What I’m Watching: The Good Wife

The Good Wife: Season 2, Episode 6 “Poisoned Pill” (B+)

The bad: not even one mention of the Nobel Peace Prize winner case on which all of the previous episode was spent. The good: everything else. Another densely packed episode deftly handles multiple plotlines involving a number of characters. Most interestingly, we have Michael J. Fox as Alicia’s opposing counsel, who uses his Parkinson’s disease to distract and sway the jury in his favor. Sending Alicia on a wild goose chase for his badge to ensure that she came in late for trial was a pretty horrendous start to their relationship, and the joy on Alicia’s face as they were able to catch him by surprise was palpable. Of course, he wasn’t content to lose gracefully and instead had to show up and throw in Alicia’s face the fact that it was actually considered a major victory for him. This show has done an exceptional job of picking great actors to play lawyers for the opposition. I was also impressed by the casting of Lili Taylor as Kalinda’s ex, a terific role for her considering her Emmy-nominated experience playing Nate’s less preferred lover on “Six Feet Under,” and she’s the perfect match for Kalinda, ready to combat being ignored by showing up arm-in-arm with Blake. Watching Eli scramble around is nothing new, yet pinning the blame for the attack ad on his opposition was clever, and it’s good to see Alicia on his side, chewing out Grace for speaking in support of Wendy. Good news for the firm as well – being in a good financial situation will surely enable them to take on more fascinating cases.