The Good Wife never had a leading man

This weekend, I went and saw The Grand Budapest Hotel. It was good. It also failed the Bechdel test spectacularly: I don’t think two female characters ever spoke to each other at all, much less about something other than a man.

Later, I watched the new episode of The Good Wife. Now there’s a show that aces the Bechdel test, week after week. If someone wanted to develop a test specifically for TV shows with strong female protagonists and supporting characters, they could call it The Alicia Test, With Kalinda and Diane. (If you’re behind on this show, you might want to stop reading now.)

So it’s been odd to see the reaction to the plot twist at the center of the last two episodes. Will—Alicia’s former boss and former lover—dies suddenly. And viewers just could not believe this was happening. Various reviewers turned in copy that mostly just expressed shock and sadness repeatedly. Twitter fell apart, its servers soaked with tears of rage. Breia Brissey said she “can’t imagine this show without Will Gardner.” TV Guide called him “the show’s leading man.”