IS THAT WHAT THIS IS ABOUT -- ENDEARMENT? In the real world, unlike The Good Wife, law firm managing partners work out all the issues before announcing a merger and we don't have -- but if CBS wanted to be realistic as to BigLaw it wouldn't have shelved its adaptation of Kermit Roosevelt's In the Shadow of the Law (though a pilot was filmed). The first season still held my interest, however, because it got the culture right-enough and the show did a solid mix of the long-term political/romantic plots with the trial-of-the-week, gradually moving away from the initial wife-betrayed premise to create a universe in which not everything has to revolve around Alicia Florrick. (Not that that's a problem, because Juliana Margulies is so damn good in this role.)
The question of season two may be how to handle this expanding universe, with Cary now working for The Smoke Monster in the Cook County DA's Office (but obviously can't be in court every week against Lockhart/Gardner), plus an election plot, new attorneys and an investigator at the firm as well as whatever develops for Alicia personally. So this week mostly moved the pieces around the chessboard while half-assing the courtroom scenes and all-but-ignoring Christine Baranski and the Florrick kids, not a great episode but one which suggests they've got a plan. There are worse ways to spend an hour on Tuesdays than a show with Archie Panjabi, "Stan's Chicken Shack" and an allegedly controversial sex scene, and I look forward to what's to come -- as long as Gary Cole's ballistics expert comes back. Please?
I saw the pilot of In the Shadow of the Law and it was awful, even though it had Wash as the Supreme Court clerk.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, Linda Holmes FTW: "<span><span><span>It's safe to say I just saw the first TV sex scene ever set to the All Things Considered theme music." </span></span></span>
ReplyDeleteIn other TV news, I also generally enjoyed "No Ordinary Family." Nice to see a non-mopey take on superheroes, though I'm not sold on their efforts to create an arc plot.
I liked how we got the set-up for the daughter getting set upon by the FlipCammers, but not yet the payoff. Also, the idea of Peter's mom and Alan Cumming in cahoots gives me the shivers.
ReplyDeleteI came to the comments specifically to note that even if I'd hated the season premeire (which I didn't), it would have been worth watching for Linda Holmes' geeked-out tweets about the inclusion of NPR in that scene.
ReplyDeleteAs a general matter, I love the role of technology in this show, specifically the kids' better knowledge of it than their parents.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure I like Peter's mom as an overt Lady MacBeth. I liked the idea that she was a lot more savvy than anyone was noticing, but that it mostly happened off-screen. Oh well - Alan Cumming and Mary Beth Piel are both so good that it's going to win me over quickly.
ReplyDeleteThe merger stuff was unrealistic, to be sure, but it gets us both Scott Porter and a way to find out more about Kalinda that doesn't involve flashbacks. I like the idea of a season of seeing Kalinda on edge and avoiding someone she works with.
ReplyDeleteAnd can I just say Chris Sarandon! Chris Sarandon! The fabulous Chris Sarandon!!!
(I also loved Paranoia Girl.)
Does the show, in the second season, bother to look like it's set in Chicago yet?<span> </span>
ReplyDeleteI was also pleasantly surprised that the NPR never turned into what I thought was going to happen, which was the interruption of the sex scene by something said on the news about the Floreks. You know, in that way that people on TV only seem to ever watch the news when it's somehow directly, personally related to them.
ReplyDeleteGiven that, like, 80-90% of the show is interior shots it's not something I notice. Also the fact that I'm a hick from the sticks and can't tell one big city from another (unless it's LA - then there's palm trees).
ReplyDeleteYou mean like the palm trees swaying outside the "New York Coffee Shop" where Maura Tierney and Rob Morrow both got coffee on "Whole Truth?" Yeah, that was a problem. If you're going to double LA for NY, just have a little caution (Castle does it pretty well most of the time).
ReplyDeleteI'm really starting to think this is the most well-done network show on the air right now.
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