The Good Wife – bin Laden semen

I’m all for mixing it up with an unconventional legal case, something that The Good Wife has had great success with. But how about at least giving us a taste of the case! I don’t know about you, but I found that what could have been a cool case turned into “My guy at the State Department beats your guy at the State Department.”

The episode had a second chance at success with the opportunity to wade into the esoteric world of Chinese and Taiwanese diplomacy … nope, it didn’t even go there aside from mentioning that granting the Taiwanese kid diplomatic immunity might upset China. Heck, we didn’t even get to see Chen Jin-Pyn (Derek Mio) apprehended at the airport.

Instead we met two women who helped the two sides get a word in at State. First was Dana Lodge (Monica Raymund) at the State’s Attorney’s office, who introduced Cary to her well-connected uncle. Funny, but this close friend of Cary’s has never made an appearance on the show before; were we really to believe that he and she have had a long-standing relationship? I know it’s minor, but I hate when shows try to bulrush this nonsense past us, as if we wouldn’t notice. Just introduce her as a newcomer, or someone who Cary’s never reached out to before!

Although that was far from the only questionable goings-on at the State’s Attorney’s office. I never much liked Matan (Chris Butler) — or Cary, for that matter, but for entirely different reasons — but he was particualry disagreeable this week with the whole office thing. Cary in the three cubicle room was funny, but was it really all jealousy rearing its ugly head? And Cary, three years removed from law school, is the new Deputy State’s Attorney? You can believe it’s because he’s the resident Lockhart/Gardner “expert” … in which case Peter’s sadder than I might otherwise have thought.

But back to the women. Female newcomer number two was none other than Eli’s ex-wife, Vanessa Gold (Parker Posey), who it turned out has an interest in running for State Senate. Is there going to be more to that story, or was her introduction all about giving Eli color as a result of her affair? I loved how irrationally he reacted to the bin Laden sperm thing. Nice!

This was also the first episode where David Lee’s niece, Caitlin (Anna Camp), appeared as an employee. She was just as ditsy as originally advertised, and I have a bad feeling that we’re going to be seeing more, not less, of her. She obviously has an eye toward sleeping with Will. Is that going to be what outs Will and Alicia’s relationship, or will it be used instead to jettison Caitlin from the show? Another possibility: endless (and unbearable) tension between Caitlin and Alicia after Caitlin makes a play for Will and discovers the truth. Yay! So glad we might be going down that road (sarcasm alert).

I think it’s time for one of two things to happen on this show. Either a) We need Michael J. Fox’s Louis Canning to return for another spin around the block, or b) Romany Malco needs to arrive with Legal Aide in tow, adding some good stories to the mix. The Good Wife’s treading water (at best), and it needs a serious kick in the right direction.

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Nov 01, 2011 @ 14:24 EST5EDT