Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing 3 Body Problem; Black Doves; Bosch; Criminal Minds; Dark Matter; Dexter: Original Sin; Dune: Prophecy; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; House of the Dragon; Luther; Outlander; Presumed Innocent; Prime Target; Reacher; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Surface; The: Ark, Day of the Jackal, Diplomat, Last of Us, Way Home; You +books, films, music, podcasts, politics

George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Monday, October 5, 2015

The Good Wife 7.1: Shake-Up

The Good Wife was back for its seventh season last night with a better-than-ever episode - which is, to say, great indeed - that featured a real twist in the story.

Given what has already happened on The Good Wife the previous six seasons, one might think it would be hard to be surprised in this narrative. But something totally unforeseen shook and reshuffled the deck, leaving us with: Eli and Peter at bitter odds.

Whether Peter would have allowed Eli to be pushed out by Peter's new campaign manager Ruth is somewhat questionable. But what's undeniable is the electricity and power this already powerhouse series has been given by the move. Peter needs Alicia in his run for national office. He therefore can't deny Alicia her chosen chief of staff - Eli - whatever Ruth may otherwise want. So the stage is set this season for Eli devoting all of his obsessive brilliance to destroying Ruth, and maybe even Peter, though on that he says he's not completely sure. How's that for an opening of a new season?

And that's not the only thing unexpected. It looks by the end of the episode as if Alicia will be having some kind of professional alliance with Canning, whom Alicia rightly says is the devil. But she'll need him to fight the remaining power of her original firm. It feels like a dying dinosaur, but one which could still do a lot of damage in this tale with its thrashing tail.

And there's a good new character in play - Lucca, who comes to Alicia's defense in bail court, and then helps Alicia win a big case - which is always nice to see as a series progresses.

This couldn't be a better year for the political threads in The Good Wife - it being the year before our Presidential election and all - and I'm looking forward to more.

See The Good Wife 6.4: Run-up to Running ... The Good Wife 6.10: Cary's Fate ... The Good Wife 6.11: Kalinda for Cary