The Patriots’ Deflategate is finally in the past, as it should be. Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson’s Nipplegate from the 2004 Super Bowl, while still referenced, is also a thing of the past. And with the new fall television season about to begin, and since television is even more important to me than my Patriots, I feel obliged to provide my commentary on a television scandal still weighing heavily on my mind. The scandal involved the critically acclaimed CBS legal drama The Good Wife, and was referred to as “Kalicia-gate.” For a show that beams with pride on its ability to be one of the only network dramas left to get nominated for Emmys, “Kalicia-gate” almost felt like an unnecessary tarnishing of what was once a beautifully respected reputation.
Some background information, for those unfamiliar with the show: The Good Wife stars Julianna Margulies as the titular Alicia Florrick, a put-together lawyer balancing her law career, political aspirations, and not-so-put-together personal life, both familial and romantic.
The show is known for its eclectic array of new and ever-returning guest stars, its impeccable writing that fuses together procedural and serialized storytelling flawlessly, and its beloved ensemble opposite Margulies. Included in that beloved ensemble was Archie Panjabi, who portrayed the deliciously mysterious Kalinda Sharma for six seasons, winning the Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series following the inaugural season.
During the first two seasons of The Good Wife, fresh-out-of-water Alicia formed a platonic friendship with Kalinda that included sleuthing together and drunken bar conversations that fans lived for. So much so that fans ‘shipped “Kalicia” way more passionately than they did the show’s central romantic relationship of Alicia and her boss Will Gardner (portrayed by Josh Charles). However, when it’s revealed at the end of season 2 that Kalinda slept with Alicia’s estranged husband Peter (portrayed by Chris Noth) back in the day, “Kalicia” was never the same again. Instead of their friendship becoming estranged and then repaired like many other television shows, viewers were offered a truthful look into how past discretions can come back to haunt, and ultimately terminate, important friendships. That meant no more sleuthing together, no more having each others’ backs, and no more post-work drunken bar tequila shots and conversations.
Season 3 focused on the sexual reawakening of Alicia Florrick, so any void left from the Kalicia fallout wasn’t too highlighted; that could’ve been because Alicia and Kalinda still worked for the same law firm, so Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi were still in (some) scenes together regardless how their characters interacted or got along. In fact, the last time Alicia and Kalinda are actually featured in a scene together (more on this in a moment) is in the middle of season 4, three episodes after the two characters share a somewhat unexpected reunion/reconciliation of sorts, which clearly wasn’t the case. I remember watching that reunion with both characters sitting on the same hotel bed and finally talking to each other again, and my heart was once again whole.
So what exactly happened? One may never know. But after the middle of season 4, the two characters (and the two actresses) were never featured in the same scene together. Even in season 5, when Will Gardner was surprisingly shot and killed in a courthouse shooting, Kalinda delivers the news to Alicia over the phone, which was incredibly odd considering how close both characters were to Will. Season 5 was a bit of a resurgence for the series as Alicia and fellow law associate Cary Agos (portrayed by Matt Czuchry) leave their law firm to start up their own firm, leaving Kalinda and Will behind. Once Will was killed and his law partner Diane Lockhart (portrayed by Christine Baranski) merges/bands together with Alicia and Cary, one would’ve thought that a Kalicia reunion could’ve been in the works considering Diane tells Alicia she won’t join their firm unless Kalinda comes with her (and Diane clearly states that Kalinda is non-negotiable). And yet, a reunion still never happened.
Jump to season 6, which was the most recent season of the show, and Kalinda was given her own storyline separate from Alicia’s storyline, which could’ve been the writers’ way of keeping the two characters (and actresses) separate. There has been tons of speculation that Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi do not get along, and even more speculation that the writers’ wanted to reunite Alicia and Kalinda but Margulies would not allow it, seemingly due to her off-screen personal problems with Panjabi. Prior to the season 6 premiere, it was revealed that Panjabi would be leaving The Good Wife, prompting fans to believe and hope that a Kalicia reunion would be in the works; for a while, it wasn’t looking good for one of our favorite dynamic TV duos.
Then the powers that be (creators Robert and Michelle King) started promoting the satisfying conclusion of not only Kalinda’s story, but also the Alicia-Kalinda relationship. They promoted it to the point where they informed viewers directly that Alicia and Kalinda would finally be appearing in a scene together, and that the reason they hadn’t been in a scene together for so long was because they were “playing with viewers’ expectations” and some other nonsense about how it wouldn’t have been justified or realistic.
Which brings us to Kalicia-gate. The Kings’ didn’t lie; Alicia and Kalinda share one last, three minute bar scene together in the season 6 finale before Kalinda says goodbye for good, to Alicia and to the series that she was just as associated with as the titular heroine herself. However, it was later discovered (through the glorious TVline.com) that the two actresses did NOT film the scene together and that CGI was used to make it appear as though the two characters were in the same scene. It was a bit obvious from the start that the scene wasn’t filmed with the two actresses, as many viewers pointed out that the two characters never touch each other, Margulies’ eye level isn’t cohesive with Panjabi’s eye level, and the lighting of the scene was very shoddy.
Nobody knows why the two actresses didn’t film the scene together, or why they stopped appearing in episodes together for well over two years, but its safe to say that fans were incredibly upset. If I’m being honest, I stopped watching The Good Wife halfway through season 6 because I fell off on all my television shows last year and because it just felt incredibly disconnected, more so than ever before. When I heard that Alicia and Kalinda were finally going to reunite, even though it would be Panjabi’s last appearance on the show, I couldn’t help but feel fluttered with excitement and it made me want to watch the show again. And yet, I could still feel that something didn’t feel right about this arrangement, so I waited to watch the scene after the finale aired to see if I wanted to go back and indulge in more of the show. When I first watched the scene, I could understand why everybody thought they hadn’t filmed the scene together, but I didn’t want to believe it because I was so happy that the two characters were finally together again, no matter what the circumstances were. But I’ve now found myself in the majority here, believing a show I hold near and dear maliciously duped me.
There are many people on the Internet who believe that the Alicia-Kalinda conclusion was just as satisfying as the Kings’ said it was going to be, and they don’t understand why viewers are so upset about “something so small.” But to us viewers, myself included, the Alicia-Kalinda relationship was the heart of The Good Wife and it wasn’t “something so small.” It pains me to talk ill of this show, because I do believe it has some of the best writing and style of any television show ever, but the show betrayed its loyal viewers. The Kings’ never needed to promote the idea that Alicia and Kalinda were going to be in the same scene together, because that aspect of the finale was so heavily-touted that many people tuned in just for that scene alone. In subsequent interviews, once the CGI tactics were revealed, the Kings’ tried to justify their decisions and explain that they weren’t trying to fool or dupe viewers even if that’s not how it came across. When explaining their justifications, they were very protective of behind-the-scenes secrets and would only address any conflict that was occurring between Alicia and Kalinda, not Margulies and Panjabi.
They used the example of killing Charles’ Will Gardner off by saying he wasn’t actually killed, or the other example of Alicia driving in a car doesn’t mean she is actually driving – and that in both circumstances, among many others, technical things are faked to bring the storytelling to life. What the Kings’ and everyone else involved with The Good Wife failed to realize was that there was no need for any CGI between two actresses who just need to talk to each other and take a couple of shots together in a bar scene UNLESS something was going on behind-the-scenes. The Good Wife is not Game of Thrones; there is a time and a place for CGI and there is a time and a place for authenticity.
To say I won’t ever watch The Good Wife again is not true, although there are many other people who are so turned off by Kalicia-gate that they won’t ever tune in again. But to say that I trust The Good Wife is a completely different story. Silence usually speaks volumes, so had the Kings’ not promoted this trickery (albeit evasively) and just allowed the scene to speak for itself, viewers may not have been so angry. But because of how loyal the fan base is, and how dear the characters’ are to our hearts, it just felt like a real slap in the face. After all, the show is not produced and made for the storytelling; the show is made for the viewers.
