Original Air Date: 30 October 2011
What I did enjoy, in terms of one-time appearances, was Eli's ex-wife arc. We always knew he had been married and meeting the woman who made him settle down was almost mandatory. The best thing about this was casting Alan Cumming's good friend, Parker Posey, in this role. The two of them have played together multiple times and have that kind of chemistry that makes a character of its own. Giving Vanessa a political career was yet another reason to throw in some popular topics, though I think the connection to the Bin Laden family was a bit of a stretch. But all in all, this is one of the few shows where I actually welcome the political angle, because of the natural manner in which it's presented.
The last sub-plot we need to touch on is the relationship between Alicia and Will. Inevitably, it's always somewhere in the background and the main discussion this week was whether Will should meet Alicia's children. His encounter with Zach was absolutely hilarious. Josh Charles is an amazing actor and played the awkwardness of the moment to perfection; Will was lame in his inability to say something even remotely coherent - something one rarely hears from a lawyer - and later on, when Alicia refused to formally introduce him to her children, he was clearly hurt. While she's still keeping the distance (not blamable, giving her unique situation), Will is a lot more invested in the relationship and I don't see how this can go well on the long term. Add a young blonde lawyer with a crush on the boss into the mix and The Good Wife has all the indicators of turning this into a soap. This is definitely not something I want to see here - so far, it's the only show on TV that didn't have to recur to cheap tricks like this to stir things up.
So, as you can see, I have a lot of complaints about this particular episode. I already miss Lisa Edelstein's character, but on the bright side, Grace's tutor was nowhere to be seen.The Good Wife 3x05: Marthas and Caitlins Back to Season 3