Monsters of Television

“Challenges WHAT?”

These week on the podcast, we mull over the implications of the NBC and Fox midseason shakeups as well as some of the shows we wish weren’t on the brink of cancellation (real or imagined), a recap of some recent food television, and, of course, discussions of the shows we’re watching. Hit us with a comment if you have something to tag on (and you should) and enjoy the sweet sounds of our lovely voices.

Notes: • During the food television segments, Matt and Nick tried out the mute function on Skype. It didn’t work. Sorry. • Nick makes references to multiple properties throughout the podcast that are not only telling of his age but also are sometimes so esoteric some readers/listeners might not quite get how hilarious he is. To that point, submitted for your education is a hint of (Family) Double Dare and a dash of Hello Again with a smidge of Emily Quartermaine (from last week’s podcast).

Running Time: 77 minutes

Topics: Place in the Podcast

• Walking Dead: 0:00:39
• Terriers: 0:09:23
  • The Good Wife: 0:16:13
  • Rubicon: 0:18:18
• NBC Midseason Shakeup: 0:21:01
• Fox Midseason Shakeup: 0:35:24
• Fringe: 0:40:38
• Top Chef: Just Desserts: 0:49:04
• Top Chef: All-Stars: 0:57:17
• Private Practice: 1:00:40
• No Ordinary Family: 1:07:23
• The Cape: 1:11:40
• In Treatment: 1:12:23

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

“In lock-up, they won’t let you tweet.”

This is the best episode of The Good Wife so far this season.

Part of this is because it had pretty much everything I’ve come to love in the show. But the other part was that the episode  didn’t have any of the stuff I hate. (Read: There were no Blake and Kalinda shenanigans in this episode. None. Zero. Zilch. So glorious.) But yes, “Bad Girls” had everything in it that marks an episode of The Good Wife: political maneuvering,  law firm maneuvering, a solid case, reasonable Kalinda investigating, good family beats.

There’s a delicate balance to crafting a show with so many things going on at once, and what often happens is that some things fall to the wayside (did Jackie break her hip?) while others gain prominence. Overall, I feel that The Good Wife does a good job of giving all things equal weight though, after sleeping on the episode, I do see the critiques the episode might perhaps try and overreach here.

I still think the episode is considerably stronger than the past few episodes have been, so don’t let my acknowledgment of the critique seem like I’m discounting how much I enjoyed the episode.

Read more »

“We need to give the truth the drama of a lie.”

We've got cynicism, right here in Chi-Town. And that starts with C which rhymes with...

Sometimes reviewing  a consistently solid shows is a challenge. It’s hard to say much new about them. This, of course, applies to procedurals in general, but it becomes especially difficult when a show like The Good Wife. You end up trying to find something to hang your review on, and that can be tricky.

Luckily, The Good Wife often provides a peg to drape itself over pretty consistently. Sure, it was easier last season when the episode titles told me what to look for (“Doubt”, “Fleas”, “Boom”), but I like not being told what the peg is, even if the episode makes it pretty obvious, and boy oh boy is “Poisoned Pill” a super-cynical episode of The Good Wife. Read more »

“Who is she? What is she?“

One of the big draws of Law & Order is that it would strive to set up a dialectic that the characters, and then the audience, would engage in as they debated particular social norms, issues of right and wrong and ideas about justice, even if it were compromised. It’s this kind of an approach that allows procedurals to say something beyond a self-contained story: it’s their way of getting to larger social issues.

While The Good Wife certainly draws on hot-button issues (Wikileaks, for example), it doesn’t always set up a dialog for its characters to engage one another one. So “The VIP Treatment” is certainly a refreshing change in that regard (though it still draws on hot-button issues, this time Al Gore), as Will, Dianne, and Derrick play off one another in attempt to figure out Ms. White’s story (notice she only becomes Lara after they decide to take the case?). However, after playing the sides and the discussion, the episode just kind of lets it go in the final scene once the writers realize that this is an episodic procedural and character serial: can’t have a court case lasting too long. Read more »

“Found something to worry about.”

Well. Everyone has an off day.

“Cleaning House” is a creaky, kind of lazy little episode that suffers from a lack of focus and, frankly, anything really interesting happening until the last minute. The episode isn’t busy, and since nothing really pops in the episode, it feels like it’s taking a leisurely pace to get to conclusions that we all know are coming, or simply don’t expect because of red herrings.

Like last week’s Community, I’m okay with great shows having so-so episodes. They happen, and you can only roll with the punches, and hope next week will be better. Read more »

“Can’t go 10 feet in America without having your death recorded.”

With everything from the finale now neatly taken care of last week, I feel like the show can properly start getting to work on telling this season’s stories. Yes, of course, the show is a very subtle serialized character drama so this season’s stories are connected to last season’s stories. But there are new stakes now and thus new stories to tell in relation to this serial.

But, as if to also take a narrative cooldown lap, “Breaking Fast” is largely one of those procedural episodes that the show excels at balancing against its character serialization. This, of course, isn’t a complaint. If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you already know that I love procedurals, and that I love serials. So I like when a show manages to execute both well, and I get very frustrated when the balance is thrown off in ways that simply don’t work for me. Read more »

“Then I’ll get to disabusing.”

While I got to see “Taking Control,” the season 2 premiere of The Good Wife, I was unable to write a review for it so as to conserve energy for sitting on a bus for 22 hours (I was attending a conference in Austin). I apologize for missing it, but Tuesday night was the last chance for legitimate sleep until the following Sunday, and I love sleep more than The Good Wife.

But not by much.

After the jump I’ll do a brief review of “Taking Control” (even shorter review: excellent) and then a regular sized review of “Double Jeopardy.” Read more »

“Show me the plan.”

It feels like season finales this year are aiming more for epilogues to their seasons than final chapters, if such a distinction makes sense. Some of it is industrial, networks ordering extra episodes, either a little too late to be incorporated into the first bit of the season (like Chuck) or ordered a few more than was originally expected (like Community). As a result, episodes that seem to function like finales become the penultimates, resulting in episodes that don’t pack the finale punch.

The Good Wife isn’t too different. “Running” isn’t as fiery an episode as I found last week’s “Hybristophilia”, an episode that hits all those season finale requirements of character maneuvering and arc resolutions. Indeed, it seems like the show decided to devote an episode to each of its arcs: the law firm and Peter’s trial were resolved last week, and this week follows through on the romantic entanglements among characters as well as set up Peter’s political aims next season.

Perhaps my lack of engagement stems that I don’t find either arc as interesting as the ones last week (though Peter’s arcs are connected), or that there was little in the ways of suspense in either arc. And it also could be that this episode, for the first time since I started watching, had me wishing I had been watching since the first episode. Read more »

“You like to think that you’re a good person, and maybe at one time you were, but we both know you’ll do whatever it takes.”

Does the show need a villain? No. Am I glad it'll be Cary? Yes.

It’s a bit difficult to describe just how good a show can be. At the very least, you can tell a person that they need to watch a show and hope that they get around to it at some point. If you’re more aggressive, you loan them the DVDs of a show (if available) and hope that person gets around to watching them. If you’re really aggressive, you can tie that person down and make them watch the DVDs.

What can you do, however, to make someone watch a brand new show like The Good Wife? I was slightly badgered by a professor of mine and it just happened that there wasn’t anything on Tuesday at 10 so I tuned in. And with Lost ending this Sunday (must…not…cry…right…now…), I’m so thrilled that I now have a new favorite drama to look forward to in the fall, and, on the flip side, go through massive withdrawals for during the summer.

Because The Good Wife is just that good. Read more »

“As long as we’re solvent ghouls.”

It’s fun watching a show that creates parallels without hitting you over the head with them (I am not talking about…okay, that was totally about last night’s Lost…). Much like the question of whether or not the plug needs to be pulled on Max Wilder, the rock star in the coma by the episode’s end, the fates of L&G and Alicia’s and Cary’s placements within that firm are all in question, and who has whose best interests at heart swirl around the episode at a dizzying pace.

The parallels between who controls Wilder’s fate and those who control the fate of L&G and Alicia and Cary are never made explicit, and it makes for richer storytelling when a show trusts viewers enough to draw those connections themselves (and if they don’t, the show is still enjoyable). They’re there, underlining the episode, making the drama that much better. But perhaps underlining the show overall are contemporary concerns about the economy. Read more »