The Good Wife

The Good Wife

Episode 8: Here Comes Santa

By: Carlos Uribe

The Good Wife is a show about a lawyer who goes into law after a scandal rocks her world.

Spoilers Ahoy!

So, I didn't really like this episode as much as the first seven. I'm not sure why. The episode began good enough with a man on death row talking about some murder. This leads to the police discovering two bodies. The client of the week is charged with killing one body, the other body being charged to a gang member. The man on death row, though, had evidence and could pinpoint who the real killer was. Instead of defending the client, our lawyers had to instead get the information from the death row convict to get the client off the hook.

The problem with this idea is that the death row convict can't be talked to unless some judges are considering giving him appeal. Alicia and her team have to help the pro bono lawyer to convince the seventh district judges into considering the appeal. This meant not proving his innocence, since it quickly becomes evident he is guilty. The lawyers aren't trying to free him or find the real killer, but to at least give Alicia enough time to get the real killer's name for the week's case. While it handled the weekly procedural in a unique fashion, it didn't do it in an interesting manner. It simply failed to captivate my interest.

Eli Gold had the better storyline of the week, representing that Republican who is running for state senate. As it turns out, there's a picture of him giving fellatio on male statues such as a Santa Clause. Their funny pictures, evidently a college prank. In politics it is dirt that the opponents can use against the Republican. After trying to release the picture and hence control the damage failed, since the Republican lied about there only being one picture, Eli Gold's solution is to shift the attention to the candidate admitting his is an alcoholic. It humanizes him and solves the crisis. As to Eli, it shows how he can be so good at his job but fails when he doesn't have the full facts.

There's also a lot of drama going on. One by one it seems more people are figuring out Alicia's affair. Peter's mother is seen trying to figure out what Alicia is doing when the kids aren't with her. This involves the most funny scene in which she tries to figure out how to turn on a Mac. To her defense, it one doesn't know about the power button it can be pretty difficult to find. Another plotline is Kalinda and Cary finally kissing after all this time, even after Cary tells the female ASA that he's over Kalinda. It's unknown where the show plans to take this. The most promising of the storylines? Eli's daughter and Zach getting to be friends. Not sure yet if their going to be anything more than friends, but regardless I can only conclude that there will be hilarious reaction shots from Eli and worried glances from Alicia. Oh, and the funniest scene ever is Peter's mom answering the door to the fully body-painted tutor.

I did enjoy a lot of what this show had to offer. The problem is that most of the storyline had to do with the weekly case, and that was simply dull and uncaptivating. That meant that the episode would seriously drag down at certain moments. Here's hoping that next week the show gets back to being more interesting.