Hey hey!

Hope everyone is having a largely pleasant week so far! This post should be relatively short because I really think the content will speak for itself – but I’d rather not preempt considering I am known to express myself extensively via this medium *hides*.

Today’s topic – good ol’ ‘The Good Wife’. When I first became a TV show addict, I was more focused on shows with hardly any intellectual content such as Beverley Hills 90210 (I’m referring to the original one with Tori Spelling, not the new age version with ‘Silver’ and ‘Annie’ on TV today – and if you like that one, I promise I’m only half judging) and Days of our Lives. They fell in the Soap Opera category, (I actually have no idea what that really means) and they were pretty much focused on love and betrayal, with no hints of intellectual drama whatsoever.

Naturally, I would say that I thank God for the evolution of television since this time, considering there are so many more shows with intellectual value to bring balance the myriad of shows that are simply for our entertainment.

The Good Wife was a product of this evolution, and fit seamlessly into the Legal Drama category, but in my opinion, it had an edge that the likes of Boston Legal didn’t. It was more personal – and it seemed to create a story that evolved. I became a huge fan after its very first episode because the protagonist of the series played by Juliana Marguilies and widely known as Alicia Florrick, was a relatable female because her role integrated the three facets of life that women hope to have; motherhood, marriage and career.

Like most of you, I grew to despise her husband Peter for cheating on her with a number of women over the years, not least Kalinda Sharma, an investigator who worked at Alicia’s firm with whom she had developed some sort of friendship.

However, since she started her working (and overly personal) relationship with Will Gardner, her law school sweetheart, Alicia stopped being a role model for me. I understood that her husband’s (Peter Florrick) betrayal hurt her deeply, but I felt she owed it to herself to show strength and move on completely, rather than stay with him and put on a charade for the mutual benefit of herself and Peter. She seemed to allow her difficulties to redefine her character, and turn her into someone who craves the dalliances of many men (besides Will) such as Finn Polmar (lawyer she was seriously crushing on), Johnny Elfman (former campaign manager), Jason Crouse (her new private investigator) and last but by no means least, her husband.

I don’t blame Alicia for her actions – I mean after all she is a character. I blame the writers of the show for turning her into  someone I found it difficult to respect. By positioning Alicia with a number of love interests like Will and Finn, while she still shared romantic moments with her husband, Alicia seemed inherently weak and somewhat unable to take decisions on one of the most important aspects of her life.

I must admit that this opinion has come in retrospect, because I rooted for her relationship with Will to take off, and even her fling with Finn. But after taking a step back, I have come to realize that the overall picture being painted about relationships and marriages is not the appropriate one. (Mid sentence, it became apparent that this is exactly how I feel about Mellie Grant from scandal – but that is a tale for another day)

Okay – maybe I’m being too harsh. It’s just television right? And who is to say that tit for tat isn’t the appropriate approach for a woman scorned by a man? (I’m trying to be neutral here but it really isn’t working..) I guess I can let this aspect slide.

What I won’t let slide, is the Good Wife’s portrayal of race. At its inception, there were clearly no long term roles were written for African American characters, and to be honest, I wasn’t exactly bothered by that. I know, I know, race is important and it should be addressed in everything that forms part of our reality (TV shows included), but I take the view that limited depiction is better than negative depiction.

The African American characters we met early on were the likes of Matan Brody (an Assistand District Attorney), Julius Cain (an Equity Partner at Lockhart Gardner) and Daniel Golden (Peter’s Lawyer during his appeal against a corruption conviction). Though Matan was the only memorable character of the bunch, he has been featured in only 17 of the 141 episodes the show has aired to date. Julius has been on 18 episodes of the episodes aired, but honestly I have no clear recollection of his personality. None.

Late in season one, a more prominent black character hit our screens – and who was he?  Lemond Bishop, a wealthy drug dealer who hired Lockhart Gardner to represent him in cases on his ‘legitimate business’. Isn’t it interesting that the most well known African American representative on the show was someone guilty of several drug crimes across the country? If that isn’t conforming to stereotypes I don’t know what is. Lemond Bishop’s character could have contributed to the show in a more meaningful way, but the writers felt it was best to portray African Americans in the same light as narrow minded individuals of today – as the ‘can’t be wealthy without being a criminal’ sect.

And we, the audience, loved it! Lemond became increasingly popular and has appeared on every season of the show since. We also got to know Geneva pine, a lawyer in the states attorney’s office and Wendy Scott-Carr who ran for States Attorney in season two and was special prosecutor in the judicial bribery case against Will Gardener. However, neither of these two characters became more prominent or permanent.

This season, we have been introduced to Lucca Quinn, an African American attorney that Alicia met in Bond Court, who also works private cases with her. She isn’t the most ethical lawyer (…why am I not surprised cbs), but I feel that there are layers to Lucca waiting to be unraveled. Let’s hope she lasts long enough for us to really get to know her.

I know that I have somewhat over analysed, but here’s the crux of my option; the writers of the Good Wife have committed to as much character diversity as is necessary to avoid angry stares and glances from its viewers.

I believe this is mirrored in the behaviours displayed by Diane Lockhart, David Lee, Cary Agos, and Howard Lyman while selecting hires to join the firm in this week’s episode. A young law student named Monica Timmons is seen interviewing with each of the aforementioned partners, and is recording their conversation; unbeknownst to them. She is perfectly prepared and appropriately dressed, but is deemed inadequate or pitiable by each of them because she attended ‘Loyola’ (Univeristy School of Law), and grew up in Baltimore, where she must have found it ‘tough’ by default. Howard Lyman actually asked her if she was ‘Nigerian or what?’ At that point I was so pleased that I was watching this from my laptop, because my annoyance level was through the roof. It was frustrating to watch supposedly learned characters bring their preconceived notions on what they believed Monica’s background to be into her interview. I could see Monica’s temper slowly flaring, I truly couldn’t blame her for it.

Even worse, was the partners conversation about who to hire following the conducted interviews. Diane and Howard’s simply wanted Monica because she was black – to boost diversity at the firm, while Cary wanted the three men that he felt he could identify with. After their decision to go with Cary’s choices, Diane invited Monica to her office to let her know that she hasn’t been hired, but that she would receive mentorship from Diane if she so desired.

In that moment, I couldn’t believe just how patronizing Diane’s actions were. Like Monica rightly said, the other people who were rejected simply got a letter, but Diane invited her in because she felt the need to absolve herself of the guilt she felt for not giving the ‘black girl’ a chance. Monica’s infuriation led her to post the video of her interviews online in an attempt to get the attention of the partners at Lockhart, Agos and Lee, and while she succeeds in getting another sit down with Diane, the job wasn’t offered. Instead, Diane tried to show empathy, and equate the struggles she faced as a young female lawyer, to Monica’s as a young black female lawyer. Though I was glad that an inkling of adherence to moral principles was upheld at the firm, I was upset to hear Monica express her frustration at the women who hold their purses tighter when they see her coming down the street, or the cops that pull her out of her car and frisk her all because she failed to signal. In so doing, she showed Diane that the struggles they face are indeed different, and she cannot be absolved of not giving a hopeful intern a fair opportunity by simply offering advice.

The parallel between the partners in the show and the writers of it is in the attempt to be diverse on paper, rather than truly accepting of what diversity is, and why it is important.

I went on for far too long on this one- please forgive me. I know my stance is a bit harsh on the cbs family, but they really need to get a grip on what messages they wish to send across with this show. I don’t know about you, but I’m extremely confused about what causes the show aims to highlight and what opinions it seeks to share with its audience.

Hence my question in today’s title – ‘what does The Good wife really stand for?’
Love

Jo 😘