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I was really annoyed that they brought David Lee back into the firm in 612, Diane's reasons for joining up with them made sense, but ffs David Lee as well??? I was totally team Alicia when she's pissed at Diane and Cary inviting him back into the firm without even consulting with her. Okay she's been more involved in her campaign lately, but that seemed like such a passive-aggressive way of dealing with it when there had been no prior indication that they had even raised her campaign as being an issue, Diane was the one urging Alicia to stop calling her and to focus on her campaign in 610, now it's perfectly okay for them to take on a partner without even asking her because they couldn't contact Alicia for an entire hour?!? I did think that Alicia's self-righteousness was a bit galling when she had been railroading Cary with a lot of decisions with the firm as well, but eh to me that doesn't excuse Diane and Cary doing it either. If they felt that Alicia's political campaigning means that she no longer gets an equal vote, then they should have told her that to her face and talked it out long before
In 613 it was really sad to see Alicia accept the money from that homophobic and sexist old man, Prady turns out to be the most principled of the two of them when he calls the man out on disrespecting his opponent, while Alicia couldn't bring herself to say anything about his homophobic comments. But then the episode also had wife killer Colin Sweeney threaten Alicia with his knowledge of her campaign being funded by drug money laundering, so she's been morally compromised for a while now. I get the feeling that Colin Sweeney's 'confession' to Diane on the gloves was being played for humour, but for once I found myself rooting against the firm and their self-serving attempts to protect his reputation, but meh of course they found a legal loophole in the end. It's not necessarily even about the quality of the writing, I think that certain characters like Colin Sweeney are just starting to feel played out at this point anyway after prior seasons have already done so much with them. The "in your opinion" judge was a lot of fun in her first appearances for example, but in season 6 characters like that can get a bit same old, same old at times I'm afraid when it's just repeating the original jokes and quirks
And I wanted to like 614 more than I did as I've loved when TGW has used that format in the past, and I was looking forward to getting more insights into Alicia's mind, but I didn't feel like we learned anything new really? Maybe my expectations were too high as the episode description made me go into it expecting a classic, and while the episode had its moments, ultimately it all felt a bit self-indulgent and disconnected to me. I'm not sure that the show really needed another episode focusing on Alicia's inner thoughts at that point, it would have been nice to pull the ensemble cast into the storylines more instead
I liked 616 more actually as it was nice to get back to the firm, and the email scandal was pretty funny (if a bit overplayed in places, I couldn't believe the woman spitting on the door of a senior partner! Also some of the emails didn't ring true to the characters IMO, particularly Diane supposedly saying that Carey wasn't much of a lawyer and so not a total loss if he went to prison) But the continuity was really frustrating, why is Julias suddenly working for F&A, why are they talking about him having been away at their nonexistent New York offices?!? I actually didn't mind Diane joining up with the firm, and I could *just about* buy them moving back to the old offices, but it's like the writers completely forgot about F&A being a start-up firm, they did not have to bring Diane, David Lee, Howard, AND Julias back as partners, it just makes the whole firm division nonsensical. I wouldn't mind if it felt like the writers were deliberately making a point about all of Alicia and Carey's idealism ultimately coming to nothing and F&A just turning into another big law firm exactly like L&G, but it's just dumb to bring back all of the exact same people, I'm almost surprised they didn't bring Will back from the dead as well to keep that L&G feel!
Ultimately I felt like season 6's biggest misstep was to drop the law cases of the week. Normally I prefer shows that focus on a continuous narrative, but I think there could have been a better balance this year, previous seasons always had quite a few cases which would really draw me in. At some point though the show became all about the politics, and there was barely any legal drama going on at all. Also the main cast felt really disconnected from each other, it feels like something's been missing since Will's death? I'm not even Will's biggest fan, but at least when he was still around there was that sense of them all working as a team, and there were smaller moments when you saw a warm friendship between say Will/Diane, Alicia/Kalinda, Will/Kalinda etc. Season 6 had some nice moments for Alicia and Carey (if very sporadic), but otherwise there just weren't the same character moments and sense of closeness this year, there weren't even any particularly engaging cases of the week, the show became almost solely about exploring Alicia's character and her campaign. Even the final cliffhanger fell flat, season 5 has already explored Alicia starting her new firm, and that story had real impact with how betrayed Will and Diane felt, it's hard to feel very excited about her starting up yet another new firm when the stakes feel so much lower this time
In 613 it was really sad to see Alicia accept the money from that homophobic and sexist old man, Prady turns out to be the most principled of the two of them when he calls the man out on disrespecting his opponent, while Alicia couldn't bring herself to say anything about his homophobic comments. But then the episode also had wife killer Colin Sweeney threaten Alicia with his knowledge of her campaign being funded by drug money laundering, so she's been morally compromised for a while now. I get the feeling that Colin Sweeney's 'confession' to Diane on the gloves was being played for humour, but for once I found myself rooting against the firm and their self-serving attempts to protect his reputation, but meh of course they found a legal loophole in the end. It's not necessarily even about the quality of the writing, I think that certain characters like Colin Sweeney are just starting to feel played out at this point anyway after prior seasons have already done so much with them. The "in your opinion" judge was a lot of fun in her first appearances for example, but in season 6 characters like that can get a bit same old, same old at times I'm afraid when it's just repeating the original jokes and quirks
And I wanted to like 614 more than I did as I've loved when TGW has used that format in the past, and I was looking forward to getting more insights into Alicia's mind, but I didn't feel like we learned anything new really? Maybe my expectations were too high as the episode description made me go into it expecting a classic, and while the episode had its moments, ultimately it all felt a bit self-indulgent and disconnected to me. I'm not sure that the show really needed another episode focusing on Alicia's inner thoughts at that point, it would have been nice to pull the ensemble cast into the storylines more instead
I liked 616 more actually as it was nice to get back to the firm, and the email scandal was pretty funny (if a bit overplayed in places, I couldn't believe the woman spitting on the door of a senior partner! Also some of the emails didn't ring true to the characters IMO, particularly Diane supposedly saying that Carey wasn't much of a lawyer and so not a total loss if he went to prison) But the continuity was really frustrating, why is Julias suddenly working for F&A, why are they talking about him having been away at their nonexistent New York offices?!? I actually didn't mind Diane joining up with the firm, and I could *just about* buy them moving back to the old offices, but it's like the writers completely forgot about F&A being a start-up firm, they did not have to bring Diane, David Lee, Howard, AND Julias back as partners, it just makes the whole firm division nonsensical. I wouldn't mind if it felt like the writers were deliberately making a point about all of Alicia and Carey's idealism ultimately coming to nothing and F&A just turning into another big law firm exactly like L&G, but it's just dumb to bring back all of the exact same people, I'm almost surprised they didn't bring Will back from the dead as well to keep that L&G feel!
Ultimately I felt like season 6's biggest misstep was to drop the law cases of the week. Normally I prefer shows that focus on a continuous narrative, but I think there could have been a better balance this year, previous seasons always had quite a few cases which would really draw me in. At some point though the show became all about the politics, and there was barely any legal drama going on at all. Also the main cast felt really disconnected from each other, it feels like something's been missing since Will's death? I'm not even Will's biggest fan, but at least when he was still around there was that sense of them all working as a team, and there were smaller moments when you saw a warm friendship between say Will/Diane, Alicia/Kalinda, Will/Kalinda etc. Season 6 had some nice moments for Alicia and Carey (if very sporadic), but otherwise there just weren't the same character moments and sense of closeness this year, there weren't even any particularly engaging cases of the week, the show became almost solely about exploring Alicia's character and her campaign. Even the final cliffhanger fell flat, season 5 has already explored Alicia starting her new firm, and that story had real impact with how betrayed Will and Diane felt, it's hard to feel very excited about her starting up yet another new firm when the stakes feel so much lower this time
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(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-11 05:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-11 06:23 pm (UTC)And I have seen the season 7 premiere as well now (I am completely caught up woot!) and yeah it didn't blow me away, but I'm remaining hopeful. Alicia being over her head in bond court was a nice touch IMO, and I liked the new lawyer that the show introduced, it's just a shame that the case of the week was a little dull and confusing. It was disappointing too that Carey and Diane barely had anything to do yet again, it really feels like the writers have completely lost track with what they were trying to do with L&G/F&A/whatever they've called these days. I don't get what happened to all of the young lawyers that Carey started up F&A with, surely the firm shouldn't consist solely of Carey, Diane, David, and a bunch of old and useless partners? I suppose though that it least it seems like they're setting up an arc for Carey to get frustrated with what's happened to the firm and how it's seen as being completely out of touch (although I was surprised that Diane was included in that with her response to new ideas), hopefully the show will go somewhere interesting with that. It was cute how he was so enthusiastic with the young lawyer that he took it as Carey making a pass at him heh. Now the show just needs to give Diane something to do!
(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-11 06:36 pm (UTC)A lot of major actors have left, which is a more of a problem for me than the fact that some minor characters appear for a few episodes and then disappear again.
I hope we'll see Dirk again (the lawyer Cary was actually not hitting on) and they'll become friends and Dirk will get a boyfriend. I sure care more about that than about Peter becoming Vice-President.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-11 06:59 pm (UTC)It doesn't bother me as much with really minor characters, but when it's previously recurring people like Robyn, or that sweet older guy who was friendly with Carey and joined up with their firm after becoming a lawyer later in life (what was his name again?!) then it really bothers me how they seem to just disappear into thin air after the show had established their closeness with the main characters :/ I'm looking forward to seeing JDM's character next week though, hopefully he'll stick around for a bit anyway
And yeah I've not been that excited about any of the campaign storylines since the highs of season 2 tbh, although it does look like they're going in an interesting direction with Eli being replaced by that other lady, we'll have to wait and see what happens there I guess
(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-11 07:02 pm (UTC)I have no idea who you're even talking about. ^^;; But yeah, it sucks that Robyn disappeared into thin air. Maybe we'll see her again now that Kalinda has left?
(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-11 07:07 pm (UTC)I'm not sure if they're going to bring Robyn back or not at this point, it would probably have made more sense to just write the character off and throw in an explanation that she had to leave for another job or something, it will be a little bit odd if she suddenly just pops up in an episode again with no mention of her being off-screen for an entire year. It certainly wouldn't be unwelcome if she did ever come back though, but I think at this point they will need some kind of explanation for where she's been
(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-11 07:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-12 12:21 pm (UTC)Plus, as I recall, he exposed some shadiness on the part of our "heroes". Acting like the firm was luxurious, established, and doing well even though it was going bankrupt- which could hurt clients and junior level associates. Although, I suppose that's business- and Nathan Lane/Clarke Hayden understood that too.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-12 12:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-11 06:14 pm (UTC)Totally agree on this. I can't say that I miss him as a person but he brought a certain dynamic to the show and his loss had a big impact on the relationships on the show. I feel like especially Diane suffered the most both from his absence and also the focus on Alicia :/
I really hope that the new season will be better in that regard but judging from trailers and spoilers,it will be allll about Alicia againd and I don't know how long I will keep on watching then!
(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-11 06:32 pm (UTC)I don't mind a focus on Alicia, I just wish I felt like they still knew how to use the ensemble cast properly :( Seasons 1-5 were very Alicia-centric as well, but at least then it felt like other characters had their moment to shine, but they've barely been giving Diane and Carey anything to do for ages now, even though you'd expect the show to have more time to spend on them if anything now that Will and Kalinda are off the show
(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-11 06:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-11 06:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-13 11:50 am (UTC)This whole thing is just ridiculous! XDDD But at least, that was a fandom dream, which is something I sadly rarely have.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-13 04:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-13 09:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-10-14 10:58 am (UTC)And I like your icon! :)