Adventures In Wonderland Herstory In The Making

[Cori Riska]

QuestionAlong with Parenthood, The Good Wife is in my opinion still one of the best dramas on network TV. And the mock trial episode was, as you recently noted, the best so far of the season. However, I have recently been feeling that this show has been lacking, not necessarily in quality (with the exception of the whole Kalinda's husband debacle), but in freshness. For me the show has been very stagnant. A case here, a little Will/Alicia flirtation there, mixed in with Peter's campaign and/or Eli's troubles. Every week is pretty much the same thing with a different guest star. Nothing seems to be new or fresh. What's most frustrating about the lack of freshness is how easily they could remedy that. I would be extremely interested in watching what Cary proposed unfold, for he and Alicia to form their own firm. Watching Cary and Alicia go head to head with Will and Diane would be a welcome change to the same old same old.

Second topic: I am a Scandal newbie. I watched the episode where President Grant got shot only because nothing else was on and was hooked by the end. It's an insanely good guilty pleasure and I've enjoyed every minute of watching the drama unfold. My comment, though, is on the pairing of Olivia and Fitz, which I think should be applauded beyond great chemistry. When I watch Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn together, I simply see a couple. I do not ever see an interracial couple. I'm 27 years old, from a generation where race is much less an issue than it used to be and interracial couples are accepted and even somewhat common where I'm from. However, race is still very much an issue in this country, and I am willing to bet that when many people see an interracial couple, while they may have no issue with it, they still notice it. I don't think that's racist or judgmental, it's just sort of a human reaction that will hopefully become less frequent with each generation. Yet when I watch Olivia and Fitz on screen, I don't see race at all. It wasn't until Cyrus mentioned Olivia's race potentially being a problem if Fitz divorced Mellie and started a public relationship with Olivia that I realized it could be an issue. I don't know if this speaks to the actors, the chemistry, the writing or a combination, but I thought it should be pointed out, since for me at least, it is really the first time that I have seen an interracial couple depicted so beautifully that you forget about race altogether. - Katelyn

Matt Roush: With Scandal, it's really a testament to Shonda Rhimes' wonderful penchant for color-blind casting, established from the very start of Grey's Anatomy but taken to a new level in Scandal, where the lead character is a powerful woman of color - and you sort of bury the lead here, because we're not talking a mere interracial romance, he's the President of the United States. It's bananas! But I love it, too, and wait till you see Kerry and Tony on the cover of TV Guide Magazine later this week.

Regarding The Good Wife: I'll respectfully disagree with your assertion that the show has grown stale. This season hit a snag with the Kalinda subplot, but otherwise I've greatly enjoyed the conflicts regarding the turmoil in the workplace and the way it played out, with Alicia getting the sole bid to become an equity partner, and taking it despite it feeling like a betrayal of Cary (more on that below). The political subplot may not be as gripping as when Peter was on trial, and the reconciliation of sorts between the Florricks may not be wholly satisfying to the Alicia-Will "shippers," but I like Maura Tierney's ruthlessness as Peter's rival, and with Eli's legal troubles bringing the delicious Carrie Preston back into the picture - and has Kyle MacLachlan ever been more appealing than as her smitten adversary? - I'm finding much to savor. What may be happening here is that no show, not even one as terrific as The Good Wife, is likely to feel as fresh in its fourth season, and while this operates on a higher plane than most CBS series, it's not likely ever to blow the whole thing up by having Alicia jump ship, which could come off as feeling contrived. This latest twist, in which she now has to learn the painful lessons of being part of management, seems much more realistic and satisfying to me.

Question: The Good Wife is one of my favorite shows on TV. However, I've noticed recently that the kids, Zach and Grace, have barely been on the show this season. I love when they appear on the show. Why have they been sidelined this year? Will they still be making appearances this season? Also, my favorite character on the show is Cary. However, he never seems to "win" over Alicia. For example, in Season 1 Alicia gets hired over Cary and this season Alicia is made partner over Cary. Will Cary ever one-up Alicia? Ever? Yes, Alicia is an amazing lawyer, but are viewers just supposed to believe that she would get all of these things had Will not been attracted to her or had he not been sleeping with her? In one of the last episodes, Alicia asked Will if the reason why she was being made partner was because of what happened between them. He said no, but how naive is Alicia? Great lawyer yes, but open your eyes! - Cyrus

Matt Roush: These are among the most appealing young actors on TV, and the cast of The Good Wife is an embarrassment of riches to be sure, but while the family dynamics have always been a strong part of Alicia's story, this isn't a family drama and Zach and Grace are more on the level or recurring regulars than core cast members. This season, with Peter running for higher office and more or less at peace with Alicia - especially in the wake of the latest trumped-up scandal - there just may not be as much story to play on the home front, and this year has been awfully heavy on workplace intrigue. I imagine when a story comes along that makes sense to put them center stage, it will happen - but I don't look ahead to future storylines or spoilers in this column, so I can't say when or how. Regarding the Cary factor: I like how the show goes to great lengths to make him sympathetic, and that often comes at the expense (especially lately) of "Saint Alicia." But I'm reading some of Alicia's "wins" differently from your analysis. Her fling with Will was probably not a great career move in the long run, and her ascension seems less attributable to her courtroom prowess than to her personal connections. The Good Wife is fairly blunt in its cynicism about that aspect of things, and Alicia's discomfort at having to backstab Cary and then manage his hours only makes the show more interesting to me.

Question: I eagerly anticipated the first season of Smash and enjoyed it more than many fans and TV critics. Although the subplots were problematic, I found the evolution of Bombshell interesting and the lead actors first-rate. I could even overlook the less-than-compelling acting performance of Katharine McPhee because her Marilyn made me actually believe that she could be cast in the part instead of Megan Hilty. However, the second season retooling of the series is a train wreck whenever the focus is on anything other than Bombshell. The development of the alternative Broadway musical is a snooze-fest, and there is no chemistry between Katharine McPhee and Jeremy Jordan. Megan Hilty is being completely wasted in the Liaisons production, and the talented Sean Hayes' performance in last week's episode was ludicrous. And as much as I love to hear Jennifer Hudson sing, her story did not really blend with the rest of the show.

As we watch this great concept implode in Season 2, I'm wondering how this story could have been told better. It seems that the good old-fashioned miniseries would have fit the bill. A miniseries could have taken us through the initial writing, casting, workshops, recasting, first staging, Broadway opening, awards, closing and revival without the excess baggage. I can't imagine the ratings would have been worse than this season's. What would NBC have had to lose by trying it? - Steve

Matt Roush: In retrospect, you may be right. But when's the last time you saw an "old-fashioned miniseries" on network TV? (The executive producers' Judy Garland biopic was one of the last and best, and that was back in 2001.) It's a dead format at the moment, sorry to say, although I keep waiting for the networks to wake up to the need to create "event" TV with more limited-run projects as a way to compete with cable. We may see a gradual shift to this strategy again, if experiments like this summer's Under the Dome pay off, but Smash came along too soon for that. Or maybe too late. Besides, no one involved with Smash could be expected to foresee what would become of the franchise - and I'm not arguing your various points; the Sean Hayes subplot was among the most painful calamities yet - and when developing something as ambitiously big-budget as a weekly musical series, the impulse is to go for more, not less. If the miniseries does come back into vogue, though, I'd love to see someone tackle an original musical comedy or drama in that format.

Question: There's a conspiracy theory that there can only be one strong African-American on The Walking Dead at one time, and when a new one is introduced, the old one is killed off. I believe it goes deeper, that they only seem to have one of each type of character on at a time. You had two kids until they killed off Sophia, then you had the elder statesman who was the voice of reason in Dale, who was killed off soon after Hershel took over that role. Lori was the strong woman of the group, but died just as Maggie was taking more of that role and Michonne was about to appear, and of course you had the two alpha males with Shane and Rick, so Shane had to die. Right now the only character types I see more then one of are Daryl and Merle, the hillbilly loners who will do anything to survive, and Carol/Beth who are more wallflower then fighters, so it's only common sense that one of them will be getting a bullet to the head soon. So out of those two pairings, which ones won't see Season 4? - Ruth

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