BuzzFeed: "The Good Wife Is The Best Show On Television Right Now"

The CBS legal drama, now in its sixth season, continually shakes up its narrative foundations and proves itself fearless in the process. Spoilers ahead, if you’re not up to date on the show.

At BuzzFeed, you can read my latest feature, "The Good Wife Is The Best Show On Television Right Now," in which I praise CBS' The Good Wife and, well, hail it as the best show currently on television. (Yes, you read that right.)

There is no need to be delicate here: If you’re not watching The Good Wife, you are missing out on the best show on television. I won’t qualify that statement in the least — I’m not talking about the best show currently airing on broadcast television or outside of cable or on premium or however you want to sandbox this remarkable show. No, the legal drama is the best thing currently airing on any channel on television.
That The Good Wife is this perfect in its sixth season is reason to truly celebrate. Few shows embrace complexity and risk-taking in the way that this show has done and, even after last year’s stellar season — which saw Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) and Cary Agos (Matt Czuchry) leave their mentors and start their own law firm and which shocked us with the death of Will Gardner (Josh Charles) — the show has pushed itself into even more challenging territory more than 100 episodes into its run.

Created by husband-and-wife team Robert and Michelle King, The Good Wife has always looked to test the plasticity of its concept. Initially a legal procedural with serialized elements, the show balanced a case-of-the-week format for Alicia with ongoing domestic issues. The first season followed Alicia as she struggled with the decision to stand by her husband, incarcerated Illinois State’s Attorney Peter Florrick (Chris Noth), even after he admitted to sleeping with prostitutes. How would she care for their two teenage children, Zach (Graham Phillips) and Grace (Makenzie Vega), while juggling a demanding career and competing with associates 20 years younger than her? And what of her unresolved feelings for her employer, Will?

But these basic queries soon became further tempered by the deep themes that the show has enjoyed exploring over the years, issues of morality, marriage, technology, and legality. The Good Wife incisively probes our collective cultural institutions to find spots of vulnerability and exposes these potential weaknesses, prodding them with a well-sharpened blade. If the show has been about, as the Kings have suggested in interviews numerous times, the “education of Alicia Florrick,” viewers have been able to see how Margulies’ Alicia has had to compromise her ethical integrity in pursuit of other goals, some lofty and idealistic and others personal and perhaps selfish. Alicia has had to exist in the harsh glare of the public spotlight and make choices that others, living lives of quiet privacy, have not. Every one of her actions has been under scrutiny, both that of the public within the show’s narrative and that of the viewer.

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BuzzFeed: "Was That Good Wife Twist Cheap Or Profound?"

No one saw that coming, not even BuzzFeed Entertainment Editorial Director Jace Lacob and Senior Editor Louis Peitzman, who discuss the shocking reveal on the legal drama. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD, if you haven’t watched.

Over at BuzzFeed, you can read my latest feature, "Was That Good Wife Twist Cheap Or Profound?" in which Louis Peitzman and I debate whether the twist in this week's episode of The Good Wife was warranted or manipulative.

The March 23 episode of The Good Wife (“Dramatics, Your Honor”) pushed the critically acclaimed legal drama into new directions, courtesy of an unexpected plot twist that somehow stayed under wraps until it unfolded on-air.

(If you haven’t yet seen Sunday’s episode, stop reading right now. I mean it. STOP. Just stop. There are MAJOR SPOILERS ahead and if you’ve somehow managed to avoid finding out what happened, this is your last chance to do so.)

On this week’s episode, Will Gardner (Josh Charles) was shot and killed by his client — college student Jeffrey Grant (Hunter Parrish), who had been accused of murdering a woman he claimed was a stranger — during an eruption of gunfire in the courtroom after Jeffrey was seized with panic for his life and reached for a deputy’s gun. What followed was traumatic to watch: Will bleeding out on the floor of the courtroom, and then his body being discovered by Kalinda (Archie Panjabi) and Diane (Christine Baranski) on a gurney in the hospital.

For some, it was the perfect way for Josh Charles’ Will to leave the show, one that closed the door on any reconciliation between him and Julianna Margulies’ Alicia. For others, it felt like a cheap twist. We debate just how well the show handled Will’s death and what it means for The Good Wife.

Jace: I was genuinely shocked by the twist. Jaw-on-the-floor, didn’t-see-that-coming shocked. And for a split-second, I didn’t believe that Robert and Michelle King would actually kill off Will, who is nominally the male lead. But what The Good Wife has proven itself willing to do is to shake the foundations of its narrative in unexpected ways. And that’s what Will’s death has done. And in the Age of Spoilers, that they managed to keep it a secret is another miraculous feat. While I’ll miss Will, I love that the show was able to surprise its viewers in such a kick-to-the-gut sort of way.

Louis: I was surprised, too, though perhaps not as surprised as you were, thanks in part to the fact that CBS was heralding this as, “the episode of The Good Wife that you can’t miss.” I hate that. If you warn me that a big twist is coming, I will spend the entire episode waiting for a major character to die, and that ruins a lot of the suspense. But I digress. I will say that, yes, The Good Wife is willing and able to pull the rug out from under its viewers — and I think that’s why I was a little let down by Will’s abrupt death. It felt cheap, the kind of twist another lesser show would use. The Good Wife doesn’t need a random shootout to shock us.

Jace: Wait a minute: It needs to be said that Josh Charles had decided to leave the show a la Dan Stevens and Downton Abbey and was meant to leave at the end of Season 4 and came back under a short-term deal for the fifth season. To me, there’s no way to write Will out of the show that wouldn’t feel cheap except for him dying, likely in some chance way. To me, the fact that it happened under such unexpected and illogical circumstances compounded the tragedy. This wasn’t a protracted cancer storyline where Will learns he’s dying and has to say goodbye to Alicia. There is no goodbye, no closure, no catharsis about the time they lost fighting. His life ended, sadly and without reason.

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BuzzFeed: "Veronica Mars and 8 Other TV Shows You Can Only Stream On Amazon Prime"

Looking to get caught up on Veronica Mars before the movie comes out on March 14? Turns out, the only place you can do so now is on Amazon Prime Instant.

At BuzzFeed, you can read my latest feature, "9 TV Shows You Can Only Stream On Amazon Prime," in which I run nine shows that you can only watch on Amazon Prime.

1. Veronica Mars

A long time ago, we used to be friends… and you used to be able to stream Veronica Mars on Netflix. But those days are long gone and on Jan. 9, Amazon Prime Instant announced that it had secured exclusive streaming rights to all three seasons of the UPN/CW sleuth series. And what perfect timing to get caught up (or refresh yourself) on all of the intrigues in Neptune: The feature film sequel opens on March 14, marshmallows.

2. Downton Abbey

Episodes of Julian Fellowes’ well-heeled period drama — which airs Stateside on PBS’ Masterpiece Classic and centers on the Crawley clan and their servants — can only be seen on Amazon Prime Instant these days. Downton’s first three seasons are available for streaming on the platform, while the series’ fourth just premiered earlier this week on PBS.

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BuzzFeed: "The Good Wife Isn’t Just On Fire, It’s A Narrative A-Bomb"

The fifth season of the CBS legal drama continues to shake up its narrative foundations. In next week’s episode, everything changes. Everything.

At BuzzFeed, you can read my latest feature, "The Good Wife Isn’t Just On Fire, It’s A Narrative A-Bomb," in which I review next week's extraordinary episode of CBS' The Good Wife ("Hitting the Fan").

No joke: next Sunday’s episode of The Good Wife (“Hitting the Fan”) might just be the very best hour of television you’ll see this year.
I’m not one of those Good Wife adherents who qualifies their passionate engagement with the Robert and Michelle King-created drama by adding “on broadcast television,” as the show shouldn’t be forced to carry such a backhanded compliment. Even within the FCC-driven parameters of network television, The Good Wife manages to shatter audience expectations and consistently deliver a provocative drama that is both contemplative and incredibly taut.

This is particularly apt, given the seismic changes occurring in the show’s extraordinary fifth season. Even as Alicia (Julianna Margulies) and Cary (Matt Czuchry) covertly plot their exit from the firm, biding their time until bonuses are handed out, the firm itself is already in a state of transformation when managing partner Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) is forced out of her position. While the show teased a law firm sans Diane once she became an Illinois Supreme Court justice, her betrayal of partner Will Gardner (Josh Charles), is a shocking twist, as Diane sells him out to a reporter by disclosing the $45,000 he took from a client’s account… only to realize that she didn’t need to do the interview after all.

It’s this conflation of the personal and the professional that largely powers “Hitting the Fan,” written by Robert and Michelle King (and featuring a gorgeously tense score by David Buckley), offering a look at how these lawyers define the boundaries of that dynamic. When one character says to another, “This wasn’t meant personally,” there’s the sense that most everything they do oversteps those distinct categorizations; how can Will, Alicia, and Diane untangle the personal from the professional when those spheres of their lives are tied up so tightly? When is a betrayal only strictly professional?

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The Daily Beast: "Under the Dome Is One Eerie TV Show"

From Stephen King and Steven Spielberg comes Under the Dome, a weird, scary, and potentially great excuse to stay inside this summer. I dissect tonight’s premiere.

At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Under the Dome Is One Eerie TV Show," in which I review CBS's eerie new drama Under the Dome, based on Stephen King's 2009 novel of the same name, which begins tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

In the not-too-distant future, the inhabitants of Chester’s Mill—a small and seemingly idyllic town in Anywhere, U.S.A.—suddenly discover their town is trapped inside an invisible barrier of unknown origin. Birds fall from the sky, numerous vehicles crash, and a blood-red handprint on this transparent dome becomes a sigil of awe and fear.

This is the basis for CBS’s intriguing new “event” drama series, Under the Dome, which begins its 13-episode summer run tonight at 10 p.m. (While some have referred to it as a “miniseries,” it is most definitely an ongoing series, with the strong possibility of future seasons should ratings take off.) Based on Stephen King’s 2009 novel of the same name, Under the Dome imagines a scenario that is both rife with possibility and nightmare. Trapped and with nowhere to turn, Chester Mill’s residents must either work together to survive or succumb to the terror and uncertainty of their new situation, one that has cut them off from both loved ones and the outside world. So, live together, die alone then?

If that reminds you of the now-famous words uttered by reluctant leader Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) on Lost, you’re on the right track. Under the aegis of executive producers Steven Spielberg, Neal Baer (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, ER, and far too many other credits to list here), and Brian K. Vaughan (Lost), the series imagines a terrifying “what if” scenario that positions the inexplicable as a backdrop for the intimate.

Much like Lost before it, Under the Dome presents a life-altering occurrence as a crucible by which to view a group of disparate characters. Barbie (Mike Vogel), a former soldier, is passing through Chester’s Mill on some illicit business when he’s trapped inside. Local newspaper editor Julia Shumway (Rachelle Lefevre) has a nose for news but seems oblivious to what’s going on inside her own home. Angie (Britt Robertson) is a local nurse who is desperate to escape Chester’s Mill even before the dome, but finds herself trapped inside with her emotionally unstable boyfriend, Junior (Alexander Koch). Local bigwig Jim Rennie (Dean Norris), a used-car salesman and councilman, looks to use the dome to seize control of the town. A lesbian couple from Los Angeles, Carolyn (Aisha Hinds) and Alice (Samantha Mathis), taking their troubled daughter (Mackenzie Lintz) to a “camp,” find themselves stuck as well.

Elsewhere, there are a pair of local radio DJs (Nicholas Strong and Joelen Purdy), the stoic town sheriff (Lost’s Jeff Fahey) and his trusted deputy, Linda (Natalie Martinez), and a subplot that indicates that the financial stability of the town may be based on less-than-legal solutions. It’s this latter element that is perhaps the most timely, given the recent economic downturn and its similar handling over on A&E’s Bates Motel: how does Small Town America remain viable? How creative do towns like Chester’s Mill have to be in order to survive in the 21st century?

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The Daily Beast: "2013 TV Upfronts Wrap-Up: Bring On the New Television Shows"

The broadcast network upfront presentations are over. Jace Lacob on the 51 new scripted shows heading to television next season. What will you watch?

At The Daily Beast, you can read my final upfronts post, "2013 TV Upfronts Wrap-Up: Bring On the New Television Shows," in which I wrap up our broadcast network upfronts coverage and take a look at the 51 new scripted series heading to ABC Television Network, CBS, NBC, FOX, and The CW for the 2013-14 season.

The upfront presentations are (finally) over.

Now that the dust has settled, it's easier to get a larger picture of what's going on for next season. The numbers: 51 scripted series have been ordered by the broadcast networks for the 2013–14 season. There are 29 new dramas for next season and 22 comedies. Thirty-one shows will launch in the fall, and 20 are being held for a later date, should some of the fall offerings fail to enflame the public's imagination. On the network level, ABC picked up 12 new scripted series; CBS ordered eight; NBC issued series pickups to 14, while Fox did the same for 12 scripted series. The CW claimed five new scripted shows.

ABC picked up a slew of pilots, including a Rebel Wilson sitcom Super Fun Night, and issued a series order to The Avengers spinoff series, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. CBS ordered several pilots, including a Sarah Michelle Gellar–Robin Williams comedy from David E. Kelley, Josh Holloway–led cyberprocedural Intelligence, and Hostages, a political conspiracy thriller starring Toni Collette, among others. NBC ordered a bunch of pilots, including J.J. Abrams’s supernatural drama Believe (which will feature Twin Peaks's Kyle MacLachlan), an adaptation of Nick Hornby's About a Boy, and global conspiracy thriller Crisis, from creator Rand Ravich, to name a few.

Elsewhere, Fox ordered a handful of pilots, including: J.J. Abrams’s futuristic police drama Almost Human; Sleepy Hollow, a modern-day update of Washington Irving's classic thriller; cop drama Gang Related, starring Lost’s Terry O'Quinn and RZA; and legal drama Rake, a remake of an Australian drama which will star Greg Kinnear. The CW ordered a remake of 1970s British science-fiction drama The Tomorrow People, a period drama following Mary Queen of Scots called Reign, and an interspecies sci-fi/romance drama called Star-Crossed, along with a spinoff of The Vampire Diaries and an adaptation of The 100.

The odds are not in these new shows' favor, however: many of these new shows will fail, and some—the networks hope, anyway—may succeed to see a second season (or longer, if they're truly lucky).

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The Daily Beast: "CBS Announces 2013-14 Primetime Schedule"

CBS's 2013-14 schedule is here, and it's largely the same, save moving Hawaii Five-0 to Friday and Person of Interest to Tuesday, while Mike & Molly returns in midseason.

At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest upfront post, "CBS Announces 2013-14 Primetime Schedule," in which I explore the new primetime 2013-14 schedule at CBS, recount some of what CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler said to reporters at the network's traditional press breakfast, and offer up some quick thoughts on the changes to the schedule.

CBS on Wednesday drew back the curtain to reveal its 2013-14 primetime schedule during its traditional breakfast with reporters ahead of its official upfront presentation at Carnegie Hall.

Stability seemed to be the rationale behind CBS's primetime schedule, which returned pretty much intact with a few notable exceptions: Hawaii Five-0 will move to Fridays at 9 p.m., in order to take over the timeslot left vacant by the cancellation of CSI: New York, and Mike & Molly is being held until midseason.

Eliminating the lull of repeats, was one of the network's key strategies for the 2013-14, which will see four new comedies and two dramas (one for fall and one for midseason) join the schedule.

"Comedy was a priority for us," CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler told reporters. "We shot 23 pilots this year… and our studio really delivered a lot of great content… With comedy, you rely on chemistry and all the right elements coming together at the right time. The shows reflect a perfect alchemy."

As for drama, "there are some departures for us, in terms of genre and the new faces you’re going to see," Tassler said. "The goal this year was to have more originals, fewer repeats."

To that end, returning comedy Mike and Molly isn't on the schedule right now but will return in midseason with 22 episodes in order to ensure that there are more originals and less repeats throughout the season. "We have this show ready to air in midseason," said Tassler. "Melissa's popularity continues to grow. She'll be even more popular when we air this." Also turning up halfway through the season: James Van Der Beek-led comedy Friends with Better Lives and sultry Southern soap Reckless will also turn up later down the line.

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The Daily Beast: "TV Upfronts 2013: Bring On the New Shows!"

With the broadcast networks' upfront presentations less than a week away, I look at what new television shows the broadcast networks have ordered for the 2013-14 season.

At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Bring On the New Shows!" in which I start to round up what new television shows the broadcast networks have ordered so far for the 2013-14 season. (It will continue to be updated with each new series order over the next week.)

It's that time of year again! I take a look at the new series that are coming to television next season, as the broadcast network upfront presentations get underway next week.

The orders started coming in late Thursday night. Fox has so far ordered four comedies and four dramas, including: J.J. Abrams' futuristic police drama Almost Human; Sleepy Hollow, a modern day update of Washington Irving's classic thriller; cop drama Gang Related, which will star Lost's Terry O'Quinn and RZA; and legal drama Rake, a remake of an Australian drama which will star Greg Kinnear.

Keep checking this space for the latest updates as the broadcasters prepare to unveil several dozen new shows for the 2013-14 season.

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The Daily Beast: "TV Upfronts 2013: NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, and The CW By the Numbers"

Is your favorite show safe? I take a look at what’s on tap for the broadcast networks for the 2013-14 season, which shows are coming back, and which ones have gotten the axe.

At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature,
"TV Upfronts 2013: NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, and The CW By the Numbers," in which I offer a running total (which will be updated throughout the next week) at all the broadcast network shows that have been renewed, ordered, and cancelled as we move into upfront presentations week for the broadcast networks.

Every May, advertisers and members of the press descend on New York City as the broadcast networks host their annual upfront presentations, where they will unveil their fall schedules, trot out talent, and announce which shows will be coming back next season and which ones won’t.

The Daily Beast will be reporting on every move being made by ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and The CW as they prepare to launch their 2013-2014 schedules. As the week wears on, The Daily Beast will continue to update its gallery of new shows as the individual networks present their schedules and programming and report on what the networks’ top executives are saying.

This year’s crop of pilots was heavy on literary adaptations, period dramas, foreign formats (particularly of British, Spanish, and Israeli series), and remakes of movies (About a Boy! Beverly Hills Cop! Bad Teacher!) and old television shows (Ironside! The Tomorrow People!). Plus, there was not one, but two takes on Alice in Wonderland, proving that fairy tales are again a hot commodity this year. Will Joss Whedon’s white-hot Avengers television spinoff, Marvel’s S.H.I.E.L.D., make it to the airwaves? Will NBC take a chance on J.J. Abrams’ supernatural drama Believe, which revolves around a girl with unique abilities and the man who is assigned to protect her at all costs? Or will it be yet another year of doctors, lawyers, and cops?

Below you’ll find a guide to the week’s schedule of upfront presentations:

Monday, May 13: NBC
Monday, May 13: Fox
Tuesday, May 14: ABC
Wednesday, May 15: CBS
Thursday, May 16: The CW

In the meantime, here’s a scorecard—broken down by network—to help you keep track of which of the 100-plus network pilots have been picked up to series, which current shows will be returning next season, and which shows are now six feet under. (As renewals and cancelations come in, we will continue to update this list throughout the week or so.)


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The Daily Beast: "The Good Wife: Creators Robert and Michelle King on the Season Finale, Alicia and Kalinda, and More"

The season finale of The Good Wife was full of dramatic bombshells. I talk to creators Robert and Michelle King about rebooting the show, the start of a ‘civil war,’ Alicia and Kalinda’s dynamic, and what’s next. WARNING: Spoilers galore.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "The Good Wife Creators Tell All," an exclusive Season 4 postmortem interview with The Good Wife husband-and-wife creators Robert and Michelle King, in which we discuss the Alicia (Julianna Margulies)/Kalinda (Archie Panjabi) dynamic (or lack thereof), what really happened between Kalinda and Nick (Marc Warren), the year of Cary (Matt Czuchry), Robyn Burdine (Jess Weixler), and much more. (Seriously, it's a long interview and I had to cut a lot for space.)

With two simple words (“I’m in”) the fantastic fourth season of CBS legal drama The Good Wife came to a staggering conclusion on Sunday evening with the revelation that Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), Illinois’s newly minted first lady, would be leaving Lockhart/Gardner to join the startup firm captained by former rival Cary Agos (Matt Czuchry).

The move effectively reboots the show, which will return for a fifth season in the fall. What will Alicia’s decision mean for her star-crossed romance with Will Gardner (Josh Charles) once he gets wind of her betrayal? And what does it mean for The Good Wife that its main characters are being split up and established as potential adversaries?

The Daily Beast caught up with The Good Wife creators Robert and Michelle King to discuss the love triangle between Alicia, Will, and Peter; the shifting dynamic between Alicia and legal snoop Kalinda Sharma (Archie Panjabi); new investigator Robyn Burdine (Jess Weixler); whether Kalinda is a murderer; audience backlash to the Nick (Marc Warren) storyline; and much more. What follows is an edited transcript of the conversation.

The Good Wife has mined the pull between idealism and ambition throughout its run. How does Alicia's “I'm in” represent the outcome of that battle?

Robert King: Alicia could have fought her way to the top of Lockhart/Gardner, given that she had been made partner. To us, it was a little bit more of a personal decision, because of the feeling that she could not control her sexual attraction to Will; their proximity was a problem. Yes, there's an element of what Cary is saying, which is, “We could be the new Diane and Will,” and there is ambition there. But it's joined together with the fact that she feels the only way to stop from being adulterous would be to leave Lockhart/Gardner. That sweet spot for the show that we enjoy so much is where the personal and professional combine.

Should it matter that it's Colin Sweeney's involvement that sways her? Has she in some ways made a deal with the devil?

Robert King: I was about to say yes. I can see on Michelle's face she was about to say no.

Michelle King: Apparently, there's a difference of opinion in the King household. I don't think it's relevant. She would have done it either way. It didn't matter that Sweeney was pushing her to do it.

Robert King: In many ways, Alicia wants to feel that she can do Lockhart/Gardner right. And yet, when you start with Colin Sweeney and Bishop and Chum Hum as clients, you are already starting off with a step in the wrong direction.

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The Daily Beast: "Dallas Loses Its Schemer: Larry Hagman Dies at 81"

Larry Hagman, best known as the dastardly J.R. Ewing, died Friday at age 81. I explore the indelible mark Hagman left on television and popular culture.

At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Dallas Loses Its Schemer," in which I offer an obituary and appreciation for the late Dallas actor Larry Hagman, who passed away on Friday at the age of 81.

Actor Larry Hagman, best known for his role as Dallas’s Machiavellian oil baron J.R. Ewing, died Friday at age 81, after complications from cancer.

Hagman’s career spanned over 60 years, and included not only Dallas and its revival series, which launched earlier this year on TNT, but also the seminal 1960s comedy series I Dream of Jeannie, where he played Major Anthony “Tony” Nelson opposite Barbara Eden’s titular character. Hagman had, according to The Hollywood Reporter, filmed six of the new Dallas’s 15 episodes at the time of his death, with the second season scheduled to start on January 28. How the show will incorporate Hagman’s death remains to be seen.

“All of us at TNT are deeply saddened at the news of Larry Hagman’s passing,” said cable network TNT in a prepared statement. “He was a wonderful human being and an extremely gifted actor. We will be forever thankful that a whole new generation of people got to know and appreciate Larry through his performance as J.R. Ewing. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this very difficult time.”

Hagman was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1931. His mother, Mary Martin, would go on to become a renowned Broadway actress and his father was an accountant and a district attorney; the two divorced when Hagman was five years old. Hagman served in the United States Air Force during the Korean War and entertained troops in the U.K. and Europe during the conflict, and opted to follow in his mother’s footsteps with a career in acting once he returned to the U.S.

Roles on the stage segued into television work, with his first on-screen appearance coming in 1956 in syndicated cop drama Decoy; he later joined the cast of CBS mystery soap opera The Edge of Night, where he stayed on board for two seasons. But it was his role nine years later on I Dream of Jeannie that established his meteoric career trajectory, with CBS primetime soap Dallas arriving in 1977. And with that role—as manipulative oil scion J.R. Ewing—Hagman further entered the cultural lexicon. He also appeared in such films as Primary Colors, Nixon, and JFK.

Hagman leaves a lasting legacy, not just among Dallas’s devoted viewers in the 1980s, but among a younger generation that discovered J.R. and the Ewings thanks to TNT’s revival series, which picked up with the Ewing clan 20 years after the end of the series. A schemer and a dreamer, Hagman’s J.R. was known for his devilish eyebrows and for his manipulative streak, as well as for amassing both wealth and enemies in equal measure.

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The Daily Beast: "Inside the High-End Fashion Sensibility on CBS’s The Good Wife"

Dior! Proenza Schouler! Vivienne Westwood! Prada! Jace Lacob talks to The Good Wife costume designer Daniel Lawson about how Alicia, Diane, and Kalinda’s evolving high-end styles showcase their character development. Plus, take a deep dive into a bonus gallery interview with Lawson in which
we discuss drawing inspiration from the set’s design elements, the show’s use of color, Jackie Florrick’s ‘Elizabethan’ styling, political iconography, Matt Czuchry’s Cary, menswear, and more.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Inside the High-End Fashion Sensibility on CBS’s The Good Wife," in which I talk to The Good Wife costume designer Daniel Lawson about all of the above and much more. If you've ever wanted to see me get technical with peplum jackets, this story is for you. (And the bonus gallery can be found here.)

Within the cavernous warehouse that is home to the costumes for CBS’s sophisticated legal drama The Good Wife, there are apparently 600 women’s suits at any given time, waiting to be worn by Juliana Margulies’s Alicia Florrick and Christine Baranski’s Diane Lockhart.

“I probably have in the vicinity of 300, 350 for Alicia, and probably 250 suits for Diane,” said the show’s Emmy Award-nominated costume designer, Daniel Lawson.

Given The Good Wife’s setting—the white shoe Chicago law firm Lockhart/Gardner—it’s to be expected that there would be quite a few designer suits on the racks for the two lawyer characters. But that astronomical number points to Lawson’s meticulousness and passion about the show’s strong use of fashion, which includes such notable labels as Proenza Schouler (embodied by a gorgeous jade green jacket worn by Margulies’s Alicia in the fourth season opener), Christian Dior, Vivienne Westwood, Akris, L.K. Bennett, Ralph Lauren, Ferragamo, and others.

Lawson, who previously worked on HBO’s Bored to Death and NBC’s Kings, came on board The Good Wife after the show’s pilot and has been responsible for defining the clear styles of all of the characters through some fashion-forward pieces, explosive bursts of color, and tight looks for each of the ensemble cast, from the slick tailoring on male characters like Matt Czuchry’s Cary Agos to the juxtaposition of leather and chiffon on Archie Panjabi’s legal investigator, Kalinda Sharma.

Inspiration can come from a walk around Manhattan, runway shows, fashion magazines (“I looked through a lot of law magazines, and that was a bit of a snooze,” said Lawson), or even Facebook profiles. He also looks to the show’s production designer, Steven Hendrickson, the creators—husband and wife team Robert and Michelle King—and the actors themselves for inspiration. “If what I’m doing isn’t supporting what they’re doing, it’s for naught,” Lawson said. The actors were excited to learn how far Lawson wanted to take the show aesthetically, he recalled. “All of the actors were pleasantly surprised that the show went to a slightly elevated level of reality as far as the fashion,” he said. “It’s kind of rare that a lawyer show has started to become known for its wardrobe.”

With so many costume changes per episode, the wardrobe for the show continues to expand exponentially. “I’m constantly buying more,” said Lawson. “That’s something that I think is good for the show. We do repeat pieces from time to time, but we also have a healthy influx of new things to keep it looking fresh. New, new, new.”

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The Daily Beast: "The Good Wife: Has Season 4’s Kalinda Storyline Gone too Far?"

Has the legal drama’s steamy Kalinda/Nick plot gone too far? Maria Elena Fernandez and I debate the merits and flaws of this season’s most polarizing storyline on The Good Wife.

At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "The Good Wife: Has Season 4’s Kalinda Storyline Gone too Far?" in which Maria Elena Fernandez and I offer up a he said/she said-style discussion on the Kalinda/Nick storyline on Season 4 of The Good Wife.

Archie Panjabi’s Emmy-winning turn as Kalinda Sharma has been one of the highlights of CBS’ stellar legal drama, The Good Wife. But something happened on the way to fleshing out the fiercely independent investigator’s storyline—and not everyone is thrilled about it.

Entertainment Weekly’s TV critic Ken Tucker last week criticized the show’s handling of the twisted dynamic between Panjabi’s Kalinda and Marc Warren’s Nick. “The intrusion of Nick, Kalinda’s ex-husband and played by State of Play’s Marc Warren as though he’d wandered in from Trainspotting, has thrown off the balance of the storytelling in the new season’s first two episodes,” wrote Tucker, “… the bickering that followed, along with [Nick] hanging around the law firm to make Kalinda uncomfortable, only served to make the viewer uncomfortable.”

It’s a viewpoint echoed by The A.V. Club’s David Sims, who wrote, “The Good Wife’s writers seem to have introduced her nasty husband Nick just to see how much they can get away with on CBS. The whole thing certainly isn’t dramatically effective, and aside from how gross it can get, it’s not very gripping.”

The Daily Beast’s Jace Lacob and Maria Elena Fernandez are at odds about the storyline and teamed up to discuss the highs and lows of The Good Wife’s Kalinda/Nick plot so far. (WARNING: The conversation below contains plot points from the season’s third episode, “Two Girls, One Code.” If you have yet to watch that episode, read at your own peril.)

He Said: I am taken aback by some of the reactions to this season’s Kalinda storyline, which I’m finding to be really revealing and intriguing. Kalinda has always been a fairly enigmatic, dark character and Season 4 of The Good Wife has begun to strip away the armor she wears in order to reveal why she is so damaged. We’re not meant to like Nick or root for him, but I am utterly captivated by their screwed up dynamic.

She Said: We’ve waited a long time to learn more about Kalinda, why she created another identity, and why she likes to keep a mysterious quality. My main complaint is that there’s no payoff. I don’t buy their relationship or the predicament she finds herself in at all. It has not been set up for us. And while we are not supposed to root for Nick, we are supposed to root for Kalinda. I don’t. I don’t feel anything for her.

He Said: You really don’t feel anything for Kalinda? That surprises me, because I feel a great deal for her during this storyline. The way that she looks at her wrist after her rough sex with Nick speaks volumes about her past as an abused wife who was little more than a possession for her obsessed, Svengali-like husband. The fact that he has tracked her down to Chicago to (A) get her back and reclaim her, and (B) get back the money she stole from him while he was in prison speaks a lot about the relationship here, as does the great skillet scene from last night’s episode. Their struggle—his of proto-traditional husband/wife dominance and submission and hers of freedom and independence—are at cross-purposes. He wants to own her and Kalinda wants to remind him that she can’t be owned. That it plays out in such a domestic setting, in a kitchen and he demands that she make him an omelet, is telling as well. There is real darkness in him and within her: he’s the source of her angst and why she can’t get close to anybody.

She Said: First of all, there’s nothing traditional going on here. This is a completely sadomasochistic, sick relationship.

He Said: Yes, but I only meant traditional in the sense of patriarchy: he wants her to fall in line with his whims and appetites, whether it is public sexual contact or, well, eggs.

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The Daily Beast: "Review: Season 2 of Homeland and Season 4 of The Good Wife"

Set your DVRs! I review Season Two of Showtime’s Homeland and Season Four of CBS’s The Good Wife, finding common ground in their deft and subtle explorations of identity.

At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "TV's Kick-Ass Women Return," in which I review Season Two of Homeland and Season Four of The Good Wife, tracing the way that both shows explore their characters' shifting identities.

In the season opener of Homeland, which airs on Sunday, Claire Danes’s Carrie Mathison smiles.

If you’ve been watching Showtime’s Homeland, the newly crowned winner of the Emmy Award for Best Drama, this seems entirely contrary to her character, a bipolar and deeply disgraced CIA officer who underwent electroconvulsive therapy in the first season finale. Carrie isn’t prone to happiness: she has been misunderstood, mocked, and kicked out of the intelligence community. For all of that, Carrie was also right that Sergeant Nicholas Brody (Emmy Award winner Damian Lewis), a former prisoner of war, is not what he appears to be.

Danes—who also won an Emmy on Sunday—inhabits Carrie with a crippling onus placed on her, one that has only widened the cracks in her sanity. Her prescience and her instincts go unheeded, and the damage that she causes threatens to consume her altogether.

CBS’s The Good Wife, also returning on Sunday evening, will deal with its own identity crises this season. On the surface, these two shows don’t seem to share many similarities. One is a tense terrorism thriller on premium cable, the other a contemplative legal drama that explores technology, politics, marriage, and the law with a subtlety that make it a paragon among television dramas. Both, however, tackle issues of self-identification with insight and perspicacity, and this is felt even more keenly in Homeland’s second season and The Good Wife’s fourth.

Within The Good Wife, Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) has played the dutiful wife and the aggrieved spouse with equal vigor, a friction that cuts to the core of The Good Wife. What does it mean to be good? And how does that reflect our own needs and desires outside that of familial responsibility? Having lost everything after the betrayal of her philandering husband, Peter (Chris Noth), Alicia had to, out of necessity, redefine herself through her work, returning to a profession that she had left. Her discovery that she excelled in the field is the first in a series of transformations for the character.

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The Daily Beast: "Fall TV 2012 Preview: 7 Shows to Watch, 7 Shows to Skip"

The fall television season is here! But which shows should you be watching and which should you skip? I'm glad you asked.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Fall TV 2012 Preview: 7 Shows to Watch, 7 Shows to Skip," in which I offer my take on the upcoming fall season, with seven shows you should be watching (from ABC's Nashville to PBS' Call the Midwife) and those you should be snubbing (Partners, The Neighbors).

The fall television season is once again upon us, and overall the results are pretty depressing: there’s a decided lack of originality to much of the broadcast networks’ new offerings, as if they were somehow injured by the lack of interest in last year’s riskier programs.

In fact, there is a whole lot of formulaic fare coming to your televisions, and a ton of new (mostly awful) comedies this year. But fret not: it’s not all doom and gloom, as there are at least a few promising new shows on the horizon, from the Connie Britton-led country music drama Nashville to the sweet charms of offbeat comedy Ben & Kate.

Once again, the broadcasters have opted to hold back many of the more interesting new shows until midseason, which means we’ll have to wait until January for the launch of Kevin Williamson’s serial killer thriller The Following against James Purefoy in a murderous game, and Bryan Fuller’s television adaptation of Hannibal, which finds a young FBI agent (Hugh Dancy) meeting the cannibalistic psychopath Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) for the first time. Which isn’t to say that midseason is entirely promising either: the winter will also find ABC offering us the truly terrible Dane Cook comedy (and I use that word loosely), Next Caller.

In the meantime, however, while we’re waiting for the rise of the serial killers on the broadcast nets, here’s a look at the best and worst of the new fall television season.

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The Daily Beast: "TiVo’s Top 20 Shows Watched Before Bed: Jimmy Fallon, Lost Girl, and More"

Just what are you watching before bed? Do you tune in to watch a 10 p.m. drama? A late-night talk show? Or reality television?

At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "TiVo’s Top 20 Shows Watched Before Bed: Jimmy Fallon, Lost Girl, and More," in which I examine data obtained from TiVo about the top 20 shows that people watch before they go to bed, from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Revenge to Chopped and NCIS: LA.

It’s no secret that many Americans turn on the television as part of a nighttime ritual before bed. But what is surprising is just what they’re watching before their heads hit their respective pillows.

According to data provided by TiVo to The Daily Beast, the top program watched at bedtime was NBC’s Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, while TBS’s Conan was the most-watched cable show before bed.

“Perhaps it’s not surprising that many late-night talk shows are watched before bed,” Tara Maitra, TiVo’s general manager of content and media sales, said in a statement. “But we found it interesting that many people are also tuning into light-hearted reality shows before falling asleep.”

In fact, 22 percent of shows watched at bedtime are reality shows, with Bravo and HGTV appearing most often with 11 percent of cable programs represented (though Food Network’s Chopped crops up in the top 20), while the most-watched non-news or reality show watched at bedtime is Syfy’s Canadian import Lost Girl. Despite the fact that it went off the air in 2007, The King of Queens—now airing repeats in syndication—scored an impressive high spot at No. 23.

The top 10 recorded, rather than live, programs watched before bed included Glee, Modern Family, NCIS: Los Angeles, Smash, The Mentalist, Revenge, America’s Got Talent, American Idol, and Cougar Town. (Wait, Cougar Town?!?)

A few caveats first. The data provided by TiVo came from a sample group of 47,000 opt-in households who are TiVo or DVR subscribers and were generated by the last program—both live and recorded—that they watched after 10 p.m. on weeknights (Monday through Thursday). Multiple-day viewership was factored in as well, which is why late-night talk shows like Late Night and The Tonight Show ranked so highly here, as they air throughout the week. Finally, the percentage listed is indicative of the percentage of viewers (TiVo boxes) out of all boxes that watched at least one show during the four days of ratings analysis, including both recorded and live programs. (All times are ET/PT.)

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The Daily Beast: "Christine Baranski: The Grande Dame of The Good Wife"

2012 Emmy nominee Christine Baranski’s character on The Good Wife, Diane Lockhart, is coming off a fierce season. She tells Jace Lacob what lies ahead for the show and addresses those crazy (and untrue) Brady Bunch rumors.

At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Christine Baranski on The Good Wife Season 4, Diane, and Brady Bunch," in which I talk to Baranski about what lies ahead in Season 4, playing Diane Lockhart, her binary romantic choice this season, those bizarro Brady Bunch/child actor rumors, and more.

In the third season of CBS’s The Good Wife, Christine Baranski’s Diane Lockhart found herself on the defense, fending off attacks from the equity partners after the suspension of her partner, Will (Josh Charles), a grand jury investigation, uppity clients, and vengeful adversaries.

In the process, Emmy and Tony Award winner Baranski, 60, showed Diane at her fiercest, as she kept a strong hand on the firm’s figurative tiller, even as, in her personal life, she found herself ricocheting between two potential lovers. In an age where television romances are most often limited to women 35 and under, Diane’s romantic journey this season was refreshingly honest.

The Daily Beast spoke to Baranski about how her character has changed since the pilot episode, what’s ahead in Season 4 of The Good Wife, those bizarre Brady Bunch Internet rumors, and more. What follows is an edited transcript of the conversation.

This is your third time being nominated for Diane Lockhart. Why do you think viewers find Diane so compelling?

She has a ferocious work ethic and is such a model of integrity. I love the way they write the character as sometimes the only grown-up in the room, especially in a room full of guys. She has one of those tough journeys that women had in the ‘60s, going into the ‘70s. She followed right behind Hillary [Clinton] and went to Wellesley, and then to law school, and had high aspirations and didn’t have the time or good fortune to meet a partner. She’s a very independent woman, and yet there’s a vulnerability that I often see in the writing that they let me reveal, and a great sense of humor. There’s a maturity that she has that people have really responded to.

In Season 3, Diane took the reins of Lockhart & Gardner, thanks to Will’s suspension and a thwarted power grab from Eli. What was it like being able to show Diane’s tenacity?

She really took strides last year with the firm in a state of eternal crisis. There was this terrific feeling of unease. I just loved the writing last year for the character. I thought, without becoming a bitch or maternal or condescending, she offered tough love to people. She cares fiercely about this firm that she created. She was expected to be this bitchy antagonist for Alicia, but it went the other way; she wanted to mentor a woman who she thought had tremendous promise. She saw in Alicia a ghost of her past: not wanting Alicia to be indebted to a man to make it to the top.

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The Daily Beast: "TV Preview: Snap Judgments of 2012-13’s New Shows"

Will the 2012-13 television season be a success or a snooze? Over at The Daily Beast, Maria Elena Fernandez and I offer our first impressions of 30-plus network pilots—from The Following and Nashville to The Neighbors and Zero Hour (and everything in between)—coming to TV next season.

Head over to The Daily Beast to read my latest feature, "TV Preview: Snap Judgments of 2012-13’s New Shows," in which we offer our dueling he said/she said perspectives on all of the available broadcast network pilots.

While some of you may have jetted off on summer vacations in the last few weeks, we’ve spent the first part of the summer wading through pilots for more than 30 new scripted shows that likely will be on the air next TV season. (Sometimes networks change their minds, and, if we’re honest, there are a few shows we’d love to see disappear altogether.)

It was a Herculean feat to make it through the pile of screeners this year—it was not overall the best pilot season—to offer our first takes on the dramas and comedies that are headed to the fall and midseason schedules of ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and the CW.

Every year, the networks present their usual takes on the familiar doctor-lawyer-cop tropes, and this year is no exception. But there are also a few bright spots: a fading country music star (played by Friday Night Lights’ Connie Britton, y’all!), the crew of a nuclear sub gone rogue, a 1960s cattle rancher turned Vegas sheriff, a romantic comedy-obsessed ob-gyn, a serial killer inducting cult members via social networking, another modern-day Sherlock Holmes, and the beloved Carrie Bradshaw.

So what did we think? First, a few caveats: 1) The opinions below should be considered “first impressions” of the pilots that were made available by the broadcast networks and not reviews. 2) All pilots—from music and dialogue to casting, etc.—are subject to change, so what airs next season may, in fact, be drastically different than what was seen here. 3) We reserve the right to change our initial opinions upon seeing final review copies of these pilots—not to mention a few more episodes. 4) Not all of the midseason pilots were sent out by the networks; some, such as NBC’s Hannibal and Crossbones, to name two, haven’t even been shot yet; CBS again opted not to send out its midseason offerings; while Fox isn’t letting us see The Goodwin Games just yet.

ABC

666 Park Avenue (Sunday at 10 p.m.)

Logline: A young couple moves from the Midwest and takes up residence as the live-in managers of a luxury Manhattan apartment building, where not everything is as it seems.
Cast: Terry O’Quinn, Vanessa Williams, Dave Annabel, Rachael Taylor
He Said: Eh. While the showrunners have source material to pull from (it’s based on a novel by Gabriella Pierce), I wasn’t all that thrilled by where the show is going. O’Quinn makes a better villain when he at least seems—on the surface—to be a good guy, but his Gavin Doran is written so overtly devilish that it doesn’t charm or intrigue. He’s Fantasy Island’s Mr. Rourke but with a short temper and a fondness for contracts. The supernatural elements don’t really scare, but I will say this: it did make me nervous to step on an elevator for a day or so… but didn’t make me want to watch another episode.
She Said: I really enjoyed all the spooky fun of this. It’s genius casting to pair Terry O’Quinn and Vanessa Williams as the married owners of a very mysterious fancy schmancy Manhattan building. So far, O’Quinn isn’t doing anything we didn’t see John Locke (Lost) do and Williams has brought her fabulous diva out for the third time, but they have a delicious spark. David Annabel and Rachael Taylor are also very believable as an in-love couple that moves in and are hired to manage the building. I wouldn’t move in to The Drake, but I’d visit.
Verdict: Sublet.

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The Daily Beast: "Bring on the New Shows!" (Upfronts 2012)

Over at The Daily Beast, we're keeping you up-to-date with all of the news, renewals, cancellations, and series orders coming out of this week's broadcast network upfronts.

You can read our Network Scorecard, which keeps track of all of the renewals and cancelations as well as reactions to the scheduling changes and check out video promos for all of the networks' new shows. And you can read detailed descriptions--as well as insider information--about all of the new series heading to your television in the fall and spring.

Jace Lacob and Maria Elena Fernandez take a look at what’s coming up and what’s coming back on TV this fall as television's network upfronts week comes to a close. The CW moved Supernatural to Wednesdays, ordered five new shows, renewed Hart of Dixie, and canceled Secret Circle and Ringer. CBS moved Two and a Half Men to Thursdays and The Mentalist to Sundays, while The Good Wife is staying put. ABC renewed Revenge (moving it to Sundays at 9 p.m.), Modern Family, Grey's Anatomy, Suburgatory, and several others. Fox renewed Touch (and it moved it to Fridays), canceled Alcatraz, moved Glee to Thursdays, and ordered Kevin Williamson's The Following and several comedies, including one from The Office's Mindy Kaling. NBC renewed Community (which moves to Friday this fall), Parks and Recreation, Parenthood, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and 30 Rock, and ordered 10 new shows, including a comedy with Matthew Perry, serial killer drama Hannibal, the Dick Wolf-produced Chicago Fire, and J.J. Abrams action drama Revolution. Read our analysis of all of the networks' 37 new series and counting!

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The Daily Beast: "The 13 Best Drama Pilot Scripts of 2012"

With the broadcast networks about to unveil their new lineups, I pick my favorite drama pilot scripts—from psychological thriller Mastermind to period drama Ralph Lamb.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "The 13 Best Drama Pilot Scripts of 2012," in which I offer my takes on the best and brightest offerings at CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, and the CW when it comes to their drama pilot scripts.

At the network upfronts the week of May 14—when broadcasters unveil their fall schedules along with new programming and glad-hand with advertisers amid a series of presentations and parties—broadcasters will reveal the shows that might end up on your TiVo’s Season Pass in the fall.

This year, nearly 90 pilots are battling for slots on the schedules of CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, and the CW, all of which are desperate to replace aging hits and find those few breakout shows. This year’s crop is especially heavy on the supernatural, imported formats (especially from Israel), period dramas (which range from the frontier era and the Gilded Age of Shonda Rhimes’ The Gilded Lilys to the 1980s of Sex and the City prequel The Carrie Diaries), remakes and prequels (Mockingbird Lane! Hannibal! The Carrie Diaries!), Beauty and the Beast (there’s not one but two competitive projects based on the fairy tale), and—oddly enough—a fascination with cults, which turn up in several pilots.

Among the many pilots this development season, what follows are the 13 strongest drama scripts. A few caveats: The list below focuses exclusively on drama pilots, as I believe that casting and chemistry among actors are two of the most important factors to the success of comedies. The selections below represent my own personal taste, which doesn’t always necessarily mesh with that of the broadcasters. Finally, as always, there’s a lot that can change between these scripts and completed pilots, with significant change sometime occurring before a pilot makes it to the screen. That said, here’s hoping that some of these projects—presented in no particular order—will make it on the air!

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