Another terrific episode of The Good Wife is the standout of the latest batch of my tv viewing, although Lucy Lawless and Tricia Helfer popping up on No Ordinary Family was something I was looking forward to a lot. Elizabeth Mitchell flashed her undies on V while the Hellcats bonded with their rivals from that Christian college.
The confrontation between Will and Dianne and Derrick Bond on The Good Wife was the most satisfying part of “The Great Firewall”, that saw Lost star Ken Leung as a Chinese dissident illegally held prisoner and tortured by the authorities, suing the Facebook-style social network who handed over his IP address. The case was not especially memorable but for the fact that it emerged Will was not trying to get the social network in question for it’s human rights abuses, but so that the Zuckerberg figure Patrick Edelstein who appeared a few weeks back can get his foot in the door in China. It led to an excellent, tense confrontation between Alicia and Will that seemed to be increasing the distance between them. Alicia’s shock at his manipulation for a wealthy client seemed to be closing the door further on anything ever developing between them. She is at heart an honest and upstanding lawyer, the type who wants to help the innocent rather than get the guilty off. We have seen a few instances of Will as your stereotypical money grasping lawyer, and you have to wonder if her disillusionment with the machinations of Lockhart Gardner will have repercussions in future episodes and put the kibosh on any romance with Will.
My favourite little scene was with Alicia and Kalinda near the start, where Kalinda gives Alicia her new address – she must have had a few cards made as she gives one to Cary too. Alicia’s amusement at the gesture and Kalinda’s rather uncharacteristic bashfulness was cute. Later in a scene with Cary, she talks about wanting to do things normal people do. Incidentally, why has she moved anyway? Running from that husband we heard about?
I’ve enjoyed the friendship between Cary and Kalinda that has developed, although I am never quite sure if he is another of her manipulations as he is now useful to her with his job at the state attorney’s office. He tips her off in this episode about an upcoming investigation into her. I do hope they don’t develop this into a romance though. A kiss this week seemed more exploratory than romantic, but we will see.
The goings on with Will, Dianne, Derrick and the other partners was fascinating. I didn’t see Julius’ triple cross coming, as the always sly lawyer seemed to be double crossing Will and Dianne, only to turn on Derrick when it came to the vote. I’m glad they’ve cleared Bond out. Hopefully slimy investigator Blake will go too.
Eli Gold managed to make use of the conniving Becca this week as she teamed up with Florrick Jr, Zack to expose Glen Child’s nanny scandal. I love Titus Welliver as Childs, so I hope he will be back. He makes a great baddie – even though he’s not all bad.
This show really is spoilt in its great cast. All these storylines featured great actors in well written roles. Even the annoying Becca is more than a one dimensional teen bitch. I’ve never been a Peter fan, but will Will being less and less likable, maybe Alicia is better off with the devil she knows.
Over on V, Erica takes control of the Fifth Column in some harebrained scheme to introduce a virus that will destroy the Vs or something. A few great and gross effects apart though, the plotting of the show is just all over the place. Ex-Fr Jack continues to be uneasy over any possible innocent deaths, while Erica is becoming more ruthless – which is appropriate. However, while I love Elizabeth Mitchell and Charles Mesure (he’ll always be Darnell and Archangel Michael from Xena to me!) their hookup was one of the least romantic love scenes for ages! Maybe that was the point. Maybe Mesure wanted to show off his abs and Mitchell wanted to show off her (clothed)boobs? The show is a mess, my interest is waning fast, and not even Elizabeth Mitchell’s bra can save it. I’ll be surprised if it gets a renewal.
I was looking forward to seeing Lucy Lawless and Tricia Helfer on one of my semi-guilty pleasures, No Ordinary Family. I still cannot see the charm of Michael Chilkis, but the rest of the cast are fun – especially geeky scientist Katie. However this was a very lacklustre episode. Poor Tricia Helfer seems condemned to forever play sexy sirens up to no good, but her power of entrancing men and making them do anything for her was just a tired old idea. It’s already unlikely that a brainy and gorgeous woman like Julie Benz would hook up with a not terribly attractive and lowly police sketch artist like Jim (Chilkis) but now he gets Six too?
Battlestar Galactica fans will remember fondly the D’Anna/Six/Gaius Baltar threesome – the last time Lawless and Helfer shared the screen. This time, Lucy appeared in only a few scenes as Mrs X, the one who was directing Sophie (Helfer) to seduce and manipulate Jim and his friend George. Interestingly, Lucy once again uses her own Kiwi accent. After all those early years of fake US accents on Xena and the following guest star roles, since BSG it’s been mainly her own one. Anyway, poor old Sophie is punished rather drastically for failing to carry out her mission by getting blown up. Surely a hasty move? A woman with Sophie’s skills could have been useful elsewhere to a scheming baddie you would think.
Especially weak was the resolution and breaking of Sophie’s spell on Jim when Stephanie gives him a big ol’ smackeroo snog because of course, true love will beat anything…YUK!! I was also not particularly pleased to see guest star Eric Balfour pop up as a newly created supervillain. Balfour is consistently bad in pretty much everything, with his annoying goatee and soulful eyes. More enjoyable was daughter Daphne’s attempts to make her curious boyfriend forget about his suspicions of her family’s superpowers. After about five conversations that saw her mind control him to change the subject, she realises she has to come clean.
I do enjoy this show – Chilkis apart – and apparently Lucy has a couple more appearances for me to look forward to. Shame this episode was a bit of a lame one.
Hellcats had a bit of family drama of its own as Marti confronted her mother about her dad, who it turns out was a musician. Meanwhile, Savannah learns that her pregnant sister is planning to marry the father of her baby – Savannah’s ex. It turns out that he is still mad for Savannah and slept with her sister after she rejected him. Savannah can’t let her sister (who I think is supposed to be about 19) make this mistake. To her surprise, her formidable mother, played by the excellent Teryl Rothery, actually praises her for doing what she couldn’t – stop her daughter from marrying in haste to someone who doesn’t love her.
Ashley Tisdale continues to be my favourite character on this fun show, (and yes, I’ve even gone over to the dark side and watched the first two High School Musical films to see her in her breakout role – she’s fab as Sharpay too!) and her family story was much more interesting than pole dancer Marti’s. However, her and Wanda are an interesting mother/daughter dynamic, with Marti being the strong one for much of their lives.
The Hellcats came up against Savannah’s old team, Memphis Christians over a song they plan to use at sectionals (is it sectionals or am I thinking of Glee?) The local band who carelessly gave the song to both groups demand a cheer-off to see who gets the rights. I always enjoy the cheerleading routines – as long as the main stars are not onscreen as the background cheerleaders are the real thing – amazing gymnasts, whereas Savannah, Marti and the other actors just dance about a bit. The teams’ rivalry is put aside when the ignorant prats in the band are unimpressed by their athletic routines and both cheerios (yes, I know, that’s Glee) tell the band to take their song and shove it where the sun don’t shine!
Appealing cast, good music and frothy fun, Hellcats really is a not so guilty pleasure but a Glee/Bring it On pretty people in skimpy clothes show. Hmm, maybe it IS a guilty pleasure..