The Good Wife 3x13: Bitcoin for Dummies

Posted on the 16 January 2012 by Tvgeek @TVGeek_blog



Original Air Date: 15 January 2012


StorylineAlicia defends a lawyer who hires the firm after the government arrests him for not revealing the name of an anonymous client: a mysterious computer programmer who illegally invented a new online currency.Review: If you think this week's episode of The Good Wife is a complete fantasy, I'm here to inform you it isn't. It's a fairly known fact that Michelle and Robert King have been using real facts (of economical, political and social nature) to create their weekly scripts, making this show probably the most actual show there is out there. But online currency available to use for day to day products? How can that be possible? Mind that we're not talking about Fcebook credits here or other types of commodities you can use in online games and such.

Bitcoin - a digital currency released back in 1999 and invented by Satoshi Nakamoto (which is most likely a pseudonym, as no one knows his true identity) - is very much a reality. To be honest, I'm surprised they even used the real name of the currency, given that previously they somehow manages to transform Facebook into Facebranch, but I'm glad they kept it real up to the point where the very inventor of this concept is as much of a secret in the series as it is in the real life.
OK, maybe not that much of a secret for Kalinda's sharp eyes, who can see through steel, much like Superman, but she's known for her secrecy, so I doubt other people were going to figure out as easily as her the inventor's name. Or, specifically, names.
I'd give you that the finger pointing was maybe a bit too much, leading to a rather predictable end (also, why bring in Jason Biggs if you're not going to give him more to do than just be a defender in a case), and maybe all that programming talk got tiring after the first couple of minutes (I get why Kalinda would know Lockhart/Gardner's IP address, but how would she know C++ specifics?), nevertheless the theme spoke to the computer geek in me and I got quite involved in the action. 
The other issue I have with this episode - and related to the main case - is the fact that, according to the writers, private currency is illegal in the US; this, however, is not true: it may be strictly regulated, but virtually anyone can create their own currency. This is a big issue with a show wanting to pose as promoters of reality and I will not even get into the fact that it's supposed to be a legal procedural.
But the Bitcoin bit was not the only arc this episode had to offer. A big part of it was the focus on Will's situation - and again, I welcomed Eslbeth Tascioni, a caracter so different than Carrie Preston's Arlene that it's surprising we're talking about the same actress. Unfortunately for Will, Elsbeth's methods don't work as well with him as they previously worked with the Florricks and, though she is very much capable of putting Wendy Scott-Carr in an embarrassing position, Peter's former countercandidate has some aces left on her sleeve. I was surprised to see Kalinda chose between Alicia and her firm in the end, so I;m thinking of one of two possibilities: either she's acting out of guilt towards her former BFF, or she really tampered with the file and gave Dana a version that wouldn't implicate Will in anything illegal. I don't know why, call it instinct, but I'm going with the first though, and I can hardly wait to find out what is in that filet hat can be so damaging to the male half of Lockhart/Gardner.
What I missed in this episode was Eli, and what I found a bit too much was Zach's relationship with Nisa (how come I always hate whatever arc they throw in Alicia's kids direction?). It always surprises me how Alicia is capable of letting her children do almost anything just to contradict her mother-in-law (as despicable as she is); they may have different reasons for not wanting Zach to hang with Nisa as much, but the ultimate goal would be the same. Oh well, I guess saint Alicia is not as perfect a mother as the writers are trying to portray her.The Good Wife 3x12: Alienation of Affection Back to Season 3