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S07.E08: Restraint

ElectricBoogaloo

By ElectricBoogaloo
in The Good Wife [V]

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Splash

Splash

I hated the entire Grace plot.  First off, when Grace was begging to bring in new business, Alicia told her to look for mid level clients and when Grace asked how sh could tell that they were mid level, Alicia told her to "look at the size of their ads".  Ads where, in the newspaper?  Surely she didn't mean the phone book.

 

And I find is really hard to believe that Grace could get past at least 3 gatekeepers and is just put through to decision maker Mrs. Gilmore with her first phone call.  I half expected her to say, "You've got spunk, kid!  Let's do it!", but no, she just wants Grace to call her the next day so they can draw up the papers (why wasn't a meeting set?), Grace asks if she's serious, then just hangs up on the woman after she says she's sure.  I get that shows don't bother with phone goodbyes because they waste time, but it took me out of the scene.

 

 

Not to mention, it bugged me that she was using her cell to make business calls and not the business line in the house, which would show up on caller ID as Florrick/Quinn.  If Grace is in the habit of using her personal cell for work business, can Alicia bill for that time?  I guess they could just look at her bill every month, but she'll have to be really organized to keep track of what calls are for what clients.

 

Really, I think all that is tied into the fact that I'm so annoyed that they are working out of Alicia's house.  If I was a client with $2 million in billings, I'm not sure I'd trust a law firm that seemingly couldn't afford any office space.  Also, if Peter gets far enough along in the campaign to get Secret Service protection (since I think the guys that follow him around now are his Governor's detail), would they even allow her to see clients at her home?

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Kel Varnsen

Kel Varnsen

However, I hope Alicia gives Grace the $$$ she's earned (after all, one of the reasons she supposedly went to bond court was because she had kids to send to school...Grace has just tidily earned a year or so's tuition at a lot of schools).

I kind of liked the Grace plot it was a hell of a lot more interesting than anything else going on in the episode. Plus I couldn't help but wonder if she would also be getting 0.5% of all the business they get from Vanessa WIlliams, since she called Eli and that got their firm the business. 

The show is so bizarre now. What they did to Eli is atrocious. He doesn't or the writer don't, know what socialism is?? Come on. That was just embarrassing as is much else on the show. Why would offering unlimited vacation days make any sense at all. You really want a workforce that is on vacation much of the time instead of just paying them a living wage. They were acting like $75,000 is a lot of money these days. Especially not so in a large city.

 

I have heard of the unlimited vacation days before. I know Richard Branson offers it to his employees. And from what I have read the comments the show made were absolutely right, that people actually take less vacation time, since no one wants to be seen as slacking off and taking advantage of the policy. Especially when it comes time for things like annual performance/salary reviews.  And I would say that $75,000 is a good amount of money, especially since we have no idea what kind of business this woman runs, I mean she might be in some kind of business where most of her employees are entry level type with minimal education or something like that. 

 

I think the three computers was to make it sound like noise was coming from all around her, not just one spot. It was a little over the top.

That wouldn't really make sense though since the person hearing it on the other side of the phone would be hearing it out of a single speaker, so you wouldn't be able to pick up any kind of direction. But it was kind of a funny gag.

 

The thing that bugged me the most was the super annoying other lawyer that was in court against Diane. What was her deal with all her annoying sayings and taking about things her parents said. Why not just try and get Martha Plimpton back. 

 

Also I was watching in Canada, and was surprised to get a mature subject matter viewer discretion advised warning after every commercial. Seemed kind of weird to me for what was a pretty basic plotline for this show and a warning that they don't usually show. 

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Tara Ariano

Tara Ariano

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

 

The Good Wife Exercises Its Right To Choose...To Defend Someone Who Filmed A Deceptive Anti-Choice Video
Reese Dippold continues not to need to be onscreen in order to force Diane into awkward intellectual positions, while Grace hustles to help Alicia keep the lights on.

NutMeg

NutMeg

This season is ok and entertaining enough. I stopped watching for a while so I missed all the part where Kalinda and Alicia were never in the same frame. We're now far away from the awesomeness we used to have, but it's an ok thing to watch when you have nothing better to do. I'm a bit sad though that Diane, Cary, Eli and al.  have increasingly been portrayed as, well, less than we could have expected from them, but hey, I get it, it's the Alicia show now, and if I take it as such I can enjoy it. It's not must see TV, it's not even oh I missed an episode TV, it's just good to have when I feel like watching something and have watched all the rest. And in that vein, it does deliver. Yes, it's a long way from where it used to be, but hey, unexpected female friendships on TV seem way harder to portray on TV that I would have thought.     

 

Weirdly enough, I loved the Alicia character so much more before this became the Alicia show. Go figure...

dahling

dahling

I hated the entire Grace plot.  First off, when Grace was begging to bring in new business, Alicia told her to look for mid level clients and when Grace asked how sh could tell that they were mid level, Alicia told her to "look at the size of their ads".  Ads where, in the newspaper?  Surely she didn't mean the phone book.

 

This deserves more attention.  The size of the ads? Was she sending Grace to the Yellow Pages?  To let her fingers do the walking?  I don't even know if this line was meant to convey that Alicia still mentally lives in 1991, or just stupid writing.

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Kromm

Kromm

This deserves more attention.  The size of the ads? Was she sending Grace to the Yellow Pages?  To let her fingers do the walking?  I don't even know if this line was meant to convey that Alicia still mentally lives in 1991, or just stupid writing.

Insurance companies actually still DO run Yellow Page ads. Perhaps we're only supposed to see Alicia's comment through the specific filter of the one suggestion she made. I mean the ads you see are for BROKERS, and maybe that's what she meant.  What we saw Grace do was not get any leads from Insurance and stumble into other areas. The fact that those areas don't make sense in terms of Yellow Pages ads doesn't mean much if Alicia's advice wasn't about those other businesses. 

lucindabelle

lucindabelle

If my company offered me more vacation in lieu of our pitiful salaries I would TOTALLY take it.

But then, I work for a newspaper, and my productivity level is apparent and unquestionable. If my section is finished and articles are written, it's incontrovertible.

 

I want more vacation.

And sick days. We get 5 for the whole year. Sounds like a lot but it really isn't, it's one sick day every two months or a half a day a month.

Maherjunkie

Maherjunkie

 

They're still milking Eli's-door-slams-on-his-desk for "humor." It's just sad at this point.

I know what you mean.  They do the same thing on "Keeping UP Appearances" re Onslow's car back firing but it doesn't bother me as much.

 

I never thought Grace would be this likeable.

 

CB, as always, continues to be the thinking person's sex symbol.

kwnyc

kwnyc

In thinking about it, I'm glad they're showing Grace has some brains and ambition: after all, she's Peter and Alicia's kid. Zach was definitely the wonder child and Heir Apparent, so now that he's out of the house, it's nice to see Grace grow up a little. The actress is also pretty good, so I'm sure she's happy to have an actual plotline as a functional human being instead of being a drippy weirdo.

Kromm

Kromm

In thinking about it, I'm glad they're showing Grace has some brains and ambition: after all, she's Peter and Alicia's kid. Zach was definitely the wonder child and Heir Apparent, so now that he's out of the house, it's nice to see Grace grow up a little. The actress is also pretty good, so I'm sure she's happy to have an actual plotline as a functional human being instead of being a drippy weirdo.

Is it much better that she's been shown instead as some kind of Idiot Savant, who's smart enough to find good leads, but dumb enough that she actually thinks she's going to get paid upfront for an unproven number of billable hours that may or may not appear?

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

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Apparently I am not professional enough because I prefer to hear silence in the background of any professional/business call rather than Busy Office Sounds?

ITA - when I make phone calls at work, I shut the door to my office so there is no background noise. I don't think that makes me sound less believable to the person on the other end of my call. And when I get phone calls where I can hear a lot of noise, it makes me think I'm talking to a call center which doesn't exactly endear them to me. It just seemed ridiculous to me that Grace thought she wasn't getting anywhere with her cold calls because of the lack of background noise. The noise level isn't the problem, Grace. It's that you're cold calling and almost no one wants to talk to people who cold call. I've worked at places where the receptionist is instructed not to put any cold calls through because the company's attitude is that if we need a service, we will find a suitable provider and contact them. It's not like we are sitting around with no pens and hoping that Office Max will be psychic and cold call us.

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mansonlamps

mansonlamps

Regardless of whether or not $75,000 is a lot of money, in my department (in a Chicago Suburb), I have employees making from $55,000 to $115,000. If I brought all the lower ones up to $75,000, there would be quite the uproar, especially from the ones that were close to that figure to begin with. It's not something to be taken lightly at all, whether or not I want to subsidize lower salaries with my own. Should everyone from then on get the exact same increase for example regardless of performance? The whole business model would have to change.

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Dowel Jones

Dowel Jones

That's probably why Eli is so nervous.  He's worried about the political implications of accepting support from a donor with an economic philosophy that, as Cyrus said on a key moment in Scandal a few episodes back, "It's not going to play well with your base". He can't see the forest for the trees, as pointed out upthread.  This will be a minor bump compared to the shitstorm that the other candidates throw and Peter for his actual behavior.

Kel Varnsen

Kel Varnsen

Grace. It's that you're cold calling and almost no one wants to talk to people who cold call. I've worked at places where the receptionist is instructed not to put any cold calls through because the company's attitude is that if we need a service, we will find a suitable provider and contact them. It's not like we are sitting around with no pens and hoping that Office Max will be psychic and cold call us.

The weird thing is Grace seemed to use her mother's name and her family name to get her foot in the door with the cold calls as it were. And it seemed to work. Except that doesn't really make sense since we have been constantly told that Alicia's reputation is in the shitter thanks to the election scandal last season and that is why she has had to go to bond court and can't get any good clients.

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mansonlamps

mansonlamps

I'm sorry but I found the whole Grace storyline ridiculous. First, agree about Alicia's reputation being crappy, but even moreso, Grace sounded like an unprepared kid, which she is, and it is ludicrous that we are expected to believe that successful companies would just hand over millions in billings to her based on what we were presented.

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romantic idiot

romantic idiot

The only people she really got were those unhappy with Diane Lockhart, so I think a lot of that was bluffing. 

Regardless of whether or not $75,000 is a lot of money, in my department (in a Chicago Suburb), I have employees making from $55,000 to $115,000. If I brought all the lower ones up to $75,000, there would be quite the uproar, especially from the ones that were close to that figure to begin with. It's not something to be taken lightly at all, whether or not I want to subsidize lower salaries with my own. Should everyone from then on get the exact same increase for example regardless of performance? The whole business model would have to change.

Yeah, what they never explained was whether the salary differential would still be maintained - i.e. the lowest would be 75k but then there would still be significant differentiation for top performers. 

panthergirl13

panthergirl13

I thought this season had promise a few episodes ago, and I really do hope Alicia and Jason start boning soon (sorry, I'm a sucker for Jeffrey Dean Morgan and don't find him creepy in the least. That said, I am a terrible judge of men.)

But this episode was a real shitshow. I don't care about Peter's campaign at all, the thing with Mrs. Gilmore not just agreeing to a meeting but handing over her business to a toddler-sounding person on the phone? Pshaw. I do hope we get to see a Mrs. Gilmore/Logan reunion though. We came close to a Rectify cast drive-by this season as well, albeit a few episodes apart.

Jackie and Hersch, er Howard, make the perfect wacko couple.

JDM makes it watchable for me overall, but just barely. Get him naked, and fast.

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Hanahope

Hanahope

I had to laugh at the client meetings the two women were holding.  One potential client asks about how many partners they have, and seemed put off by them having two, yet his current attorney, Louis Canning, doesn't have any partners?  He's Louis Canning & Associates. 

 

Grace did ok with the initial cold call, but her follow up sure needed practice.  If Alicia didn't already have a reputation and experience with the clients, who were mad at Diane, Grace would have gotten bupkis.  Grace didn't "win" those clients, Diane lost them.

 

I got what Diane did with the legal arguments/posturing at court, but I thought she went way too far.  I think she'll have some difficulty getting her clients back (or she should) and she really pissed off a judge (which could affect how other judges treat her as well, its a small world there).  Sure, she "aggressively" represented her client, but she sabotaged the case at the same time.  She could lose the republican think-tank business (which maybe she wouldn't mind, but she seems to have based a lot of business from it),

 

 

 

And sick days. We get 5 for the whole year. Sounds like a lot but it really isn't, it's one sick day every two months or a half a day a month.

 

I don't think that's a lot at all.  One bad case of flu that hits you Sunday night can wipe out your sick days in no time.  And that's assuming you don't need some 'sick' days because your kids are sick.

feminaformosa

feminaformosa

I really think that this kind of work is not something that Diane in previous seasons would have done, not ever. It just doesn't seem to hold true to the character. I could see Will going against his principles for billable hours in a hot second, and on almost any other topic, I could see Diane at least thinking about it, but not actually doing it. 

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