Press reviews - 3x15 "Live from Damascus" - Small Screen Scoop

The Good Wife Season 3 recap – Software Shenanigans

Will finally tells Alicia about what is happening because, ultimately, she is his person. He tells her that the Pro Bono department, something he fought against, is why he is offered the settlement. And as he talks to her, he realizes he needs to just take the 6 month suspension because he did the wrong thing. .... 

... Will leaves his office that night, taking only a baseball bat. Things don’t go well when people have baseball bats and are upset on this show. It’s so heart wrenching watching everyone watch him leave. Especially as he says good bye to Alicia. Hey, Will…. you aren’t her boss anymore. I’m just saying. I’m disappointed she doesn’t get in the elevator with him.

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Press reviews - 3x15 "Live from Damascus" - Los Angeles Times

'The Good Wife' recap: Will says goodbye ... for now

The change of heart suggests that when he returns to the firm in six months -- just in time for the fall season, by the way -- Will is going to be a very different kind of lawyer. Naturally, I'm excited about this mostly because it gives me hope for a Will-Alicia romantic reconciliation; let's not forget, Alicia had plenty of reservations about Will that had nothing to do with her children. I do worry, though, that Will's soul-searching might lead him into the arms of some starry-eyed idealist he meets while picking up volunteer shifts at a local soup kitchen -- or, even worse, Caitlin. Either way, I hope that Will's absence from the firm doesn't translate into a Josh Charles-less "Good Wife." That's a price I'm not willing to pay.

For Alicia, the next six months ought to be very interesting. Because their long-simmering romance took precedence, it's easy to forget that Will also functioned as a kind of mentor to his old friend from Georgetown. After all, he's the one who offered Alicia a job when she needed one, and he's repeatedly vouched for her when her position at the firm seemed uncertain. As Will heads to the elevator, Alicia struggles to find the right words; it's clear she's not entirely sure what to say, given the tenuous status of their friendship. In this way, Will's parting words -- "Follow Diane’s lead, Alicia, you’ll do fine" -- are oddly poignant, an acknowledgment of how much Will's friendship means to Alicia, with or without the sex.

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Press reviews - 3x15 "Live from Damascus" - Vulture

The Good Wife Recap: False Positive

Whatever the ultimate outcome, Will’s suspension is a thrilling and daring reboot, better, I’d say, than the Peter-Kalinda revelation and subsequent Peter-Alicia separation of last season. Though the circumstances are somewhat similar—a big change foisted upon one of our main characters—Will is owing up to his mistakes, rather than trying to cover them up, as Peter did. This time, the big shakeup feels like a good thing, a chance to move forward. It’s propelled our heroes toward character growth rather than miring them in the job of picking up the pieces of their shatter existences.

Tellingly, Will is thinking aloud with Alicia when he decides to give in and take the suspension. The Will of Season One and Season Two would have fought it. But Season Three Will seems so at peace having made up his mind—he did the deed and needs to accept the consequences—and finally rid himself of the monkey he’s carried for 15 years. Is this the Alicia effect? Her stricter sense of right and wrong seems to have rubbed off on him, just as his sense of moral grayness has rubbed off on her. And now she’s his role model for strength and resilience. If Alicia could step away from the law for a decade and come back amid a humiliating public scandal, he can do the same. It’s thrilling to see how beautiful Alicia is in his eyes, how she managed to change a man just by being herself, and how small Peter looks compared to Will in this moment. Peter may love her and want to protect her, and he did fire Wendy Scott-Carr for having hurt her, but he doesn’t act like she makes him want to be a better man. He may be behaving well, but his heart’s not in it. Will taking the suspension is as loud a declaration of his devotion and worthiness for Alicia as the Voicemail of Love. But since this is The Good Wife, she of course doesn’t get this and it comes at a times when she’s ruled out all possibilities of being with him.

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Press reviews - 3x01 "A New Day" - The Wall Street Journal

"Steamy doesn’t even begin to describe Will and Alicia’s day-after-the-first-night together hook-up on “The Good Wife.” Will faked us out a bit by being mean to Alicia at work. We weren’t sure what was going on until, whether or not, once they got into that hotel room last May, things happened between them or not. Diane even asked Will if he was being a little rough on her. Cut to standing-up sex scene in Will’s home and him asking Alicia, “am I being too hard on you?” H-O-T, hot. We haven’t seen a scene like that since Derek and Meredith hooked up in an operating room for the first time at the hospital prom."

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Press reviews - 3x01 "A New Day" - Premiere In Review: Did Good Wife Alicia Do a Bad, Bad Thing?

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"And now, turning from kiddie fare to veddy adult subject matter. It appeared to us and observer Eli that Alicia and Will’s “About last night…” convorsation — especially when coupled with Will’s “complaint” to Diane about Alicia treating them as “peers” — turned into some sort of break-up. Au contraire. They were just snowing us. And that snow instantly melted once we saw what they were really up to behind closed doors — and I don’t think our language filters will allow me to quite detail it. Let’s just say that it involved much word play about Will being too (ahem) hard on Alicia (as Diane had suggested) and the words, “Don’t move…. Don’t move” — culminating an act I am not quite sure we have seen so vividly depicted on TV before."

Press reviews - 3x01 "A New Day" - TV Review: 'The Good Wife' (Season Premiere)

"Eli thinks Alicia is being different, and she totally is. She sees Will in his office and catches herself smiling. Hello, handsome. Will later stops by to speak to her but then cuts to Eli seeing him leave and Alicia being all distraught. Come on writers, you don't take out the best part! Stop teasing!

...

Will and Alicia. Diane tells Will she thinks he's holding something against Alicia and is being too hard on her.

Introducing, the best reason I will be watching the rest of the season, scene. "Diane thinks I'm going too hard on you. Am I? Going too hard?" Otherwise known as the up against the wall sex scene between Will and Alicia. Will wants to make moves to the bedroom but he's got her at the perfect, er, spot. So they stay put."

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Press reviews - 3x01 "A New Day" - 'The Good Wife' recap: Baby did a bad, bad thing

"The writers are obviously playing with our expectations in this episode, forestalling the interaction between Will and Alicia for as long as possible. After showing up to work late, Will finally stops by Alicia’s office. “We need to talk,” he says gravely. “About last night?” she says, her eyebrow cocked flirtatiously. The scene cuts away and, the next time we see Alicia, she’s at her desk, looking confused and dejected. Naturally, we assume that Will has just delivered some kind of Last Night Was a Mistake/I’m Not Ready for a Relationship ® speech, a suspicion that only grows deeper when Will scolds Alicia in front of Diane.

But no! It’s all part of their plan, you see. Next thing we know, Alicia and Will have slipped away for a passionate nooner at Will’s place -- and suddenly we understand just why Alicia was looking so pleased all morning."

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Press reviews - 3x01 "A New Day" - ‘Good Wife’ Watch: Let’s Start With the Haircut

"That was really the only thing the Season 3 opener needed to accomplish, and the writers tried to generate some suspense by having Alicia and Will be frosty to each other in the office, a ploy to fool their co-workers (especially the newly arrived Eli, who can be counted on to report back to Alicia’s estranged husband, Peter). It was a clever touch to have Will appear, looking glum, from behind a sliding elevator door, echoing the hotel elevator ride from last season; it was less clever, a little irritating even, when a reference to “last night” was thrown in just to confuse the audience. But eventually it all became clear: Will and Alicia in what appeared to be a nooner at his apartment, with Ms. Margulies delivering one of the best, quietest orgasms you’ve ever seen on the screen."

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Press reviews - 3x01 "A New Day" - Easy to be hard

"Do censors have a holiday? Because I don't think any were at work the day this episode needed approval. I don't care what your sexual orientation is; your pants were moist after this. Hard on her indeed."

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Press reviews - 3x01 "A New Day" - Good Girl Gone Bad

"Shall we first discuss the biggest revelation of season three, Alicia’s new bangs? No. Of course, having recapped this show for a season, I know that your dirty, dirty minds (and mine) are all fixated on that one scene, shot in close-up, of Alicia and Will experiencing possibly the hottest sex ever shown on network TV, without a single bit of flesh exposed.

...

Okay, but now that the foreplay of a season’s worth of exposition is over, let’s get back to THE SCENE, shall we? Robert and Michelle King try to throw us off for a while. Alicia spots Will in his office but doesn’t go in to talk. Then he goes into her office to talk about “last night,” and we cut away from the conversation, only to cut back to him leaving, and Alicia looking sullen and despondent at her desk. In meetings with Diane, he blames Alicia for screwing up the Jimal case. Diane notices the tension. “I think you’re holding something against her,” says Diane. “Maybe it’s unconscious, maybe it’s not. You’re being hard on her.” Eli does, too. When talking to Peter about the governorship, he shares a nugget he’s picked up from observing Alicia around the office: “If you’re worried about Alicia and Will Gardner, I think that whatever was there is no longer there. They barely look at each other.”

Cut to Alicia’s face in ecstasy. Will is out of frame and when he comes into it from the bottom of the screen, we can only imagine what his head might have been doing down there. They’re standing pressed against the wall of Will’s apartment. He still has his jacket and tie on. Her dress is pulled down off her shoulders. The dialogue is too good not to reprint right here:

Alicia: Are we overdoing it?

Will: Diane thinks I’m going too hard on you. Am I? Going too hard? … All those late nights …

Alicia: No time off …

Will: Buried in work …

Alicia: Up to my knees.

Through the wall, they hear the neighbor’s kids. Is it a reference to Alicia’s own kids, unaware of what their mother is up to, and Alicia’s increasing willingness to pursue her own needs before theirs? Will suggests going to the bedroom and Alicia stops him. “No, don’t move. Don’t move.” He sticks his finger in her mouth and she bites down.

...

Will cuts the drinks short. He has to be somewhere at 8:45 p.m. Back at Alicia’s apartment, she sends the kids off with Peter then goes to the mirror, where she applies lipstick, both excitement and apprehension palpable on her face. Just as the clock strikes 8:45 p.m., there is a knock on the door. Guess who it is."

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Press reviews - 3x01 "A New Day" - TheCelebrityCafe.com

Review about the season 3 premiere

"Eli sees Will leaving Alicia’s office with obvious tension looming. Fans were left last season watching Alicia and Will get into an elevator kissing, but so far in this episode nothing has been solidified regarding a fling between the two.

...

Diane asks Will what all the tension is about between him and Alicia. Will states that he has no idea what she is talking about. In the next scene, Alicia is scene against the wall, with her leg over Will's arm in a promiscuously revealing situation. Then what the public already presumes is acknowledged, Will and Alicia are finally giving into their feelings for each other.

...

Peter takes the kids to his house for the weekend, leaving time for Will and Alicia to assumingly have a rendezvous. While leaving the bar, Will tells Kalinda he has somewhere to be at 8:45. Alicia is seen putting on lipstick and staring into a mirror. She looks up at the clock, it's 8:45 and there is a knock on the door, not once, but twice.

Then the camera fades to black."

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Reviews - Press- Serialmente

For the Italians (or for all who can understand the Italian language) here is a very nice review of the second season finale's A/W developments. Hopefully I'll find the time to translate it for all the others.

Serialmente: Si può dare un prezzo all'amore?

Reviews - Press - Character grades "The Good Wife. Closing Arguments."

"The Good Wife. Closing Arguments."

CHARACTER GRADES

Season 2: Episode 23: “Closing Arguments”

Alicia Florrick
Alicia’s workplace is fraught with tension. With her shapely eyebrows and glossy hair, this woman is a magnet for drama. It literally falls into her lap, as was the case with the bloody glove that tumbled out of an envelope and onto her desk. A judge has been murdered and the rough and tumble team at Lockhart Gardner are on the job – defending the man who has been falsely accused.

The situation thrusts her together with Kalinda, even though the two of them are, shall we say, on the outs. Or however you want to put it when your friend sleeps with your husband and then lies about it. But Alicia operates gracefully under pressure and never once cracks. The only time you really get a peek at her internal struggle is when she realizes she’s late for dinner with her bro and the kids.

But seriously, let’s just get right to the good stuff and talk about that make-out sesh in the elevator with Will. How long have we awaited this moment?! It’s like we’ve gone through 22 episodes of foreplay and finally, the time is right. It was a sight for sore eyes to see Will and Alicia sitting at a bar tossing back shots of tequila and laughing heartily. [Side note: how did they even get there? Did they take a cab together? Did no one else think that was strange? Also, why are they sitting out in the open in what appears to be the lobby of a hotel]

Alicia aces the episode with her smooth maneuvering of the hotel key card after Will’s many fumbled attempts. I have a feeling that will be the last of any fumbling on Will’s part. A


Will Gardner
Back in the foreplay department, we see Will interact with Alicia in the first of two steamy elevator rides in this episode. “Ride down with me,” he says as they approach the elevator. Am I the only one who imbued that request with all sorts of innuendo? Just me? Okay… Anyway, it feels like Will has been placed in a pressure cooker throughout the entire episode – things just keep building, both with the case and with Alicia.

Even during Will’s interaction with Peter the pressure is palpable. You know those commercials where they advertise knives so sharp they can slice tin cans in half? Well, the can in this scenario is the tension in the room between Will and Peter. Granted, Will is simply asking questions about their case, but the minute Alicia’s name comes up, all bets are off.

Will definitely earns some points for his adorableness displayed at the bar over shots of tequila with Alicia. He’s like that cute guy in high school who doesn’t know how cute he is and it makes him even cuter. Dare me to say cute again.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, doesn’t Will play basketball? Why then, is he completely out of breath after darting back into the courtroom to find out if his client’s blood could be on the infamous glove? Come on Will, you don’t get to be Chicago’s 16th Most Eligible Bachelor without breaking a sweat. A-

Source: Charactergrades

Reviews - Press - The Good Wife Season Two Report Card: A

The Good Wife Season Two Report Card: A

Hopes for 2011-2012: Full-on Wilicia. Enough with the back and forth. It might get messy if these two come out as a couple, but any kind of cover-up will surely be worse in the long run.

Source: TV Fanatic

Reviews - Press - Season Finales 2011: The best and worst.

SEASON FINALES 2011: THE BEST AND WORST.

Best: The Good Wife
The most fun we've seen on elevators since the early seasons of Grey's Anatomy, we were completely charmed as Alicia and Will flirted at a hotel bar, tried to coyly get a room for an hour at a fancy establishment, enjoyed an elevator make-out session and then fumbled with their room key. It was a fantastic way to get these two together instead of having some big romantic evening. The clumsiness was a big plus, and with everything going on with Peter possibly running for governor and how that will alter Alicia's divorce plans, it was a relief that the whole season didn't end on an angsty moment.
Source: TwoP