary is trying to be, a show that addresses political issues with idealism rather than pessimism.
The Good Wife’s latest seasonal pivot point, in which a major character apparently heads to the slammer, happens to be surrounded with a whole lot of its most broadly silly material. “The Trial” is up to a lot of things – shifting perspectives, light social commentary, romantic workplace comedy, Law & Order episode – but for the most part it manages to hold together reasonably well as an episode. If nothing else, it makes clear that the Kings have no interest in signposting just where this season is meant to be heading, except that it will continue to be defined by Alicia’s campaign and her increasingly unreliable ethical compass.
With the news that CBS has canned The Millers for this season, Saturday Night Live decided to poke fun at the current climate of network sitcoms and create their own version with The Dudleys. The sketch, which aired this Saturday with host Woody Harrelson, creates a sitcom that includes two parents and two children and chronicles …
In a strong episode, Alicia and Frank Prady contrive not to play dirty, with a mixed success rate.
Though I continue to be a stalwart Good Wife devotee, one aspect of its last couple of seasons has consistently stuck in my craw, and that aspect is front and center throughout “Red Zone,” an otherwise perfectly acceptable episode. That aspect is Kalinda’s sex life.
It’s certainly true that TV is lacking for meaningful representations of characters that don’t simply conform to heteronormative mores. The fact that Kalinda has never been comfortable within a standard “coupling” (nor accepting of any labels other characters attempt to place on her sexuality) is remarkable. Unfortunately, for the many, many great and fresh character beats the series has supplied to literally almost every other character, Kalinda hasn’t had anything new to do for a very long time now. I know I prattle on about this quite often, but it’s especially glaring in “Red Zone” because Kalinda’s antics take up damn near half of the screentime, made worse by the fact that Cary is the only regular she even shares a physical space with; her interactions with Florrick Agos are limited to a shot of a conference phone. Does anyone really care if she opts to sell out her Fed girlfriend or not? Or if she and Cary will ever “go steady”? (Shudder – Kalinda’s phrase, not mine.) The only aspect of the Cary/Kalinda/Bishop axis that provides any interest this week is the notion that Cary has thoughts about Beyoncé. And we don’t even get to hear what those are.
A rare transitional episode could lead us somewhere novel – or somewhere predictable.
Over the course of Season 4’s first six episodes, Person of Interest has renewed its focus on crime in the city, while not losing sight of Samaritan and the problems facing the team, and the world, from its position of power. The welcome return of old characters and the emergence of compelling new ones has proven that the show hasn’t lost its touch.
A relatively wobbly episode still delivers a few very strong moments.
One of the particular strengths of The Good Wife is its uncanny sense of series memory. With well over 100 episodes’ worth of long-standing character relationships, tertiary characters, and running gags to draw upon, it’s rare that a new episode comes down the pike that doesn’t reward long-time viewers, even if it’s just in a minute way. “Shiny Objects” is, on the surface, a prototypical latter-day Good Wife episode, in that it offers up a case of the week while keeping the season’s master plot humming along, but it also manages (for better and worse) to lean on several long-standing relationships and character beats to an unusual degree.
Why is Alicia Florrick running? It’s a question that comes up throughout “Oppo Research” with good reason. Ever since Eli brought up the idea in the final moments of season five, The Good Wife has been loath to give Alicia one big, whopping, obvious motivation for once again rening her life apart in pursuit of another ambitious prize. Every time she answers the question – this week most pointedly by her new campaign manager, Johnny Elfman (Steven Pasquale, erstwhile star of Do No Harm) – her response is evasive, or negative, or completely nebulous. As promised last week, the Oppo Research phase turns out to be thoroughly unpleasant and invasive, and she’s even subject to a cheap DUI setup at the hands of Castro before episode’s end. So, for real this time: why would anyone put themselves through this, especially someone already weary of being in the public eye?
Sometimes what’s noteworthy about The Good Wife is in what it chooses not to give us.
The show’s fourth season premiere sees the group try, and largely fail, to adjust to their new identities while The Machine and Samaritan both make moves against each other, with an old nemesis making a return.
Stephen King’s works have been adapted into a number of features over the years, but few stories of his have been explored in a television medium. Last summer, CBS added to the latter list with an adaptation of the King novel Under The Dome, focusing on the town of Chester’s Mill as it saw itself …
Much like the CBS hit series The Good Wife, the producers of Madam Secretary drew inspiration from headline news. When the attack on Benghazi happened in 2012 the producers saw potential for a series that would center on a female Secretary of State baring some similarity to Hillary Clinton. The series showed good potential for a female lead that could display professionalism, leadership and the decision making that goes on behind the scenes of a Secretary of State’s office. There is clearly a market for television shows that feature women with strong characters within the recent wave of programming that have presented women in power roles, either political or similar, that have great depth and skill; shows with characters like Parks and Recreation’s Leslie Knope, Veep’s Selina Meyer, Scandals Olivia Pope and, of course, The Good Wife’s Alicia Florrick.
Five full seasons and over 100 episodes in, and The Good Wife is managing the unthinkable: it’s accelerating.
Marvel may have and continue to dominate DC at the movies in terms of both box office and quality, but DC will always have the edge at TV. Deadline reports that co-creator of The CW’s Arrow and The Flash, Greg Berlanti, will be teaming with Chuck and No Ordinary Family producer Ali Adlerto to develop Supergirl …
Among the summer shows this season was CBS’ new entry into science fiction, titled Extant. Created by Mickey Fisher, and starring Halle Berry and Camryn Manheim, the show followed an astronaut who returned to Earth from a 13-month solo mission to find herself 16 weeks pregnant. The show’s first season was, by and large, an …
Following the announcement of Craig Ferguson’s departure from The Late Late Show on CBS, a hosting job he has held since 2005, CBS announced today that British comedian and actor James Corden will replace Ferguson. Like Ferguson, Corden has made a name for himself as a popular performer in the UK, both as an actor …
While the show sets up a seemingly unnecessary number of mysteries in the pilot, it also displays a variety of intriguing characters. The series’ success will lean on whether it can effectively balance the former while building on the latter.
With a first season marred by odd story segues and inconsistent character decisions on its shoulders, the show made its second season premiere on Monday night, removing some weak elements and offering potential for improvement, depending on how certain storylines progress.
Although it’s easy to think of comedies and dramas as separate entities, the best series are often able to execute both styles of storytelling in establishing their identities. Mom is one of those series, and to call it a sitcom is almost misleading.