Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Saturday, October 12, 2024

DVD/TV Series Review: The Good Wife Season 5

 


The 22-episode fifth season of The Good Wife aired during the 2013/2014 TV season. It continues to do an excellent job of reinventing itself, given the storyline that started the series has played out. The show has managed to move past Alicia's re-entry into the workplace and her dealing with the scandal that kicked off the series and made her, and made all of the other characters, evolve.

Chances are anyone reading this review by now generally knows what happened during the show. Still, for those who do not, I will not spoil it except to say that there are major developments throughout the season, starting with the cliffhanger from season 4 playing out with Alicia agreeing to start a new firm with Cary. The season begins exactly where season 4 ended, and does not do a time jump. As a result, the actual leaving of Lockhart-Gardner has to play out, and needless to say, it does not go over all that well. It leads up to a major event that occurs a little over halfway through the season and then plays out for the rest of the season. The season then ends with Alicia having to make another big life decision.

The DVD set is a six-disc set. The extras include deleted scenes for most episodes, a series of behind-the-scenes and making-of featurettes (that total just under an hour), including one on the pivotal 15th episode of the season, and a gag reel. The only drawback is that the deleted scenes are not included in the bonus materials menus as in they were in seasons 1-3 so you cannot play them all at one time. If you want to watch them, you have to click on the episode title from the main menu and play them on episode-by-episode. It is a minor point, but annoying given that it is a change from earlier season sets.

Overall, I think the show was still doing well through the 6th season. It was starting to get a bit long in the tooth, but not so much that it was getting stale. You can also tell that the characters of Alicia and Kalinda were being separated, which seems to be the start of the alleged friction between Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi. Matt Czuchry's character was more involved this year after being more on the back burner the prior couple of seasons. The show also had a decent spate of guest stars, including some of the usuals (like Michael J. Fox) and new ones (like Jason O'Mara). Toward the end of the season, Matthew Goode joined the cast as a new member of the state's attorney's office. If you liked the prior seasons, you will like this one.

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