Friday, November 13, 2009

The Good Wife - Unorthodox, S01E07

I never know what to expect every week on the Good Wife. Certainly a court case and some development in Alicia (Julianna Margulies)'s life, but what direction that will take. And despite this, though I don't feel like I must watch the next episode to discover the result of x, y, or z, I want to watch the next episode because it will be intelligent, exciting and it will teach me somewhere new.

This week's episode, not only did we deal with a case that at best was considered fraud and at worst antisemitism, but we also faced the question of why Alicia did not divorce Peter (Chris Noth).

When Alicia was paired with an independent lawyer, Ryan Alprin (Chris Bowers), to defend the daughter of one of the partners - she and her husband were orthodox Jewish and had not repaired a cable on the sabbath because they were not allowed to - a strange connection developed between the two. There was definitely some chemistry, though Alicia continued to ask Ryan to stop pursuing it as she is married. And there's the question. Why is she still married to Peter after everything? Because, as we learned by the end, you don't throw a good marriage away over one mistake, even if it's a very bad mistake.

As the reactions over the end of Don and Betty's relationship on Mad Men show us, people would much rather watch a couple in trouble end their relationship and move on than try to salvage it. Apparently it's too much work. But every marriage is a lot of work, and the point is that when you make those vows, you mean you will put in all the work that is possible before you abandon ship. And a ship can take a whole lot of hull damage and still float, still be brought to shore and repaired. I like Alicia all the more for her refusal to simply cut the cord when things got bad.

Still she and Ryan's connection was intriguing, and Will (Josh Charles) showed some bristly jealousy. Plus, Ryan undercut Will with comments about a court case won through delays rather than in court. Ryan was doing very well unlike Alicia discovered his secret - he never actually passed the bar exam. And then it was done. While Will, for all the secrets he has and the misgivings we may have despite liking him very much, follows the letter of the law to help his client, whether the corporate monster or the vulnerable human, Ryan did not respect the law at all, risking every court case he fought.

The other man in Alicia's life, her son Zach (Graham Phillips) also gave her grief this week when he stole his grandmother's credit card and called a sex line. He was, of course, trying to figure out who faked some inappropriate pictures of his dad, but that's not the way it looked. But I love how Alicia is not the type of mom to freak out about it. He's 13, of course he's going to be interested in porn and sex and all that stuff. It's so normal that it's hilarious that that's not what he's up to.

Can't wait till next week, though who knows what developments may take place. Can you?

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