'The Good Wife': Good Law? - Season 6, Episode 9
"The Good Wife" is back on the campaign trail this week, with Alicia and her political handlers working on various ads to keep her in the running.
In "Sticky Content," both Alicia and Cary struggle with how to deal with information they find disturbing, but very little of it has to do with the law. So what legal threads did stick out in this episode?
Episode Recap (Spoiler Alert!):
Cary proves to be an extremely poor judge of character by believing that Bishop wouldn't try to kill him and that Bishop was just "blowing off stream" when he ordered his assassination.
 | |
|
Meantime Alicia is confronted by Peter sleeping with his new legal advisor, leading to a fantastically dramatic car conversation between political allies... and spouses. Alicia won't be the "good wife" again, so Peter better weld his fly shut. But he isn't the only one; Kalinda is still spinning the gears of the plot by sleeping with anyone she can, including this week's FBI agent.
Legal Roots:
If this episode was a direct reference to certain campaign ads or races, we missed it. This was pretty much TV political drama du jour. The only thing we caught was Alicia's reference to the "broken windows" theme of law enforcement, which has been used by the NYPD of late to crack down on minor crimes.
Legal Fact:
This episode was low on legal facts so we had to dig deep. There's a lot of wink-wink nudge-nudging about how each candidate's campaign is not allowed to coordinate with the corresponding political action committee (PAC), because that would be illegal. But as comedians John Stewart and Stephen Colbert proved in 2012, the system is so loosely regulated that it's hard for anyone to believe that PACs really keep their distances from candidates.
Legal Fiction:
We're unsure how the firm keeps absorbing the ancillary costs of Cary's personal problems. Partners may practically treat the firm's capital as their own personal safety net, but we're unsure how hiring a bodyguard reflects on Cary's fiduciary relationship to the firm.
Legal Babble:
Grand jury subpoena. The FBI came to Diane and Cary without a court order calling for either to testify before a grand jury. In other words, the FBI just wanted their version of a friendly chat.
The Verdict:
The drama and political intrigue have been meaty, but the legal bits have been mostly gristle. Maybe next episode, there will actually be a case that enters a courtroom.
What did you think of this week's episode of "The Good Wife"? Is the show guilty of making any legal mistakes? Check back here for more legal recaps of "The Good Wife," and send us a tweet at @FindLawConsumer with the hashtag #TheGoodWife.
Related Resources:
- The Good Wife: "Sticky Content" (A.V. Club)
- 'The Good Wife': Good Law? - Season 6, Episode 6 (FindLaw's Celebrity Justice)
- 'The Good Wife': Good Law? - Season 6, Episode 4 (FindLaw's Celebrity Justice)
- 'The Good Wife': Good Law? - Season 6, Episode 3 (FindLaw's Celebrity Justice)
