brief thoughts on 'the good wife'
In my search for shows that do justice to female characters and their narratives and agency, I've had The Good Wife recced to me a few times. I started watching the show in Tasmania, since Ma's keen on it, so mother and I watched it with her- and we actually really enjoyed it! The plot was clever and engaging, lots of twists and turns, compelling
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What I liked with Caitlin/Alicia I think is that it really displayed a real problem with women in high power positions. In a way, they like a lot of other minorities, often only get promoted as token characters. There can't be too many females in a board or something like that (because people have to get the job on "merit"/"professionalism", which is an argument why people are against quotas, ignoring the fact that it's a very sexist term and not having quotas is like having an implicit quota saying 70% or more percent of a board have to be men etc). Also it was sort of, expressing the unstable employment system, I think, that causes people to be afraid of new talent and people almost become paranoid to keep their jobs, seeing people as competition rather than co-workers.
I just think that because of the structure of the show, Alicia as a character suffers a bit more because she has to kind of become the machine through which all the themes of the shows are expressed or carried out through. I don't know if that makes sense but it sort of does to me.
And IDK, about that form situation, I would probably do just like Alicia (like her, people might think of me as very up-tight when it comes to rules and doing the right thing and I'm very by-the-book so I would've done just the same, if not worse).
Sorry for posting such a long comment, I just didn't realise I had so many thoughts on the subject :D The Good Wife is a really flawless show :D
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even though the show tries to downplay it, she is really flawed
I just don't like the show downplaying it, if they owned her flaws, it'd be easier for me to like her.
Like how she feels threatened by Caitlin for no apparent reason
I thought this was realistic, but it was problematic to me how the show went to great lengths to validate Alicia, despite her being a terrible mentor. :/
a lot of the characters on the show might be putting too much stock in her or actually think too highly of her
I like that they did show a bit of that in the latest ep here where Alicia used another law firm's interest in her to maneuver Diane into giving her a bigger raise- but that just pissed me off because Diane has been SO GOOD to her, first of all, having her back all the time, then giving her a raise at all, but no, Alicia has to threaten to quit and do all these psychological mindgames to force Diane's hand? That woman took on all these people just to make it possible for Alicia to buy her house, and it bugs me how one-sided it all is, everyone makes sacrifices and does everything to make Alicia's life easier, but I don't see what she does for them? I feel bad that Diane put a target on herself and prob made enemies for Alicia, and I don't think Alicia feels bad about what she did at all, so without that self-awareness, there's no point to that whole storyline.
the actress got a pilot picked up, she had to get out of the show and therefore the whole Caitlin thing was also left largely unresolved
OHH, well, that makes some of my doubts at that storyline go away- if it was for external reasons due to the actress getting another job, that's all right, then. Still don't entirely like how it was wrapped up, but at least they didn't choose to write her out.
I do agree with your points about women in power- it's too bad how they end up being harsh on other women because they feel threatened with the whole 'we can't have too many powerful women', so instead of giving them a shot, it ends up being a territorial issue because they're in competition. :/ I just feel like with an example like Diane, Alicia should've been a helluva lot better than she was.
I just think that because of the structure of the show, Alicia as a character suffers a bit more because she has to kind of become the machine through which all the themes of the shows are expressed or carried out through
So you mean she's the one that suffers because she serves the plot rather than the other way around? I can kinda see that, but I don't think it's as much a problem when there are male leads, they're allowed to be flawed and it's highlighted and celebrated. Do you think if, say, Kalinda was the lead of the show, that she'd have the same problem? I think because she's already written morally ambiguous, it prob wouldn't be- then again, they might 'sanitize' her to make her more 'palatable' to the public, since women must be virtuous angels or else they're unrelatable. Lol.
IDK, about that form situation, I would probably do just like Alicia
Oh, okay! I honestly didn't think anyone would behave like her, but I suppose if your conscience is really strong, maybe you might feel better to admit to fault rather than live with the guilt? It's just the way the show went about it was so obviously building up to her NOT being at fault that her histrionics annoyed me; if it were RL and the outcome wasn't assured, since RL is unpredictable and not bound to the rules of a script, I'd be more sympathetic.
No worries on the long comment, you've given me more to think about! I am being harder on Alicia than I ought, I just have certain things I like to see in a lead character and it's kinda bugging me how she's presented, but I do really like the show in general!
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