TV #33 of 2020:

The Good Wife, season 5

Although it peters out slightly at the very end, this is overall an electrifying year of television, boldly delivering on character and plot arcs that have been in motion since practically the pilot. The Good Wife has been plenty strong to begin with, but the momentum this season from one consequential action to the next is honestly breathtaking, and the accompanying fallout just devastating to watch. All the things we’ve learned about Alicia Florrick click into place in one rapid rush as she charts her own course through turbulent times.

I try to avoid major spoilers in my reviews, but this run hinges upon two key episodes: 5×5 “Hitting the Fan,” in which the ratcheting tension at the protagonist’s law firm finally boils over and sends everyone scrambling to launch moves and counter-moves, and 5×15 “Dramatics, Your Honor,” which lures the audience in via an endearing personal study before wrenching our hearts with a sudden cast departure. (The following hour, “The Last Call,” is arguably even more affecting, as a succession of former colleagues hear and start processing the news in basically real time.) If those moments were in a typical season of The Good Wife, I’d already be tempted to award it five stars on their strength alone. But here, everything building up to and resulting from these pivot points is equally elevated, cementing this as one of the single best seasons of any show, ever.

Even drama on the production side can’t derail this level of quality. Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi had an infamous (and infamously murky) falling out at some point, as a result of which their characters share no in-person scenes after season 4. But if you don’t follow that sort of gossip, you might not even notice anything yet, so seamlessly do the writers stage their respective storylines and utilize strategic phone calls whenever the two still need to interact. And the exiting performer reportedly wanted out when their initial four-year contract expired, yet was persuaded to come back with the promise of a worthy send-off that could be plotted out to maximize its effectiveness. Needless to say, the showrunners delivered.

There are some occasional quirks, most notably Damian Boyle and his cop friend, who are the latest figures in Kalinda’s orbit that don’t quite seem to be on the same wavelength as anyone else in this universe. But there’s also the program’s signature attention on issues of emerging technology rupturing the line between how power is wielded in the public and private spheres, as in the truly inspired runner of NSA agents bugging Alicia’s cell and acting almost as a meta-Greek chorus of TV viewers themselves as they get caught up in the soap opera of her life. There’s simply no other series like this, and it’s so thrillingly on its game this year as never before (or sadly, again).

All in all, I stand by what I wrote back in 2016:

“I’m utterly gobsmacked by how amazing this season of television is. I loved the show to pieces already, but this stretch really elevates it to a whole new level. (I’ve already gone back and watched “Hitting the Fan” several times, and it works even better in the context of the episodes around it than it does in isolation like that.) Everything about the program’s tense plotting and sharp character work is firing on all cylinders here, and while I’m a little sad at reports that the next two years aren’t nearly as good, it was definitely worth it for this.”

[Content warning for mass shooting / gun violence.]

★★★★★

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