Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

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

Monday, May 9, 2016

The Good Wife True Goodbye

The Good Wife concluded last night, and I was totally satisfied with the ending, ambiguous though it was.

But look, ambiguity is a part of life, and one of the real strengths of The Good Wife was always that it was so true to life. And the ending was true to what we saw over the years of Alicia's life, in particular.

Of course she would choose to save her husband Peter over loyalty to Diane's love life, ok, marriage. Diane, although she has many worthy qualities, always did what was best for Diane, ahead of the law firm and individual people in that firm, anyway. She was a feminist only insofar as it coincided with her personal goals. Nothing wrong with that - but no reason that Alicia should have been bound by that, either.

Alicia always was entitled to pursue what was best for her own life, and, in this case, that was Peter not going to prison. For if he had, she indeed would not have been able to break totally free of him, and be with Jason.

Further, it makes sense that Will was and will always will be the truest love of her life - not least because he can no longer do anything to tarnish that love. He played a perfect role in this finale, including Alicia being able to tell him she will always love him.

As for Jason - and for viewers who wanted a more definitive ending - well, no one told him to leave town or whatever like that, in the end. He's not an easy lover, and it makes sense that Alicia will have to go through some effort to get him back, if that on balance is what she really wants.

As for the series, it ends being among the very best ever to have been on television, and I'm glad to have seen every minute of it.

See also The Good Wife 7.1: Shake-Up ... The Good Wife 7.6: Hillary, Trump, and Alicia ... The Good Wife 7.10: Selfish Eli ... The Good Wife 7.19: Elusive Happy Endings

And see also 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