THE GOOD WIFE “Feeding The Rat” Season 3 Episode 1 – When that baseline kicks in and those elevator doors open, reminiscent of the finale last season, you know the Kings are going for a different tone this year. It’s a far cry from the opening scene of season one, with Alicia Florrick looking tired and dowdy, almost clinging to Peter, humiliated in front of the flashing bulbs. Now she’s positively glowing, and if that’s thanks to some well placed lighting, kudos. She’s wearing red dresses, sultry lipstick. Her haircut is hot. This is a new Alicia Florrick from the opening of the first season.
Robert and Michelle King have always strived to represent hot topics in their cases, and there is nothing hotter on the social-political spectrum right now than the Palestinian bid for statehood at the UN this year. There was an attempt to make some sort of political hay or send some message as Eli Gold (the terrific Alan Cumming) takes on a client who wants him to battle Islamaphobia, starting off with defending a Palestinian scholarship student who was arrested in a clash between Palestinian students and Jewish students at a university protest, days after the brutal murder of a Jewish college student. For anyone who had the slightest bit of awareness about the Middle East and how the American news media works, this subplot, driving the episode, was difficult to stomach. There were several moments which made me want to dig a hole and stuff my head into a ground, much the same way the Aaron Sorkin and the Hugo Chavez episodes did. If the Kings strived to make a point or instigate a discussion, they failed, since it was very much a one sided case.
I won’t even get into the video game segment, with the smarmy young guy taking shots at Alicia’s ignorance of how video games work. This whole sequence felt as though it was written by my mother. And if they’re going to take shots at the biases of a video game, how about try Tom Clancy/Call of Duty or Modern Warfare or any of those games where the main objective is to murder as many Vietnamese/Russians/folks of a different skin color/folks with a funny accent as possible. And it seems like they totally stumbled in to the motive through the video game. By gosh, the subplot was dire.
But The Good Wife isn’t really about plot, it’s about characters, and the plot is just there so that the characters can do something. This episode reintroduced us to the characters we love so much (though where is Cary’s smart talking partner at the DA’s office?). Alicia and Will are still madly into each other, and together they’re testing the boundaries of how far they can go on network television as he brings her to an onscreen orgasm that seemed like it belonged more on cable or on a chaste French movie, which is brilliant. Then Kalinda had a love interest to contend with and you know that the two of them are going to make for two fantastic sparring partners. She and Will also shared a fantastic drinking scene, so here’s hoping they become grand ole drinking partners. Chris Noth made a strong appearance to make sure that he is very much an open nerve where Alicia is concerned. Grace has a new best friend who’s strange and wild and unpredictable and I cannot wait to see where that storyline goes.
Outside of the driving force of the episode, this was a stellar, sexy, strong return to form for the best network drama on television and one of the best television shows, full stop.
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