Review: The (not so) ‘Good Wife’ finale

Here’s a thought for future show runners: If you believe you will need to explain the finale of your highly successful and much beloved show immediately after it airs, you might want to rethink that finale.

“The Good Wife” came to an end Sunday night with all manner of finale craziness. Some of it was standard (look! It’s ending just where it began!), some of it sticky (look! Will [Josh Charles] has returned from the dead to offer counsel and advice!) and some of it quite troubling (look! We’re going to end a show about a strong female character by having her literally smacked down for pursuing her career with vigor!).

Yet nothing was as truly insane as creators Robert and Michelle King’s decision to offer an “explanation” of it all via CBS.com immediately following the broadcast.

I realize that the relationship between audience and creator has changed in the digital age, and who would begrudge a network’s quest for multiplatform crossover. But when you have written an intentionally provocative finale to your very popular show, you need to give your audience time and space to be provoked before offering them a mini-lecture on Repetition and Symbolism in “The Good Wife.”

David Chase let audiences stew for years about what his maddening stunt of a “Sopranos” finale meant, and most people still aren’t sure.

Perhaps the Kings felt The Slap called for some instant damage control, or maybe they were just trying to save time by answering all the questions they knew they’d be asked on Monday.

Unfortunately, in their rush to explain the evening’s events, and indeed the entirety of “Alicia’s journey,” the pair sounded as if they didn’t have much faith in either their ability to tell a story or their audience’s ability to understand it. Which is the craziest thing of all.

To be sure, the finale was littered with non-conclusions, contradictions and plain old absurdities. Peter (Chris Noth) was once again on trial (honestly, how did he become governor?), this time for tampering with a murder case. And of course, Alicia was defending him, because the final episodes needed to bring everything Full Circle. Also because she needed a jerryrigged “He’s still my husband” scenario to plague her new relationship with Jason (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) so her co-litigator Lucca (Cush Jumbo) could interrupt the case with admonitions that Alicia should just tell Jason how she feels so she could finally get over feeling responsible for everyone and just be happy.

Miraculously, none of these conflicts is resolved in the finale! To defend Peter, Alicia throws Diane’s husband (Gary Cole) under the bus, but after consulting with dead/imaginary Will (did Morgan really offer no advice after his ill-fated turn as Denny’s ghost/hallucination in “Grey’s Anatomy”?) she chooses Jason. Only to find he has gone AWOL! As for the case, well, the super-determined prosecutor (“Glee’s” Matthew Morrison), devastated by Alicia’s icy negotiations, offers an 11th hour plea deal — no jail time though Peter must resign, manfully, with Alicia once again by his side.

As for happy, well, when Alicia pulls away from Peter as the cameras flash to chase after a figure she believes is Jason, she instead finds Diane (Christine Baranski), who smacks her across the face.

Which is, as the Kings remind us, a bookend to Alicia slapping Peter in the show’s first episode except it’s not really, because Alicia isn’t an adulterous and corrupt politician, she is just a very tough lawyer doing exactly what Diane had told her to do--defend her client with vigor.

It was all most unfortunate, given the dramatic nuance and exquisite control that marked most of “The Good Wife’s” impressive seven-season run. But finales are almost always freak shows — all those thrills and shocks and big moments; we should probably be thankful that it did not end in a hail of gunfire.

As it is, Alicia Florrick’s final hour will no doubt leave many fans angry and outraged while others will feel some sort of closure.

And if you don’t know how to feel about it, the Kings are still available on CBS.com to explain that too.

MORE:

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