The Good Wife/Arrested Development
The Good Wife Season 5 finale
A Weird Year
A fitting closer. Busy, but I appreciated, rather than otherwise, that we got to see so many of Florrick and Agos (and Lockhart-Gardener) staff. Typical Alicia juggling several things at once moments, but the stakes got bigger and bigger, because everyone was acting, or our favourite characters were reacting, with only partial knowledge.
Bonus points to Cary, Veronica and Peter for mentioning the empty nest to Alicia, although I’ve been banging on about it since at least last season. But it was heartwarming that Zack is going to Georgetown and that Alicia got to see him graduate.
Veronica + Jackie + wine in Alicia’s kitchen = cackling. Not least when I realised Peter was going to send Eli in there. And Peter mainly had to deal with it because Alicia was at work.
Where...oh boy, the transformation of Cary into the Will, because even though he joked about it, that’s what happened, well, that made me squeak. I was mainly on his side of the argument about the future of the firm and I really thought Alicia and Cary should have discussed Diane’s proposal before, properly (which means not in the middle of a street). He had valid reasons for not wanting to go back, the selfishness about his career offset by thinking of the staff he’s taken on, which Alicia didn’t, and the history with LG, which was partly to do with its structure and size, and not just the people. But going to Canning!!!!
Granted, that was after all the business with Kalinda, and while I squeed over Kalinda being Diane’s girl Friday now, Cary finding out that Kalinda was admitting to using him is why I’ve always thought they were no good for each other. Ouch.
Instinctively, I want the team to get back together, even though I worry for Cary in that set-up.
Should I be taking the offer about state’s attorney for Alicia seriously? I wasn’t expecting it for Diane, and though it would be an interesting direction to have one of the team on the prosercutorial track, a few moments’ thought made it clear that Peter and Eli were misreading Diane. (I think Eli was too conveniently gauch letting her know they’d turned to her because she’d been vetted.) Leave the firm she’d built up? To be (a very senior) judge is one thing, but state’s attorney? No. Would Alicia want it? Interesting that it came from Eli, and if the show goes there - I’ve always half-jokingly thought that Alicia might be better at being in charge than Peter, or less objectionably, but if she did go for it and it became Alicia vs. Peter professionally... But would she want to - and where does Finn fit into this. There was a little less of him than I expected which leaves me thinking the character could leave without leaving much of a trace or, still, develop into a central character/love interest for Alicia.
There was less Canning too than I expected. I almost wondered if he and David Lee knew they were being filmed, but I did get before Alicia, Cary et al that they were talking about another case. I can see why, with the callbacks to the NSA, the show used surveillance technology in this way, and they really used it for laughs, drama and to move the plot along.
Almost an automatic response, but it hasn’t just been a weird year, it’s been an excellent year. While there have been a few missteps, mostly it’s been hugely involving and engaging. Not many shows are going from strength to strength at this juncture.
For various reasons, that was the only one of my shows that I’ve watched live this week, but I have started watching my Arrested Development season 4 DVDs. Here’s my reaction so far (spoilers up to Colony Collapse, following the DVD running order).
While it’s all very clever, I’m not sure that the big idea of focusing on one character and having criss-crossing stories spanning various periods of time was wise. I think that the more of the family’s paths cross is better, because the ensemble gives Michael the cover of being the ‘sane’ one.
More importantly, it’s not always that funny. Too many of the laughs have been chuckles at callbacks. My favourite episodes were the ones concentrating on Lindsay and Tobias, while the shenanigans around the Bluth Company and Michael’s company, not to mention the meta about getting films made/the entertainment industyr, left me cold. Most of the new celebrity cameos engendered zilch of the goodwill brought about by seeing people from the original run. I except Terry Hands’s Herbert Love, maybe, and I do think Wiig is putting some welly into it as young Lucille.
There’s a streak of heartbreak running through the episodes, most poignantly expressed in the kids - I mean, it clearly hearkens from how Lucille and George’s treatment of their kids, who have their moments, but it’s worse somehow for George Michael, smothered at college, Maebe being in the room while her parents deny her existence and GOB totally failing Steve Holt! I found the way the actor playing him had aged, while his hairline having turned out to be an exaggerated version of Will Arnett oddly endearing. Michael Cera and to a lesser degree Alia Shawkat weren’t convincing playing their characters in the events immediately following the season 3 final, understandably. (I am still hoping that ‘les cousins dangereuxes’ will get to make out again.) Meanwhile, nearly everyone’s voices had gone an octave lower and it took a while to adjust to how Portia di Rossi looks now.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/123171.html.
A Weird Year
A fitting closer. Busy, but I appreciated, rather than otherwise, that we got to see so many of Florrick and Agos (and Lockhart-Gardener) staff. Typical Alicia juggling several things at once moments, but the stakes got bigger and bigger, because everyone was acting, or our favourite characters were reacting, with only partial knowledge.
Bonus points to Cary, Veronica and Peter for mentioning the empty nest to Alicia, although I’ve been banging on about it since at least last season. But it was heartwarming that Zack is going to Georgetown and that Alicia got to see him graduate.
Veronica + Jackie + wine in Alicia’s kitchen = cackling. Not least when I realised Peter was going to send Eli in there. And Peter mainly had to deal with it because Alicia was at work.
Where...oh boy, the transformation of Cary into the Will, because even though he joked about it, that’s what happened, well, that made me squeak. I was mainly on his side of the argument about the future of the firm and I really thought Alicia and Cary should have discussed Diane’s proposal before, properly (which means not in the middle of a street). He had valid reasons for not wanting to go back, the selfishness about his career offset by thinking of the staff he’s taken on, which Alicia didn’t, and the history with LG, which was partly to do with its structure and size, and not just the people. But going to Canning!!!!
Granted, that was after all the business with Kalinda, and while I squeed over Kalinda being Diane’s girl Friday now, Cary finding out that Kalinda was admitting to using him is why I’ve always thought they were no good for each other. Ouch.
Instinctively, I want the team to get back together, even though I worry for Cary in that set-up.
Should I be taking the offer about state’s attorney for Alicia seriously? I wasn’t expecting it for Diane, and though it would be an interesting direction to have one of the team on the prosercutorial track, a few moments’ thought made it clear that Peter and Eli were misreading Diane. (I think Eli was too conveniently gauch letting her know they’d turned to her because she’d been vetted.) Leave the firm she’d built up? To be (a very senior) judge is one thing, but state’s attorney? No. Would Alicia want it? Interesting that it came from Eli, and if the show goes there - I’ve always half-jokingly thought that Alicia might be better at being in charge than Peter, or less objectionably, but if she did go for it and it became Alicia vs. Peter professionally... But would she want to - and where does Finn fit into this. There was a little less of him than I expected which leaves me thinking the character could leave without leaving much of a trace or, still, develop into a central character/love interest for Alicia.
There was less Canning too than I expected. I almost wondered if he and David Lee knew they were being filmed, but I did get before Alicia, Cary et al that they were talking about another case. I can see why, with the callbacks to the NSA, the show used surveillance technology in this way, and they really used it for laughs, drama and to move the plot along.
Almost an automatic response, but it hasn’t just been a weird year, it’s been an excellent year. While there have been a few missteps, mostly it’s been hugely involving and engaging. Not many shows are going from strength to strength at this juncture.
For various reasons, that was the only one of my shows that I’ve watched live this week, but I have started watching my Arrested Development season 4 DVDs. Here’s my reaction so far (spoilers up to Colony Collapse, following the DVD running order).
While it’s all very clever, I’m not sure that the big idea of focusing on one character and having criss-crossing stories spanning various periods of time was wise. I think that the more of the family’s paths cross is better, because the ensemble gives Michael the cover of being the ‘sane’ one.
More importantly, it’s not always that funny. Too many of the laughs have been chuckles at callbacks. My favourite episodes were the ones concentrating on Lindsay and Tobias, while the shenanigans around the Bluth Company and Michael’s company, not to mention the meta about getting films made/the entertainment industyr, left me cold. Most of the new celebrity cameos engendered zilch of the goodwill brought about by seeing people from the original run. I except Terry Hands’s Herbert Love, maybe, and I do think Wiig is putting some welly into it as young Lucille.
There’s a streak of heartbreak running through the episodes, most poignantly expressed in the kids - I mean, it clearly hearkens from how Lucille and George’s treatment of their kids, who have their moments, but it’s worse somehow for George Michael, smothered at college, Maebe being in the room while her parents deny her existence and GOB totally failing Steve Holt! I found the way the actor playing him had aged, while his hairline having turned out to be an exaggerated version of Will Arnett oddly endearing. Michael Cera and to a lesser degree Alia Shawkat weren’t convincing playing their characters in the events immediately following the season 3 final, understandably. (I am still hoping that ‘les cousins dangereuxes’ will get to make out again.) Meanwhile, nearly everyone’s voices had gone an octave lower and it took a while to adjust to how Portia di Rossi looks now.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/123171.html.