The Good Wife, "Live from Damascus:" Recap at ThinkProgress

Well, THAT was quite an episode. Read all about it.

The Good Wife, "Bitcoin for Dummies" - Recap at ThinkProgress

Sunday night's episode of The Good Wife was a good one, but then, they all are. Also: CARY'S FACE. (Okay, I mean that as a general thing, but also that there a few moments this episode when HIS FACE is particularly telling. And adorable. ANYWAY.) Read all about it in my recap at Alyssa's ThinkProgress blog.

“Bitcoin for Dummies” was one of those episodes of The Good Wife that revolves around everyone manipulating everyone else. Unfortunately, since Will is facing the very real prospect of jail time and Eli isn’t in the episode at all, the machinations are grim, without the undertone of playfulness this show often gives even cases involving serious issues. To make up for that, though, we get double Kalinda, as she plays a central role in both the case of the week and in Will’s legal woes.

The Good Wife, "Alienation of Affection" - Recap at ThinkProgress

The Good Wife is back, and so are my recaps at Alyssa's ThinkProgress blog!

David is in the middle of a Gilbert and Sullivan performance and shows up at the office in historical military costume, and if this were an Aaron Sorkin show, that would mean something about duty, but in this case it’s probably just an easy laugh (Diane: “So, David, not to pry, but did you enlist?”) and a reminder that David takes himself very seriously while everyone else thinks he’s ridiculous.

Read the rest.

The Good Wife, "Parenting Made Easy" - Recap at ThinkProgress

Here's my take on this week's episode.

The Good Wife, "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" - Recap at ThinkProgress

It's a little late - sorry! I was sick and then Alyssa was traveling! - but here's my recap of last week's Good Wife.

The Good Wife: "Death Row Tip" - Recap at ThinkProgress!

Head over to Alyssa's blog for my recap of this week's episode, "Death Row Tip:"

In Alicia’s absence, Will’s main ally is Kalinda, which in turn calls into question Kalinda’s actual motivations in her escalating love triangle with Cary and Dana. Kalinda spends much of the episode flirting with Dana, and Cary is blatantly jealous, possibly of both of them. But after they have a close call when a suspect starts shooting, Cary and Kalinda finally kiss – and then he gives her a weird look and walks away. I suspect that Kalinda is actually letting herself feel things for once, but Cary has no reason to think she’s not playing him, so this turn of events should play interestingly into the investigation into Will.

The Good Wife, "Executive Order 13224" - Recap at ThinkProgress

Head over to Alyssa's blog for my recap of this week's Good Wife, in which everyone's poking bears.

Will is confronted by a reluctant Cary and an enthusiastic Dana, and though he more of less laughs at them for trying to intimidate him, he’s shaken enough to go confront Peter on the courthouse steps. I can’t quite decide how our metaphor of the week shakes out here: Peter is poking a bear by going after Will in the first place, but both men are very powerful, and Will is instigating in turn by taking things to a more personal level. Will tells Peter that he’s not buying new clean image, and insists that Peter’s still down in the mud with the rest of them. They then play an incredibly tense game of chicken as Will more or less dares Peter to accuse him of sleeping with Alicia, and I started hoping that they’d actually get into a fistfight, because wouldn’t it be great to watch Eli try to spin that? Alas, there are no fisticuffs or actual accusations regarding Alicia. They have to leave something for the midseason finale, I suppose.

The Good Wife, "Affairs of State" - Recap at ThinkProgress

Head over to Alyssa Rosenberg's blog for my recap/review of Sunday's episode of The Good Wife.

By this point, I think Will is pretty aware of his own feelings, but does Alicia really know what she wants? If she honestly just wants a temporary rebound relationship, using someone who has loved her for years just seems cruel. But if she’s saying she wants to keep things casual because she thinks that’s what she should want or what Will wants, then there’s an even better chance of all of this exploding in someone’s face – probably Peter’s, once the next campaign gets going, and Alicia’s own, if she’s actually considering that political career Eli suggested.

The Good Wife, "Marthas and Caitlins" - Recap at ThinkProgress

Everyone's making deals with their personal devils this week, so head over to Alyssa's place to read all about it.

But, as anyone around her should really know, Alicia’s experiences with Peter have made her hate being used as a pawn in the corruption of others, and she tries to stick with her first choice, Martha. The committee votes for Caitlin without even notifying Alicia, which seems unnecessarily unprofessional, and she feels betrayed, especially when Will admits he voted with Lee. “I feel used, Will. I feel like I was given a job and it was taken away from me.” And that’s the heart of things, really: long ago, Alicia put her trust in a powerful man, embraced the role he gave her, and was betrayed; as a result of that betrayal, she had to build herself a new life, and now she fears that the same thing is happening with Will. If it had only happened once, she could safely blame her betrayer, but if a version of what happened with Peter happens again with Will, she’ll have to start wondering if it’s her, if she’s somehow bringing these things upon herself.

Me Elsewhere: The Good Wife, Castle, & TV News

Elsewhere on the Internet over the past few days . . .

At ThinkProgress, my take on The Good Wife's "Feeding the Rat."

And at TheTelevixen, my recap of Castle's "Kick the Ballistics" and my latest update of TV news.

The Good Wife, "Get a Room" - Recap at ThinkProgress

And here we have it.

Eli and Kalinda finally met and realized they were kindred spirits last week, but this week, the fundamental difference between them becomes obvious: Kalinda deals in facts, while Eli uses facts as tools to affect the higher truth of image and perception. When Kalinda’s investigation shows that the cheese company’s culpability is far from clear, Eli is frustrated, and explains that it’s not that he wants their client to be guilty – it’s that he wants it to be over so he can pick up the pieces, fix things, and move on. And when Kalinda goes to Cary for information on the mediation case, he finally calls her on the way she uses people’s feelings for her to further her investigations. Cary sees through Kalinda’s manipulation of others’ feelings, but he has obviously bought into her illusion of having no feelings herself. That one is going to really blow up in her face one of these days.

The Good Wife, "The Death Zone" - Recap at ThinkProgress

Good Wife fans, I hope you're in the mood to read, because I went on for quite a while about last night's episode over at ThinkProgress.

This second episode of The Good Wife is all about perception and the burden of proof, as Lockhart/Gardner defends a mountain climber whose book about his brother’s death accuses another climber of refusing to help his brother and stealing his oxygen tank. When the case is dismissed from an American court, the British plaintiff takes it to a court in England, where the burden of proof in libel cases is reversed — instead of the plaintiff having to prove that he was libeled, the defendant must prove that what he wrote was not libel. The book wasn’t published in England, but the plaintiff himself bought a few copies from Amazon, solely to have grounds to bring the case — and Will, whose sense of right and wrong crops up at interesting times, is outraged and accuses him of “libel tourism.”

The Good Wife, "A New Day:" Recap at ThinkProgress

I hinted at this the other day, but now I can tell you officially: This season I'm going to be recapping The Good Wife for Alyssa Rosenberg's culture blog at ThinkProgress. You can read my take on the premiere right here.

The Good Wife does a nice job of showcasing the way that seemingly-monolithic institutions like government agencies and large law firms are actually just collections of people who have their own agendas, connections, and shifting loyalties — and that this isn’t necessarily good or bad, just the way things have to work. . . . Indeed, everyone’s using everyone on this show, and they’re refreshingly open about it. (At one point, Eli says he doesn’t like being used, and Alicia is only half joking when she replies, “Really? Since when?”)