Pistorius and The Good Wife
AREN’T you sick of hearing the sobs and undignified carryings-on of Oscar Pistorius day after day polluting the nightly news? Whenever I hear his name I leap up and walk out of the room till it’s over to avoid hearing the performance.
The court ruling that cameras can’t train upon him has left the unfortunate Steenkamp family exposed to the ruthless scrutiny of the lenses as the reporters covering the trial speak of their implacable ‘‘stony faces’’.
In contrast, the Greek chorus of the Pistorius extended family – the brunettes as opposed to the blonde Steenkamps, is captured weeping and emoting at all times.
The trial has been adjourned for three days, held up due to operatic emotions so one has to expect more of this to come. The only benefit to the overbearing coverage of this celebrity trial is that we have been given an insight into how the South African justice system works with no jury and only ‘‘my lady’’, as Pistorius keeps grovelling, addressing his remarks to the female judge rather than the prosecutor, to decide the fate of the deeply unlikeable sports star.
The trial makes the unusual cases on the brilliant The Good Wife pale by comparison. What a damn shame another series is over and screened at the very late hour on a Tuesday night after The Paul Henry Show – to which I have developed an addiction to the carwinning ‘‘9 out of 10’’ closing game segment.
The suits the female attorneys wear on The Good Wife are so well cut that they, and the statement jewellery – especially as worn by senior partner Diane Lockhart who has the reddest hands on television – should have their own show.
Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick has done a masterful job of playing the dignified cheated-on wife presenting a magnificent ‘‘stony face’’ and not panicking as she picks her way elegantly through the minefields of her private, professional and personal lives.
This viewer panicked when it looked like this week’s final was going to make the enigmatic and mysterious Kalinda Sharma expendable. We shall see. I’d sorely miss the private investigator’s soulful eyes, tight leather jackets and her signature follow-me-home-and-frolic-with-me boots. The series ends with the jury still out on Alicia’s next move on the relationship chess board, whether she will return to the nest and her supposedly reformed husband, or rekindle with Will, her boss. I used to root for Chris Noth (Peter Florrick), aka Big from Sex in the City, but now, like Alicia, I couldn’t possibly choose. Take a glimpse behind the scenes of the world of educational privilege and tradition in tonight on the Arts Channel at 8.30pm.