SVU Lesbian Kiss Fakeout!
DOD readers may recall Alastair’s preview post (below, via YouTube) of tonight’s episode of Law and Order: SVU in which Kathy Griffin plays lesbian activist Babs Duffy and hits on Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay). In the preview clip she doesn’t just hit on her, she kisses her. Well, I’m watching the episode right now and the kiss has been edited out. It’s clear in the aired episode that a kiss was what Griffin was after — and so the episode plays on in the same manner as the version with the kiss — but the woman-on-woman action has been deleted. Come on, NBC, we can handle it! And the rest of nation should be able to handle it, too.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Where are my shows? Nearly every broadcast networks’ prime-time schedule has been in reruns or vanished altogether, some for the two weeks of the Olympics and others for months.
That changes this week. Most notably, Law & Order: SVU returns Wednesday with back-to-back episodes featuring the “noted thespians” Kathy Griffin (as a lesbian-rights activist) and Mischa Barton (as a prostitute). I do miss The O.C….
The folks at Denver’s gayzette alerted me to this SVU sneak peak featuring Griffin and Hargitay. Is it Wednesday?!
Obligatory Olympics Post
Last night I headed over to Alastair’s place with the intention of watching our regular Thursday night program: Models of the Project Runway. We thought we’d top it off with a little Olympic figure skating. In the end PR and MotR were reruns so we watched the Olympics exclusively. But not before Alastair cooked up a little feast. Dear reader, we do cook every once in a while! We began with a lovely manchego cheese on Carr’s water biscuits (the kind with a little bit of pepper sprinkled on them) and a tart Spanish verdejo. Very nice. The main course was fresh pasta with pesto and sockeye salmon. Alastair was outdoing himself. We finished with mixed greens and a mustard vinaigrette and I have to say that Alastair does love his mustard; I only choked the one time.
After dinner we settled in to watch the ice skating, interrupted periodically by aerial ski jumping or some such mind-boggling sport. A few thoughts:
Joannie Rochette
Longtime readers of DOD will know of my affinity for our neighbors to the North and so it will come as no surprise that I was rooting for Joannie Rochette, even though I knew she probably didn’t stand much of a chance against the teenage powerhouses Kim Yu-Na and Mao Asada. Add to this the tragedy of Rochette losing her mother just a few days ago and her perseverance despite the loss, and I was hooked. Rochette took the bronze with Kim and Asada nabbing the gold and silver, respectively, as expected. What struck me most in watching them skate (aside from the fact that they were all ridiculously good) was how different they looked. Kim and Asada look like the late teenagers that they are (both are 19): they’re slim and tiny. Rochette, 24, looks like a woman. And Rochette is actually the shorter of the three. I tried to find a picture of all three on the podium but they don’t seem to be available, and the official Olympics site is guarding their photos.
This brings me to my next oh-so-deep observation: Kim, Asada, and Rochette were competing in “Ladies” figure skating. According to the official Olympics website, the other Ladies’ sports also seem to involve skating (figure or speed), skiing of any variety, and snowboarding. When female people play hockey or curl or hurl themselves down tracks in various sorts of sleds they are called women. As they should be. ”Lady” is an outdated term with all kinds of class implications. Can you imagine if men competed in “Gentlemen’s Speed Skating?” I think not. Why the discrepancy, Olympics? Is this how the sports are called in their non-Olympic incarnations?
Finally, I offer grudging congratulations to Apolo Ohno, who, NBC never fails to remind us at every other commercial break, is the most decorated US winter Olympian in history (note the use of US there; Norwegian cross-country skier Bjorn Daehlie has him beat for the real title of most winter Olympic medals ever, period). Just as we were told constantly that Michael Phelps is now the most decorated Olympian of all time. Bear with me; this is not just my irritation with the United States’ obsessive need for self-promotion. It has much more to do with the fact that those athletes (and this is not to say that Ohno and Phelps are not both phenomenal athletes) who can be the most decorated athletes are those who compete in sports that have multiple events. If you play hockey, for instance, you’re out of luck: one medal tops per games. You’d have to win at four or five consecutive Olympic games to compete with Ohno or Phelps in only one year. And it’s not just the team sports. Look at Kim Yu-Na’s performance last night. In order to qualify for one medal she had to perform both a short program and a longer free program (the ice dancers — and yes, they are silly — have to do three). Both performances were phenomenal, but she’s only entitled to the one medal for both of them. And those of us who watched last night know that she — and Asada and Rochette and Mirai Nagasu and the other top competitors — are no less skilled and athletic than “the most decorated” of their fellow Olympians, but they will never join their ranks. So enough with this “most decorated” business, I say! In that spirit, let me congratulate the Canadian women’s (not ladies’) ice hockey team, which yesterday won their third consecutive gold medal!
Lauren Hutton on Project Runway
Hutton in a recent GAP ad
You know things have gotten crazy when Alastair and I post twice in one day (see below), but that’s the kind of mood we’re in: excited for Design After Dark tonight (a fancy social event in Denver! a chance to dress up in this city of constant casualness!) and still reeling from the wonderfulness that was Lauren Hutton on Project Runway (and Models of the Runway) last night.
Hutton in earlier modeling days
That’s right, la Hutton was on PR as the guest judge. And about time! We are very glad that LH never stepped in to fill Janice Dickinson’s shoes on America’s Next Top Model (too lowbrow), but that doesn’t mean she has to confine herself only to selling her line of makeup on the Home Shopping Network. That’s right, LH hawks makeup on TV and many of us probably also remember her turn as the spokeswoman for Hormone Replacement Therapy before HRT became linked to the possibility of higher rates of breast cancer. But before all that Lauren Hutton was the original supermodel (take that, Janice Dickinson!), signing on to be the face of Revlon in 1974, the first time a cosmetics company would associate itself with one model only. She graced the cover of Vogue 28 (yes, that’s right, 28!) times. And of course she also acted, hosted a talk show and a travel show, modeled for J. Crew, and for many years has devoted herself to causes benefiting the environment and women’s health. In short, she’s a wee bit of an icon.
Hutton as Judge
Well, last night, she finally graced the guest’s chair on PR. And it was well worth the wait. Wearing a simple blue button-down and what looked like a suede blazer, LH was her casual non-flashy gorgeous gap-toothed self. And the voice! Just as gravelly as ever. Though at first she was hesitant during the final deliberations, telling Heidi “You go first,” she warmed up considerably, noting of Amy that she “gloried” in the burlap assignment and paying particular attention to the fact that the seams in Pamela’s dress were not so flattering to her model’s ass.
But the best part must have been when Lauren popped backstage to see the models after the show was over. I was worried that they, children that they are (well, save Brandise [32] and Alison, who is clearly lying about her age) might not even know who she was, but oh no. Cerri’s exclamation might have summed it up best: “Sweet Mother of Jesus, it’s Lauren Hutton!” One of them even shed tears. Lauren’s advice to the aspiring supermodels? Work four times harder than anyone else. After all, she explained, she was shorter than her competition and had a “lopsided face” and yet she became, well, Lauren Hutton.
La Hutton was clearly the high point of last night’s hour and a half so far as I’m concerned. The designers all did a good job with their potato sacks, Jay and Mila particularly (I didn’t care for Amy’s dress as much as the judges did). Ping’s contraption was kind of a disaster, and while Pamela’s was a little trashy looking, at least it covered her model’s ass. If I was surprised by anything it was that Pamela was kicked off instead of Jesus or Ping. I see the hand of the producers here: Ping is loony and Jesus (easy on the eyes) brings in the gays. Buh-bye Pamela. The other surprise of the evening was that Ping ditched Elizaveta, despite the model’s loyalty to Ping in the model-chooses-designer twist at the beginning. And for Ping to do so without shedding a tear signals something of a transformation. Not that I disagree with Ping’s choice, but when did she become so hard-hearted?
OK, that’s enough. I have other design choices on my mind; I must select my outfit for the big event tonight!
Models of the Project Runway Premiere!
The Cast of Season 7
Like other homosexuals across North America, Alastair and I were glued to the screen at 8:00 MST last night for the season premiere of Project Runway. Well, I was; Alastair arrived precisely at 8:01, which meant I was running down the stairs to let him in just as it began. “It’s already started. Run!” I yelled as I opened the downstairs door. And to his credit, and never a great one for exercise, Alastair ran. We were also joined – mid-runway show – by our southern gal pal, Bonita Lou (but this time I had left the door open for her so I didn’t have to miss one single minute).
Anyone who has bothered to read this far does not need a recap of how Project Runway works – is there any sane person left in this nation who has not enjoyed its wonder? – so let me cut to the chase. I believe I can speak for Alastair when I say that we are excited for the prospects of this season, more so than last. Three reasons: More talent. Crazier people. Much more model drama.
The Models of the Runway, Season 2
And here I am willing to go on record (albeit pseudonymously) and say that I am a convert to Models of the Runway. Lifetime – while it may make me sit through trailers for “The Pregnancy Pact” (dear god, has it come to this, Camryn Manheim?) – has been pretty savvy in its development of this sister show for PR. If you’re in for one, why not stick around for an additional half hour? Especially if you think you might learn something extra about PR itself. And of course you do. They are also well aware of a sizable chunk of their demographic: the gays. And what is Models of the Runway but an upscale version of the perennial gay favorite, America’s Next Top Model, except with actual models? Well played, Lifetime.
OK, some initial thoughts, in no particular order:
Back to New York! Amen.
We’re thrilled that, at least for the first episode, Heidi and Tim were joined by both Michael and Nina. Too often last season was one or the other absent.
Anthony is all kinds o’ gay. And that’s fantastic. He wears it well.
Ping is more than a little loopy. Also fantastic. All the better for us.
Seth Aaron needs to pick one first name and ditch the other. Haven’t the gays gotten over this silly habit yet? One is enough. (Jay and Janeane also seem to have two names but they don’t insist on being called both at all times.) He also needs to fix his hair, which is not nearly as “rocker” as he seems to think.
Janeane’s crying jags will start to wear pretty soon. Get a hold of yourself!
There are some pretty cute boys this time around. And I do mean “boys.” They just get younger and younger! (Or maybe it’s that I get… No, I won’t think of it that way.) We’ll see if they last.
As for the models: Allison may claim to be 23 but she kind of looks like a 40 year-old housewife from her native Ohio.
Brandise, 32 (!!!) and proud of it, is from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and you know how I love a Canadian!
Sophia, while meeting with the approval of the ornery model coach, Anastasia, and quickly becoming one of Alastair’s favorites, definitely rubs me the wrong way. The woman was apportioning out clothes hangers within minutes of arriving in the Flatotel. Really??
But the one to watch – only for the sheer crazy factor – is Alexis, from right here in Denver! She proudly told the camera that her religion was witchcraft. She’s a witch model! (A witchodel?) But fear not: she only practices white magic, not black. Phew!
As for the verdict: Bravo to Emilio for winning, deservedly, in our humble opinion. Seth Aaron’s Avril Lavigne-inspired silliness was not to our taste, but you can’t pick ‘em all. (We had him pegged for the bottom three.) And Christiane – who not only created a loud mess of a dress, but also was rather cocky about it – was a great choice to be first off. We were disappointed to see the designers exhibit so much loyalty to their models right off the bat (especially as the previews make it seem like this is not going to last and indeed that at least one model, in a total twist, is going to reject her designer!); Kelly was tall and beautiful and deserved to stay. Alas…
Not all that surprisingly, we are hooked and will be back next week to see what happens. Stay tuned…
How Do I Love Thee, Sandra Rinomato?
Sandra Rinomato
Let me count the ways… Yes, I’m back to talk about HGTV again, specifically the host of “Property Virgins,” where first-time homebuyers see a few homes and then attempt to purchase one of them. I did not always love Sandra Rinomato; in fact, the first time I ever expressed an opinion about her at all, it was in this email to the friend who had introduced me to HGTV: “I hate this woman, and she’s even Canadian!” These were harsh words, because I love Canadians. But I have seen the light and become Sandra’s biggest fan. Yes, she tends to make bad “virgin” jokes a bit much, and yes, she does that same hokey routine about delivering “bad news” at the end of the show that is always a fake. But I still love her. For all these reasons:
1. In the beginning she takes the would-be homebuyers to a neighborhood that they love and then has them guess home prices. And promptly tells them that they are wrong and cannot afford to live there. This may sound cruel but I like how she very quickly checks people’s expectations and lets them know that – contrary to many of their beliefs, and like life more generally – they cannot actually have exactly what they want.
2. She lets the property virgins look at the homes first without her being there. Yes, the cameras are obviously there but Sandra is not, so the shoppers can make up their own minds about what they think and say bad things about the house or apartment that she has chosen for them without worrying about offending her.
3. This is my favorite: Many of these shoppers tend to fixate on things like dirt, bad carpet, or ugly paint or wallpaper. Sandra will have none of it! She consistently makes fun of these people—to their faces—for focusing on the cosmetic, telling them that she will not hear of these things as reasons not to consider a home.
4. She makes them guess the price once they’ve seen the home. I think I like this because it sort of makes it like a game show. That and trying to guess which house they will choose to buy.
5. She doesn’t rush the potential homebuyers, letting people take their time in making what is clearly a very important decision.
6. The show doesn’t always end in a sale. Sometimes property virgins discover that they don’t want to make an offer or they don’t want to pay as much as the sellers demand. In other words, this is a reality real estate show that actually resembles reality now again.
7. Did I mention that she’s Canadian?
If I ever buy a home, I want Sandra by my side every step of the way!
Cultivating Sameness on HGTV
Greetings readers! I’ve now returned to D-Town, but only for a day before both Alastair and I head out to the city by the Bay for some New Years celebrating! But I’ve been lax about posting, so I give you this, my first installation on my obsession with HGTV.
HGTV, to which I was introduced only about a year ago, is the acronym for Home and Garden Television and features shows about … you guessed it, homes and gardens. The shows can be divided into two genres: the Makeover shows and the Real Estate shows. Occasionally, as in “Designed to Sell,” they overlap: make over house so that it can sell. But most stick to one format or another. I far prefer the latter (many of which seem to be filmed in Denver and environs, including one with DaOiD’s own moniker — which we have finally managed to supplant in a Google search). It’s like real estate pornography: so many homes, so little time! And there is something completely voyeuristic about watching other people search for homes. On the good ones, like “My First Place” or “Property Virgins,” you even get to hear the conversations about their budgets and mortgages and on all of them you get a sense of how these people (families, couples [gay and straight], single people, and occasionally friends) operate together. The shows are on all the time and they’re completely addictive. This post, in other words, cannot possibly do justice to all I have to say about HGTV.
So let me begin by discussing one of the things that, despite my love for them, bothers me about the people on the real estate shows. Almost all of the house-hunters make a list of what they’re looking for and almost all of them – despite lots of variations in terms of size, house vs. apartment, city vs. country, number of bedrooms – demand five features. And, you guessed it, dear readers, it’s those features with which I have a problem. Before I tell you why, let’s review the wish list, shall we?
1. Open floor plan. Especially for the kitchen in its relationship to the dining room and living room (or, absurdly, “great room”). No one wants walls these days, it would seem. And many people say this is because they want to be able to converse with their guests when they entertain. How often do these people entertain?
A particularly hideous granite-countertopped island in a kitchen that appears open to the rest of the house
2. Granite countertops in the kitchen. I’m not a huge fan of granite myself, and while I do recognize that Formica is pretty ugly, let’s think outside the box just a little bit people. What about limestone or tile or slate or stainless steel or poured concrete or butcher block? There are ways to make one’s kitchen look new or updated or attractive without the shiny and sparkly veined granite.
3. Stainless steel appliances. Nothing else will do. Don’t even try to cross these people.
4. A master suite with ensuite bath. Even in houses built before such things were customary, people demand that their master bedroom be enormous (the word “sanctuary” is thrown around far too frequently) and that it have a separate private bathroom. Even when these people do not plan to live with anyone other than themselves; from whom do they seek privacy?
The Requisite Double Vanity
5. Double vanities/sinks in the ensuite bath. So convinced seem these people that they will be fighting over sink time that I have actually seen a house rejected, despite having everything else on the list, because the bathroom only had – gasp – one sink.
So what’s my beef? The first is that, with the possible exception of the stainless steel appliances, I think these things are silly. They are status symbols foisted upon would-be home-buyers by the makeover shows on networks like HGTV, and in turn by their corporate sponsors who manufacture many of them. I’m not fully persuaded that all of these people really want these things for any particular reason but they definitely know they are supposed to want them. And request them they do. It is how they plan to prove to their friends and family that they got a nice house. This is conspicuous consumption, in other words.
The second is that I’m disturbed by the fact that everyone seems to want exactly the same house. Whether this is also the influence of home and makeover shows or the overwhelming preference that many of these buyers seem to have for newly constructed houses, I dread the homogenization of the American home. Although many of these people claim a desire to find a home that “expresses who we are as a couple/family,” what that means in practice is apparently that they are exactly the same as all other home-buying couples and families of the early twenty-first century (if HGTV can be taken to be at all representative).
And that’s just sad. To get a real sense of the differences between the U.S. and home-buyers in other countries, check out “House Hunters International,” but that’s the subject of another post.
RIP Deborah Curtis
Longtime viewers of the ever-satisfying “Law and Order,” please join me in mourning the death of Deborah Curtis, who passed away in California some days ago and was laid to rest in a Long Island cemetery last night at around 8:30 MST on NBC. Curtis is survived by her daughters and husband, Rey Curtis, former NYPD detective.
S. Epatha Merkerson as Lt. Anita van Buren
Benjamin Bratt more recently
Dear readers, I almost lost it last night. I haven’t been watching “Law and Order” so much at its regularly scheduled time, because that time is a Friday night, and I at least try to have a social life most weekends (though clearly there are exceptions). But I watched last night and apparently I’ve missed a fair bit this season. Not only does Lt. Anita van Buren (played by the ever-brilliant S. Epatha Merkerson, who I once saw mere blocks from my former apartment in my former home town) have cancer but Det. Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) returned for a guest appearance. Longtime viewers will recall that he quit the force because his wife, Deborah (played by Pat Moya,whose picture does not seem to be available anywhere, including here), suffered from multiple sclerosis and he needed to take time off to care for her. That was ten years ago. She was buried on last night’s show and Rey called the Lieutenant to invite her to the service. While she was busy with work and overwhelmed with fears about her own mortality, she showed up at the cemetery because it was Rey. And because they have history together. And because it’s a TV program and Benjamin Bratt needs the work.
First of all, though Benjamin Bratt has clearly aged, he’s as hot as he ever was. Second, though you only saw them for a second, his daughters are now grown-up people. Boy did that make me feel old! But most importantly, Rey and the Lieutenant (I can’t bring myself to call her Anita) took time to talk
a little bit before she went back to work. He told her that he’d spoken to Lennie (the incomparable Jerry Briscoe) in the days before he’d died and that he’d sounded OK. It was like the old “Law and Order” had returned for just a moment right there before my eyes, but it was so sad! I shed a tear and I’m not embarrassed to admit it. Of all the L&O police combinations, the two most satisfying to me were van Buren/Briscoe/Curtis and van Buren/Briscoe/Green. For just a minute we were transported back to the former. And I remembered just how good it was. And then it led me to remember this, about which I need say no more:
Remember the Good Old Days?
Brooke Shields, what are you thinking?
Clearly this has nothing to do with Denver, but Denver does have me watching more TV than I would like, so there’s the connection. Add to that the fact that I’ve been sick and still more TV has been consumed.
Let’s begin with Brooke, back in the day. I don’t know that I actually remember her Calvin Klein ads, but they were so iconic that people who never saw them at the time “remember” them. A 15-year-old Brooke told us that nothing came between her and her Calvins:
Nothing came between Brooke and her Calvins
Shields had already acted in the controversial “Pretty Baby,” in which, at the age of 12, she played a child prostitute, and then came “Blue Lagoon.” Shields and Christopher Atkins as shipwrecked children (and cousins) who frolic naked and fall in love. After that the infamous Calvin Klein commercials. According to her imdb biography, Shields never stopped working,though looking at the list of credits, it’s clear that much of that work was in bad movies and as a guest star on TV programs. That changed in the mid-90s when she starred in her own sitcom, “Suddenly Susan,” and reviews were not half bad. When “Suddenly Susan” came to an end, Shields had demonstrated that, as an adult, she could actually act and she could be funny. Then she returned to guest appearances and bad movies, until 2008-9, when she starred as Wendy Healy, in “Lipstick Jungle,” based on the book by Candace Bushnell (author of Sex and the City).
Shields used her popularity to secure a number of commercial contracts, and that is the subject of my post today. Shields was seriously funny and clever in the commercials for Volkswagen, where she claimed that couples were only having children so that they could justify the purchase of a Volkswagen mini-van, called a Routan. She explained that the current baby boom, or “Routan Boom,” could be blamed on German engineering. She makes fun of herself. Check out this extended commercial:
She followed that up with a series of forgettable ads for Colgate Total, which are still running. But where she lost me, and you know, dear reader, where I am going (if you don’t have Tivo), is the following:
Here Shields advertises a drug called Latisse, which has been proven to lengthen, thicken, and darken eyelashes. Latisse will cure your hypotrichosis, what the commercials tell us is the clinical term for “inadequate or not enough lashes.” I kid you not. The word itself normally applies to people who lack normal hair growth, sometimes leading to baldness by the age of 25. It can also be used to describe those who lose their hair to chemotherapy. In other words, not women who find that Cover Girl Lash Blast just doesn’t do the trick.
Brooke, has it come to this? Were sales of your book, Down Came the Rain, not what you had anticipated? Do you have debt? And finally, after a successful career as a model and actress, do you expect us to believe that you actually suffer from hypotrichosis?
The Good Wife
Julianna Margulies as The Good Wife
I had seen one or two episodes of The Good Wife before last night but had not seen the first six. Confronted with an evening in and with little desire to do anything productive, I found one of those pirated TV sites and watched the first six episodes. All in a row. Dear readers, I am addicted. It is a wonder I had not become hooked before, so much is this show up my alley.
The premise: Alicia Florrick’s husband, Peter, has been convicted of corruption charges stemming from his alleged misuse of funds during his time as State’s Attorney for Cook County (Chicago). That’s the alleged part (at least in the narrative of the show). What’s not being denied by Peter is that he had sex with a number of prostitutes, over a reasonably long period of time. Alicia (Julianna Margulies) is the good wife, and is clearly inspired by Silda Spitzer, Dina McGreevey, and Hillary Rodham Clinton (whose photo makes an appearance in the pilot). The ads for the show generally left the viewer with the impression that this was all that was going on. But no: with Peter (Chris Noth, whose appeal I have never understood) in prison, Alicia must go back to work in order to support their two kids (they have also lost their house). She had worked as a lawyer before her kids were born and she manages to get a job as a junior associate at an up-and-coming Chicago firm through a friend from law school. There she gets to solve crimes, defend the wrongfully accused, and compete with the other junior associate for a permanent position in the firm. (Cause on TV that’s what first-year associates get to do at law firms.)
Had I known all that, I would have been on board long ago. Because The Good Wife manages to combine two of my very favorite elements in one TV show: legal procedural and story about female
Alicia stands by her man
empowerment. But there is more! The show’s title is deliberate and interesting. Alicia is, in one sense, the good wife. The pilot opens with Peter confronting a bank of reporters and cameras as he announces his resignation, admits his misdeeds (the prostitutes), but proclaims his innocence regarding the misuse of funds. Alicia stands beside him, glazed look on her face. We have been here before. Too many times. But immediately after they disappear from camera’s view, we get to see what happens: she slaps him. And this back-and-forth between “standing by her man” publicly and railing against him privately continues throughout the episodes. She still loves him but she is also increasingly enraged by him, the more so as she discovers further infidelities. But the show goes further. Alicia is a good wife, in the sense that she goes back to work to support her family, but she clearly also enjoys her work and is good at it. She also makes a number of choices (some of which involve her husband’s knowledge of the very cases she’s trying) that are ethically dubious, at best, and illegal, at worst. She may be good, but she’s also human. And this makes her an immensely appealing character.
There are so many other reasons to like this show. Chief among them is, of course, that the main character is a woman who is not just one-dimensional. She is capable and yet also vulnerable: a wife, mother, and a skilled attorney, and all these things matter to her. And that she is played by Julianna Margulies, who does a really fantastic job. I was not a big ER fan, but like every other American, I have seen at least a few episodes of the show that ran for 15 years. So I remember Nurse Hathaway and I’m glad that she’s back and that yet another network is taking a chance on a whole show centered around a female actor over the age of 40. She’s not the only great female character.
Kalinda & Alicia: Sisterhood is Powerful!
Her relationship with the law firm’s investigator, Kalinda Sharma (Archie Panjabi) is fantastic. Kalinda is young and assertive and very good at her job. At first she is pretty skeptical about Alicia’s abilities. She criticizes Alicia’s propensity to identify too quickly with the clients (and indeed there is an irritating degree of automatic female empathy that the show thinks is more subtle than it really is), but eventually comes to respect her talent and intelligence. There are some excellent – and slightly unsubtle – scenes that could well be described like this: “sisterhood is powerful!” And I loved every one of them. One of the firm’s partners is played by the brilliant Christine Baranski, and while she doesn’t always get to be as funny as we know she can be, she’s still pretty great. Guest stars have included Martha Plimpton (!) as a very pregnant and rather duplicitous corporate defense attorney and Leslie Hendrix as a feisty jury consultant (Hendrix is best known as Medical Examiner Elizabeth Rodgers on Law and Order).
The Good Wife is not without a few faults, the first of which I’ve already mentioned: the writers often have Alicia identify with women and victims, as if this would happen automatically as a result of her experiences and her sex. To their credit, she also manages to recognize the ways in which that identification is sometimes misguided. The show also has an irritating habit of having all characters identify Alicia as “Mrs. Florrick.” This makes sense in certain situations, but much less so in others, particularly when characters with whom she interacts at work – some of whom have no idea about her famous husband – refer to her as this instead of Ms. Florrick or simply Alicia. In fact, almost all characters who are married get called “Mrs.” in all kinds of professional settings and this just seems silly, not just because many of them might have kept their own names but also because, even if they have not, workplace etiquette in many of these situations would demand that they be called “Ms.” The single women, like Kalinda, just get called by their first names.
Does the show misrepresent life in a law firm? No doubt. Is it slightly heavy-handed in its depiction of women’s empowerment? Probably so. Is it a little manipulative in its marshalling of emotions? Absolutely. Is it a TV program? Indeed it is. And one I plan to watch every Tuesday night.
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