How I love The Good Wife! This show went from life-support to a great last season to an amazing new season. So far, we’ve seen Matt Czuchry’s Cary Agos arrested and jailed on a trumped-up drug charge, and Michael Cerveris’ skanky State’s attorney out to destroy Julianna Margulies’ Alicia and derail her non-existent run for his job by framing both Cary and Christine Baranski’s Diane Lockhart — and then joining Florrick-Agos, taking with her the entire upper echelon of Lockhart-Gardner in a show-stopping exit worthy of Gloria Swanson descending a staircase. Florrick-Agos is now back in the old Lockhart-Gardner offices, making trouble for Zach Grenier’s uprooted David Lee, Michael J. Fox’s Louis Canning, et. al. Baranski and Margulies are formidable on their own, but put them together and they’re a force of nature. (But can we just kill Linda Lavin and her smarmy bitch of a character?)
Speaking of women and power, there’s no small wonder why my favorite TV comedy is The Big Bang Theory. We all love Leonard, Sheldon, Howard and Raj, but the show’s real stars are Penny, Bernadette and Amy, who couldn’t be more different: Penny (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting), a one-time actress-waitress now embarking on pharmaceutical sales (and Leonard’s girlfriend); Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch), a microbiologist (and Howard’s wife); and Amy (Mayim Bialik), a nerdy, couture-challenged neurobiologist (and Sheldon’s girlfriend, and we all know Bialik actually holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience).
Oddly enough, all the major characters on Big Bang have last names except for Penny: she’s simply Penny. But I digress. Despite their differences, the three women seem to have the BFF thing down pat. Amy idolizes Penny, who seems to have developed a liking for her, while Bernadette and her high-pitched voice, especially when she’s angry, makes everyone jump, including Howard. Kudos to the Big Bang powers-that-be for giving us girl-centric episodes. Keep ‘em coming!
Call me a wimp, call me a sap, call me a romantic, but I also love Once Upon A Time. I will admit I haven’t yet seen Frozen, so I was a bit lost when the character of Elsa came to Storybrooke looking for her missing sister Anna, but I enjoyed the storyline so much that it made me want to see the film. Go figure? Handsome men on horseback being taught sword-fighting by a woman. Come to think of it, all the heroic fighting on this show is done by women, from Snow White to Emma to the aforementioned Anna to the divine Elizabeth Mitchell in an extended story arc. The Seven Dwarfs are scared of Snow, Prince Charming is also a bit in awe of Snow, Emma rules over Hook and Regina scares the crap out of everyone, except Emma. The women seem to run everything. No wonder I love this show!
Another new sitcom recently premiered: The McCarthys. They’re a typical Boston Irish-Catholic family, with a coach husband (Jack McGee, so good as Chief Jerry Reilly in Rescue Me), two idiot sons (Joey McIntyre and Jimmy Dunn, who are really from the Boston area), one pregnant daughter (Kelen Coleman), and the ubiquitous gay son (Tyler Ritter, son of the late John Ritter). Starring Laurie Metcalf as mother Marjorie, The McCarthys has one hell of a funny concept, with real-time and imaginary flashbacks. Metcalf is so straight-faced, I think her face would crack if she smiled, and Ritter, well, he looks like his dad, sounds like his dad, and has his dad’s great sense of comic timing. The two of them alone will keep me tuning in for more.
Now on the Tube…
The much-awaited return of Luke Spencer on General Hospital. In fact, all of General Hospital is wonderful these days. Producer Frank Valentini and head writer Ron Carlivati have turned this show around, once again making it must-see TV.
Best Recent TV Moment…
Watching the American people implode by electing people who shouldn’t even run for dog catcher. You made your bed, now lie in it. When things get worse (and they will), at least they can’t blame the Democrats.
And don’t get me started…
Will Meredith ever stop whining on Grey’s Anatomy? You lost your sister and you now have another one, but you don’t like her. Boo-fucking-hoo, get over yourself. You’re more annoying than Selfie and Manhattan Love Story — oops, both canceled.
