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"The Good Wife" Returns in Overdrive

The Good Wife returned for a new season Sunday night. I really didn't care for last season but tuned in anyway, expecting to be bored. I'm glad I did. Someone must have slipped some steroids into the writers' morning Wheaties. [More...]

Carey gets arrested on a charge of helping long time client and drug baron Lemond Bishop's minions pull off a $1.3 million heroin deal.

The scenes in the holding lockup and at the jail make the overbearing, abusive, unconstitutional police practices as indelible as watching the nights of unrest in Ferguson. The arbitrary and excessive power of prosecutors, and the judges who take their word as gospel, are on full display. The personal indignities inflicted by jailers who treat the inmates as lower than chattel, and the risks of ratting to make a deal are dramatically brought home. Carey narrowly escapes being punched by a guard who thinks he almost strayed over a painted red line while walking down a hallway from the holding cell to court. At the jail, a fellow inmate, on instructions from Bishop, pulls out a big knife and tells Carey he has to cut off his finger to make sure he knows to keep his mouth shut. (He settles for a deep cut.)

Carey's bail is set at an excessive $1.3 million, cash (no surety or bail agent allowed) which the judge refuses to reduce. Lemond, now being satisfied Carey won't rat him out after the cutting incident, gets a legitimate business owner to make the bail. But the prosecutor asks for a hearing on the source of funds, which the judge sets in a week -- during which Carey has to stay in jail.

In short, in the space of one hour, the show brought out all the ways the system screws defendants from the moment they are arrested. It didn't glamorize the drug dealer or the inmates, it just humanized them.

I hope they keep it up for the rest of the season, and keep the law firm backstabbing and politics on the back burner. That won't happen of course, as they still had time for a sub-plot tonight: Eli trying to convince Alicia to run for state's attorney.

The show wasn't perfect. They also ought to lose the trite and overworked schlock about whether or not a female staffer of Peter's is wearing underwear. I'd like the 3 minutes back I wasted watching it. It was reminiscent of one of the worst story lines of last season -- the histrionics of a pregnant state ethics examiner. Also, Eli's eyeliner was too noticeable and distracting. He looked like his character in Cabaret.

Still, overall, the show is off to a promising start. I hope Lemond is in a lot of episodes and Lockhart Gardner (including Michael Fox) quickly join Will in TV heaven.

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  • Display: Sort:
    I think I have to start watching (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by ruffian on Mon Sep 22, 2014 at 10:37:05 AM EST
    I have heard so many good things. Will I be lost if I start now? Watching past seasons seems daunting with 22 episodes per season. Are there some key parts of each season I should watch? Don't need to see every case she worked!

    You really need to watch all the episodes (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by Angel on Mon Sep 22, 2014 at 03:57:40 PM EST
    to understand the show.  The interpersonal dynamics of all the characters are quite interesting and ever-changing.  And some characters were introduced in earlier seasons and don't show up regularly so you'd miss out on a lot of the back story and wouldn't understand they whys and whats and hows...  It's a great show, gets better every season.  

    Parent
    You Can Give Up Your Day Job (haha) (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by squeaky on Mon Sep 22, 2014 at 12:33:47 PM EST
    If you ever wanted to go into full time teevee review biz...

    really compelling review, you have a knack for this.

    She really does (5.00 / 1) (#3)
    by ruffian on Mon Sep 22, 2014 at 12:44:22 PM EST
    Would not be the first show she got me hooked on!

    Parent
    tonight is the finale of (none / 0) (#7)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Sep 22, 2014 at 06:44:43 PM EST
    Senor de los Cielos 2. It has aired 5 nights a week for the past three months and I have not missed a single episode(86 episodes.) I guess I just get really invested in the shows I watch.  

    Parent
    Well reviewed J! (5.00 / 1) (#4)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Mon Sep 22, 2014 at 01:15:47 PM EST
    The Mrs. SUO and I tivoed it and stayed up way too late watching it, it was a page-turner.

    As there seems to be a recording of Carey's conversation with the narco trafficers, I wonder if the mysterious CI will turn out to be an undercover PO?

    Is (none / 0) (#6)
    by lentinel on Mon Sep 22, 2014 at 05:22:42 PM EST
    this an accurate portrayal of the way people are treated in our justice system?

    Roughed up.
    No phone call.
    No rights read to them.
    Handcuffed with arm stretched above the body for over 6 hours.
    Held in darkness.
    Numbers written on the arm with marker pens.

    People who have not been convicted of anything?

    Is this what actually happens Jeralyn?


    I have never encountered (none / 0) (#8)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Sep 22, 2014 at 07:45:29 PM EST
    anyone held in darkness or who had their number written in marker on their arm or who was handcuffed with their arm stretched above the body for over 6 hours. As to the rest, yes, it happens, far more than people think, particularly in local county jails in large metropolitan areas. That's why the Justice Department has become "monitors" of so many local police departments. (It doesn't happen anywhere near the same degree with federal arrests and detention, in my experience. U.S. Marshals, for example, are usually terrific.)

    Here's a sampling of cases
    of actions investigated by the DOJ civil rights division. They have monitoring agreements with a lot of departments around the country. Here is their brochure. Also see the ACLU page on this.

    Parent

    Jeralyn it really quacks me up (none / 0) (#9)
    by fishcamp on Tue Sep 23, 2014 at 11:13:50 AM EST
    that you go to jail all the time.  Had to think of a way to say GO DUCKS...

    Parent
    What's Quackalackin'? (none / 0) (#10)
    by squeaky on Tue Sep 23, 2014 at 12:28:57 PM EST
    So if you have a thought on what's "crackalackin' " today (real translation: "What's happening?" -- ask any rapper, it has nothing to do with crack cocaine) here's the place.

    TL, TL

    Parent

    Thank you. (none / 0) (#11)
    by lentinel on Tue Sep 23, 2014 at 03:10:16 PM EST