Monday, October 27, 2014

Elsbeth Tascioni on 'The Good Wife' -- Too Much or Not Enough? Twitter Reacts...

The Good Wife Elsbeth Tascioni Old Spice Season Six Episode Six Carrie Preston photos pics

Fans of "The Good Wife" wait excitedly every season for a guest appearance by the quirky, whip-smart, and lovable Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston). With her bright red hair, frenetic approach, and hilarious non sequiturs, Elsbeth grabs your attention in every scene. What has always been the thread of her appearances on the show is that she is clever, sneaky, and the best secret weapon Alicia and her friends and colleagues have ever known.



Season Six of "The Good Wife" has taken a slightly different approach with Elsbeth. We got a peek at all the swirling thoughts and wallpaper clowns residing in her mind, a revealing if perhaps overly comedic view of her unusual intelligence. She appeared across the aisle from Alicia for a case, and we saw that subtle distraction tactics can work to diffuse her brilliance. And her biggest distraction of all came in the form of AUSA Josh Perotti (Kyle MacLachlan), who continued to ramp up his aggressive wooing tactics.

AUSA Josh Perotti Kyle MacLachlan The Good Wife Old Spice episode photos pics screencaps images

In Episode Six, "Old Spice," Alicia and Elsbeth join forces against Josh, and so begins the delightfully crazy dance of business and pleasure between the AUSA and his ginger love. Josh and Elsbeth's flirtation on the street, which included sniffing each other for their signature scents of baby lotion and Old Spice, Elsbeth jamming to "Call Me Maybe," and the duo's passionate office sex had Twitter buzzing over this whacky and wonderful couple.

"The Good Wife" has forayed into the absurd before, something which gives the show part of its enticing charm, and a lot of the tweets scrolling for Josh and Elsbeth this week were positive:







Many were feeling the love so much, they wanted more:





The Good Wife Josh Elsbeth romance sniffing Old Spice and baby lotion

But not everyone was as impressed with the over-the-top portrayal of an iconic "Good Wife" character. Part of Elsbeth's greatness came from her mysterious genius, a feeling that you never knew whether you'd get the daffodil or the demon, or if her mind was even there at all. While there has always been an element of comedy to Elsbeth, "The Good Wife" has definitely pushed the envelope this year:






And those dreaded three words of condemnation...



My biggest concern was they were de-fanging our dear Elsbeth, but thank goodness there was a light at the end of the tunnel of love...or, erm, something like that.



Thankfully, the dalliance with Josh didn't make Elsbeth lose her edge after all. She had us terrified that she'd fallen for the same trick again, but no, she was as sneaky as ever. And her battle-winning mystique at least continues with Alicia, who stared at Elsbeth in wonder when the AUSA suddenly dropped the case.

Another thing that had me still believing in Elsbeth's magic was that she made me really feel the painful absence of Will, something that hadn't yet happened for me this season.

Diane Will Elsbeth The Good Wife screencap

The joy of Elsbeth was that despite her slightly cray personality, everyone that worked with her came to love her. Alicia had worried how Will in particular would mesh with Elsbeth when she first recommended the unorthodox lawyer to defend him. How he both admired and was amused by Elsbeth created some of the best Will moments on "The Good Wife."

One can't help wondering if that was the writers' plan all along, because we were already feelin' it when Alicia had that incredible moment taking over Will's old office. This is probably the right moment for the hashtag #AllTheFeels.

What do you think, "Good Wife" fans? Has this just been a fun romp with Elsbeth and her integrity is preserved? Or was it all a bit too much of a good thing?

Bonus:



Posted by at 1 comment:

Saturday, October 25, 2014

'Constantine' -- Don't Judge a Show By Its Pilot?

Constantine pilot reviews Matt Ryan photos trench coat pics

While there are shows that knock it out of the park with their very first episode, there are plenty of series with absolutely sucky pilots that still turned into must-see TV once they hit their stride. While it's generally wise not to judge a show solely on a so-so premiere, in the case of "Constantine," it's impossible to make that judgement call.

That's because the pilot of "Constantine" centers on a young woman, Liv (Lucy Griffiths), who producers then decided to eliminate from the series. Ordinarily a revamp of this magnitude after a single episode would seem worrisome, but in this case, it gives me a lot greater hope for the future of the show.

Constantine spends most of the show trying to recruit Liv, a normal gal who doesn't realize she had a dad with supernatural abilities that he passed on to her. Liv is a weird sort of normal, who stands and stares dumbly at a giant earthquake-level crack rumbling towards her in a parking garage, and then seems oddly unfazed after she's seen a crater open up in the ground with mile-high flames shooting out of it.

Liv Constantine fireball fire pit crater Lucy Griffiths
Ain't no big thang...

With Liv intermittently screaming like a ninny over some supernatural events and then going, "Like omg, blood and demons and stuff!" in a childlike voice over other terrors, it's no wonder the producers looked at their pricey pilot and rewrote her out of the ending. But this 180 turn of "really important girl" to "ah never mind" didn't help an already muddled pilot.

No one seems to be interested in the slow burn anymore. It can be tough to sustain mystery without irritating people, but you can spread the mythology out over a few episodes rather than trying to cram 40 pages of exposition into two minutes of screen time. Though criticized for not being so faithful to the comic, the movie version of "Constantine" at least had weight to it...there was an ominous mood and a real feeling of fear and agony and imminent doom.

So far "Constantine" the TV show is a bit hollow...the title character is supposed to be tortured emotionally and really dangerous...but right now it's all just words and nothing we actually feel from the character. That could come with time, and hopefully some dialogue that doesn't require rambling off a bunch of mumbo-jumbo lore that feels like a "required element" that is reluctantly added in a half-hearted attempt to add narrative to all the REALLY COOL SPECIAL EFFECTS AND PEOPLE WITH BLOOD DRIPPING OUT OF THEIR EYES!!

Constantine John in the rain trenchcoat blond hair pilot reviews premiere episode

And I couldn't help feeling like all those "mates" were added to the dialogue to ram home the "oh cool accent!" for #Mericans, so much so that I looked up actor Matt Ryan to make sure he wasn't an American faking a Brit accent. Turns out the Welsh Ryan is legitimately from Across the Pond, but it can't be a good thing if we're suspicious of his authenticity.

Clearly the pilot was not a convincing start to the series, but one hopes a few more episodes will give us some more to sink our teeth into. While #Constantine fans are legitimately annoyed at misinformed "'Supernatural' was first!" tweets about the show, there is something the new series can learn from the CW staple. The dialogue matters. The relationships matter. All the intricate lore matters. Awesome special effects are icing on the cake, but it's not what makes an audience fall in love with a show.

What did you think of "Constantine"? The show airs on NBC, Fridays at 10/9c.



Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin