The Good Wife Season 5: Robert and Michelle King Interview

the good wife series 5.4_A2ROBERT and MICHELLE KING – Co-Creators / Executive Producers

How does it feel to be on Season 5 of “The Good Wife”?

Michelle King: It’s tremendous. We’re coming up on our 100th episode. It’s really exciting for us.

Robert King: And exhausting. We end the year very tired and ready to collapse and then start reading the news and go ‘that’s interesting, this is fun, Anthony Weiner, really?’ So, all this starts to get you excited about going the year again.

2. How does the Season 4 finale set the stage for Season 5?

Sometimes it’s great to swerve left and then you swerve right, but I thought thematically it worked for us, in that you thought it was going to romance when in fact it was going to career-end romance. That sets up the next year, as we get to see how Alicia and Cary follow through. If they’re going to start a firm together, what is that going to look like – and they’re going to start the year saying it’s going to be the most ethical firm – and how are they going to be able to follow through? What will that do to Alicia and Will, especially if they take clients along with them? If you’re stealing money from the other firm, which is the way Will and Diane might interpret it, it’s not going to end well. The year for us is about civil war through seeing these characters we’ve embraced in a family and the wedge go in the middle of the family – and how will that renew itself or will it ever?

3. More on setting the stage for Season 5

Michelle King: I feel like we set ourselves up very nicely at the end of Season 4 so I am really excited with the stories we get to tell in Season 5.

Robert King: There is a certain inevitability from the way we left it in Season 4. I would say each year we start with this real excitement and fever pitch to do well, except you have to stretch it out over a marathon and not over a sprint. There can’t be just one burst of energy. There has to be this constant renewal and burst of energy.

4. How has Alicia’s attitude towards Cary changed since Season 1?

Robert King: Julianna’s character over the years has grown respect for Cary, because he wasn’t the yuppie suburban boy that you expect. He has gone through a lot of turmoil. He was fired. He went to the state’s attorney’s office then he came back. He was overlooked for partner, so I think Jules’ character has a real respect for how he keeps bouncing back and that is different from the very first year where everybody thought he was the cliché.

5. How have the fans reacted to the direction the show has taken in Season 5?

Michelle King: What has been nice with the fan reaction is people seem very genuinely excited to see what’s going to happen next professionally with Alicia. With these two firms splitting and starting up I think people see the possibilities and are excited about it.

6. More on fan reaction…

Robert King: I think fans embrace anything new – seeing new versions of relationships, different ways to click people together – and so it’s fun to see Alicia and Cary try to be the new Will and Diane. Everybody knows what that means, all the fans know what that means, and are they going to be up to it.

7. What challenges will Peter and Alicia face going into Season 5?

The bottom line is Alicia and Peter have agreed to recommit to each other and that played into Alicia wanting to move away from Will. The difficulty is that Peter now has moved into a position of power in the governorship and as much as he has sworn over the years to be a changed man, now the test is really going to be put to a test because our theory is that the closer men get to power – and women probably too – the more it becomes that Henry Kissinger like aphrodisiac to women. He is also tempted by using his power as we saw with Anthony Weiner. Power comes with some sense of sexual loosening, so that’s difficult for Alicia and Peter – it’s not that Peter necessarily even acts on it – but that kind of divide in the marriage is difficult and it’s happening at a time when Alicia is feeling her own roots in a way. She has got her own firm, she’s got power, and she may not need Peter as much anymore, so that is a tension in that relationship.

8. Can we expect more big name guest stars in Season 5?

Robert King: It’s still early days but there are people – we’re building a little further ahead so we know Carrie Preston is coming back – she is lovely as Elsbeth Tascioni, and was nominated for an Emmy. We know that Gary Cole is coming back. He plays Kurt McVeigh who is in this relationship with Diane. We know America Ferrera is coming back. She was with us the second year and she has this odd relationship with Eli Gold. Melissa George who is this wonderful actress who is the Ethics Committee Commissioner in the governorship and causes Peter many problems and…

Michelle King: Jeffrey Tambor.

Robert King: Jeffrey Tambor who plays a judge on Arrested Development and Larry Sanders Show. He plays a judge in two of our episodes and is going to cause troubles for Alicia in the future, and then there is Juliet Rylance who plays the romantic interest to Kalinda and we couldn’t be more excited. I mean, there is an intent on our part to focus on our cast – the civil war going on in our cast – but it’s always wonderful to get these people back.

9. What are your plans for the 100th episode of “The Good Wife”?

Robert King: We are intending for it to be a blowout episode. We want the 100th episode to be one of the best we’ve written, but we don’t know what we’re doing yet. There is a movie called Drowning By Numbers that had a countdown in the movie from a 100 to 0. We were thinking about that but then our shows rely on the ability to edit out scenes that aren’t quite working, so you’d throw it off. I think it will come down to a real turning point in Julianna’s life and a case that just blows everybody away.

 

Interview thanks to Channel 4.

An interview with the star of The Good Wife, Julianna Margulies, is here.

Homeland Season Three Preview: Spoilers

Homeland Season Three, preview, review, spoilers, homelandHomeland is back. we are very excited. Here is the breakdown of the first episode.

Agent Peter Quinn makes a bomb in a basement, topless.

The Brody family have had a tough time, receiving death threats and bricks through their window. The FBI is following them and the media is hounding them. Dana comes home after a suicide attempt. She has a new boyfriend she met in rehab. She seems to be on the mend and sends a semi-nude picture to her new boyfriend. Her grandmother is also there, trying to help out the family. They eat together and have quality family time. Jessica finds it hard to deal with her daughters attempted suicide and has had to get a job as they have no money coming in

Carrie is off her meds and taking the brunt of the anger along with the rest of the CIA. They have not cleared up the bomb sight ‘because they are punishing us’. The CIA need a win badly and Saul, now in charge, already has a mission in place to take out a number of targets. They succeed in their mission, assassinating a number of bad guys. Agent Quinn was at the forefront of the mission and is upset when a child gets killed.

Carrie is in front of a committee, who are particularly harsh. The CIA are being blamed and the committee are digging for dirt and want to make the CIA pay for their mistakes. To compensate for being off her meds Carrie is drinking, picking up men and seems to be her own worst enemy. After a piece is leaked about her to the media- which doesn’t name her so her operatives are not harmed- she has a run in with Saul in a restaurant, causes a scene and tells them all ‘f**k you’. The newspaper piece is about her sexual relationship with Brody.

At a committee Saul talks about their success at their being ‘a little less evil in the world today’. The committee is still not happy and mentions the Carrie article. Saul, after a pause, confirms that, although the information is flawed, the operative in question was erratic and hide her bi-polar disorder from the agency for ten years. He then says that he never knew about the sexual relationship between Carrie and Agent Brody. Carrie watches on TV, devastated and in disbelief.

The Best Television Shows On Right Now

We live in a golden age of television. Film and Television used to be completely separate, but now Martin Scorsese is producing Boardwalk Empire and movie stars frequent TV. The quality just keeps getting higher. Frost did a survey of our readers for the top television shows on right now, and here they are.

Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad is crack in television form, and aptly so as it is about a chemistry teacher who starts to sell meth after being diagnosed with lung cancer. It is by far one of the best things on television. I have never met someone who had a bad word to say about it.

Homeland

Like most people I was addicted to Homeland and I am already excited about the new series. Homelands big advantage is the chemistry between the characters. Brody, played by Damien Lewis, was supposed to be killed off in the first season but the chemistry between Lewis and Claire Danes’s Carrie was too good and he was kept on.

The Good Wife

One of the finest legal dramas. Julianna Margulies is brilliant as Alicia Florrick. The Good Wife is now in it’s fourth season and still going strong.

Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is exciting and original. It is also not scared to kill of it’s lead characters. It is brilliant television and I am not just saying that because some of my friends are in it.

Boardwalk Empire

Boardwalk Empire is set in Atlantic City, New Jersey during the Prohibition era. It stars Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson and Kelly MacDonald as Margaret Schroeder. It is produced by Martin Scorsese and you can tell. Every scene is beautiful and the costumes are great. Has a great mixture of real and fake characters.

Dexter

The show about a serial killer who only kills other serial killers is genius. The next season will be the eighth and possibly last. All of the characters are amazing. Michael C Hall as Dexter is brilliant, and real life ex-wife Jennifer Carpenter plays his sister, Debbie. Who is possibly one of my favourite characters on television.


Covert Affair

Season Three of Covert Affairs was my favourite yet. Piper Perabo plays the CIA operative who falls in love easily. Season three had you on the edge of your seat. A show that has come into it’s own.

Revenge

Trashy TV at it’s best. It is like Dallas, but with a grudge.

Whitney

Hilarious comedy from comedian Whitney Cummings. It may not be well known in the United Kingdom but it deserves a wide audience for its cracking scripts that leave you laughing so much it hurts.

The Killing

I have to admit I have not seen this yet but promised to put it in as everyone else I know loves it, and is jealous that I have never seen it and have it to look forward to.

Suits

Brilliant legal drama now in its second season. On the run from a drug deal gone bad, Mike Ross, a brilliant college-dropout, finds himself a job working with Harvey Specter, one of New York City’s best lawyers. The relationship between Mike and Harvey is brilliant and, like The Good Wife, it has a strong female lead as one of the partners in the law firm.

The Big Bang Theory

The show is now the most watched show. It is funny and smart and the characters of the awkward physicists are likeable, lovable and rich in depth. Endlessly watchable.

How I Met Your Mother

Getting ready for its ninth and final season, where we will finally find out who the mother is. It is both popular and a cult classic. Ted searches for the woman of his dreams in New York City with the help of his four best friends. The cast of Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders and Neil Patrick Harris are all brilliant.

True Blood

Sexy, naughty, violent. In a world where vampires have “come out of the coffin”, Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress, discovers a new world of different creatures when she meets Bill Compton, a vampire.

Mad Men

A drama about one of New York’s most prestigious ad agencies at the beginning of the 1960s, focusing on one of the firm’s most mysterious but extremely talented ad executives, Donald Draper. This show is a big hit and the costumes have sparked a thousand fashion trends.

Sherlock

A modern update finds the famous detective and his doctor partner solving crime in 21st century London.
Benedict Cumberbatch is brilliant as Sherlock. The last episode of the last season was endlessly debated.

Downton Abbey

Beginning in the years leading up to World War I, the drama centers on the Crawley family and their servants. This was a runaway success on both sides of the Atlantic, making huge stars of all of the cast.


Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23

Chloe is a New York party girl with the morals of a pirate who bullies and causes trouble for her naive small town roommate June. Krysten Ritter and Dreama Walker are brilliant and James Van Der Beek sends himself up beautifully.


New Girl

After a bad break-up, Jess, an offbeat young woman, moves into an apartment loft with three single men. Zooey Deschanel is deserving of her own show.


Suburgatory

A teenage girl moves from the city to the suburbs. Jane Levy is brilliant and sarcastic, the script is amazing. Witty and brilliant.

Agree or disagree? Comment below.

Suits Season Two Preview

Suits was a legal drama that lived up to the hype when it premiered last year. The tale of two lawyers, one experienced and one a drop out who blags his way into a firm that only takes Harvard graduates, was entertaining and smart. So there is no surprise that Suits is back for season two.

The Suits series 2 premiere (from Thursday 24th January, 9pm ) is a strong start into the new season.

Spoiler Alert.

Jessica finds out that Mike did not go to Harvard and lied to get into the firm. She tells Harvey to fire him but he can’t. Will his job be saved?

Elsewhere in the episode a women who has had her book idea stolen goes up against Mike, who decided to help her.

Their is a great relationship between Harvey and his secretary, Donna.

Rachel drunk dialed Mike after they kissed but he did not get the message because it was deleted. As Rachel tells Donna, it was a ‘kiss good enough to drunk dial’. Will they get together?

Some top quotes from the episode:

Are you mad at me? Good. If you are mad it means you are not panicking.

We are at a funeral and you are quoting Highlander? Yeah, a lot of people die in it. It seemed appropriate.

Brilliant college drop-out, Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) continues to live a lie in the highly-anticipated second series of the excellent legal drama. Guided by his cocky and confident boss, Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), Mike continues to fool those around him that he is a fully-qualified lawyer.

Suits is still on form. Great entertainment.

Jessica knows about Mike. She lets Harvey know that she knows too and puts pressure on Harvey to get rid of him before he hurts the company. While Harvey must decide whether or not to keep Mike on staff, the firm’s co-founder, Daniel Hardman (recurring guest star, David Costabile) returns after a prolonged absence following the death of his wife. Despite claiming to be a changed man, it is clear there is no love lost between Daniel and Jessica and Harvey must choose sides.

The Good Wife Preview

I am completely hooked on The Good Wife and season three is absolutely amazing. If you cannot wait to know what happens, read on…

SPOILER ALERT

Alicia is offered a job offer from Louis Channing and considers taking it after she is told she has to buy her apartment or move out, Diane dates two men (one of them an old flame) at once after getting stood up by one of them because of a work engagement, The partners are baying for Will’s seat after his suspension. Only the fact they hate each other is saving him. Alicia’s children put pressure on her to buy their old house, but it has a price tag of 1.9million, how will she afford it? She asks for a raise that upsets Diane and nearly gets her fired.

Will’s old girlfriend comes back to town and has some choice words with Alicia, which sparks her feeling less hostile to Kalinda, who she previously rejected the offer of having a beer with, Caitlin leaves to get married and have a baby, but not before David Lee tells Alicia that she had made an enemy due to her ‘mean girl act’. Even though Kalinda warned Alicia that Caitlin had teeth ‘like a pariah’ when Alicia said she was ‘only hungry’.

Cary owns up to having a relationship with someone at work to Pete and reaps the consequences, but keeps his job; just.

Martha Plimpton is also coming back for the season finale with Michael J Fox’s character Louis Canning as they take on the firm Alicia works for. Matthew Perry also joins the cast of the show from episode 19 of season 3. He’s not playing a nice guy!

This show is my favourite, without a doubt the best thing on TV at the moment. I also really want Will and Alicia to get back together. The scene where she leaves him and breaks his heart was heartbreaking and had superb acting from Josh Charles and Julianna Margulies.

If you only have time to watch one show, make it The Good Wife.