Tonight's Episode of The Good Wife

[silverscreenselect]

Wow! I did not see that coming.

Spoiler

RIP Will Gardner

[Catfish]

Indeed.

Spoiler

Was the episode written by George R. R. Martin?

[Ritterskoop]

There are two in-depth interviews (with massive spoilers, obviously, so don't go there if you haven't seen it) on this plot development on tvline.com, from the writers and a key actor (I use actor as one who acts rather than only males who act, so this is not in itself a spoiler).

[jaybee]

Hats off to them for being able to pull this off. I like the show, mostly because it's so well written and has so many interesting characters. Neither I nor Mrs. Jaybee saw this one coming. That made it all the better.

[ghostjmf]

Why would anyone have seen this coming?

Spoiler

Unless they read which actor had the short contract; apparently people did know, but didn't read what they could have into it.

I think its a cheap shot & that it sucks.

Spoiler

I also didn't like a similar "plot development" on Person of Interest recently.

Kalinda's husband who "suddenly disappeared", now, that's a card the writers are waiting to play. But that you can see coming.

[silverscreenselect]

I think its a cheap shot & that it sucks.

Spoiler

On Person of Interest, they hinted very strongly that someone was going to die on that episode, but they made it appear that it would be Officer Fusco, who was captured and tortured by the crooked cop organization HR. And when Reese and Carter had a few moments together earlier in the episode that was a pretty good clue too. On The Good Wife, they didn't drop any hints in the promotions for the show that anything at all like this was going to happen.

[SpacemanSpiff]

Why would anyone have seen this coming?

Spoiler

Unless they read which actor had the short contract; apparently people did know, but didn't read what they could have into it.

Spoiler

Sometimes the short contract causes the cliffhanger. The "Who Shot J.R.?" stunt, which was ratings and social buzz gold for the series, was primarily because Larry Hagman's contract was up. This gave the studios/network leverage that either the character would die (unlikely) or, more probably, be shot in the face, require extensive plastic surgery, and come back looking like Robert Culp.

[Ritterskoop]

The contract ending in this case was at the request of the actor, who wants to spend more time with family. The actor and producers agreed on 15 episodes as long enough to tell a story but not be a full season. The person will still be in the next episode in flashbacks.

[silverscreenselect]

Why would anyone have seen this coming?

Spoiler

Unless they read which actor had the short contract; apparently people did know, but didn't read what they could have into it.

Spoiler

Sometimes the short contract causes the cliffhanger. The "Who Shot J.R.?" stunt, which was ratings and social buzz gold for the series, was primarily because Larry Hagman's contract was up. This gave the studios/network leverage that either the character would die (unlikely) or, more probably, be shot in the face, require extensive plastic surgery, and come back looking like Robert Culp.

Spoiler

Ironically, on the new version of Dallas, they had to kill off Hagman's character a second time because of his death.