The Good Wife 5×11 – Goliath And David

Goliath And David is a textbook example of how to bring down a strong storyline with a pack of terribly weak subplots.

First off, my patience with the character of Marilyn is wearing extremely thin. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt (and it’s certainly not Melissa George’s fault), but Marilyn has been horribly written this year. What is the point of that darn pregnancy? I’m pretty sure no one believed Peter could be the father, so to introduce her old high school flame with the same name, not to mention the final cameo by director Peter Bogdanovich was pretty insipid. Sure it’s always fun to see Eli run around like a crazy chicken, but it only served as an amateurish distraction from the final blindside (the return of the ballot boxes from the season four finale).

Much like always, The Good Wife is still struggling with Kalinda. I don’t know why it’s so difficult to give her a proper storyline, but having her investigate Marilyn while fending off Damien and his cop-friend Jenna was painful to watch. We get it: Kalinda is good at what she does, but she can’t help herself when it comes to sexy girls in positions of power. Can we explore something else please? At this point, I genuinely wouldn’t care if they wrote Kalinda off the show, After all, we have Robin – and not only did she come to the rescue this week, she’s an all-around awesome addition to the show.

Thankfully, the episode was saved by the powerful interactions between Alicia and Will. I adored the two’s creative attacks, particularly the manner in which Will kept interrupting Alicia’s line of questioning, only for her to reiterate by changing into the outfit she wore when they first “banged”. It was so wonderfully un-Alicia like, and I pretty much loved every second of it. It’s this kind of material that made The Good Wife so darn exceptional this year, and it singlehandedly managed to make this hour a worthwhile outing.

Cases & Bits

– I love that this episode picked up right from the champagne spit.

– Cool continuity: the rapper was in prison with Peter.

– Genius move with the testimony intercut with flashbacks of the sex scene

– Love everyone in court bobbing their heads to the song. Speaking of the case-of-the-week, it wasn’t the most memorable.

– Kalinda doesn’t know Katy Perry or Roar. She’s not missing out.

– Will playing the guilt card with Diane was a pretty low-blow. I feel like she’s going to leave again.

– The infamous song played over the final credits. Cool touch, but please make it stop.

Good Lines

Will: So you decided to change?
Alicia: Yup, into what I wore the night you banged me for the first time.
Will: That’s pretty low of you.
Alicia: I know; I wasn’t so discriminating back then.

Conclusion
A solid hour that’s tainted by some unfortunate writing choices.

Nad Rating
B