‘The Good Wife’ season 7, episode 8 review: Diane’s dilemma; Grace’s helping hand
“The Good Wife” season 7 has done as a whole a great job of exploring moral dilemmas across the board, and we’re not always even talking about cases. Eli has tested his limits of meddline with Ruth and Peter’s campaign, while we have seen plenty of Howard going back and forth over how he wants to handle things over at Lockhart, Agos, and Lee over his treatment.
When the show does focus on dilemmas in the courtroom, you know that it’s going to be on the next level. Tonight’s episode to us was mostly about Diane, who was placed in a nearly-impossible position to compromise some of her pro-choice beliefs for the sake of free speech, and also for the sake of doing what she thought was in the best interest of her career and the client. Suffice it to say, this doesn’t end particularly well. Not only did she have an intense tete-a-tete with the judge, but her stances loses her firm National Council on Women’s Rights and The Justice Center as clients. That’s bad news.
Still, how’s this for the best Christine Baranski performance of the season? Also, it’s yet another sign that someone doing what is in their mind the “right thing” does not mean that it always is..
With Diane’s story on this high a level, we’re not going to spend too much time in here quibbling over the small stuff, such as the show not giving us the greatest Alicia story in the world about Grace doing cold-calls for the firm. Sure, her earning the sort of commission that she did for this is questionable, but in the realm of implausible TV this is really a blip on the radar. Eli’s romance (if it is a romance) with Courtney is more compelling, largely because of our continued uncertainty as to whether or not he is a romantic, or simply just someone out for greater power.
In the end, we have to applaud this story for its bravery, its acting, and of course the writing. We’ll forgive a few aspects that are a little dull if you can get such great stuff out of a character like Diane. Grade: B+.