So that was it for Cary?

rockart9-580-802499,

Yup. Its here http://www.inquisitr.com/3603742/julianna-margulies-wanted-another-season-of-the-good-wife-but-on-another-network/

Okay, I see - thanks for remembering and posting it here! This is basically the same content like the one in the New York Daily News, they even refer to the original source. However, I didn't know both of them before you mentioned them here in this thread - so, thank you!

Best wishes,

janar

"Love [...] is the most incredible gift to give and to receive as a human being." - Ellen Page

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I was also done with Alicia around season 4/5. That's maybe because I prefer ensamble shows to the ones focused on one single character and actor.
And as for Cary...the Kings were never able to use the character and its full potential and Matt was often left with nothing to do for too long. When it comes to characters Robert King writing is dispersive. He's too focused on plots and too little on characters and I'm one of those people who cares about characters' storyarc and development as much as the plot. I think Robert King was lucky to have actors who were able to sustain their characters even without decent scripts and storylines.
As for Matt, I don't think that spinoff is a good idea for him. It was already built around Lucca and Diane and he would end up being once again just a supporting character even in the spin-off. I don't see the point of it. It's better for him to find a show where he can have a main role, because he's wasted for supporting roles. Said that maybe he'll agree to do guest spots....

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rockart9-580-802499,

Personally I was done with Alicia around season 5 but I still wanted to see them address what happened to her (just not focus on her).

For me, it was season 6 and the outcome of Alicia's SA campaign. I felt it was all for nothing at the end; as a viewer, I was pretty angry to have wasted my time for that "nothingness". From that point on, I didn't really care about her and all the other characters; I still didn't watch season 7, just read re-caps of all the episodes ...

It could just be that network shows are just that grueling. 22 episodes is certainly stressful as opposed to say Netflix or cable.

Yes, I think that's one of the main reasons why Julianna Margulies wanted to "continue" on Showtime. Although, what I was wondering about is her contract with CBS from two years ago - is that still effective or did she split with CBS for good? That would've been an interesting question to ask her in this context.

Part of me wants to see Cary back for the spin off because Cary agos is such a fantastic character. He's genuine and believable but he's not a pushover no matter how much they try to undermine him. Matt is a fantastic actor and though his entire storyline in season 6 made me completely stressed out, he shined in all of it. But I also want to see him take on another project. But hey, we have Gilmore Girls to look forward to. I am not a fan and was not a fan when it aired but bu god I will be watching haha

Actually, I feel very different about your whole paragraph, because for me (1.) Matt Czuchry isn't an actor I look forward to watch in other movies/shows in the future, and (2.) I think that the character Cary Agos was the most inconsistently (and badly) written one from the main cast of the show.

 Regarding point (1.), the actor Matt Czuchry: I remember that I wrote here on this IMDb board before that I think that he isn't a good actor and that he doesn't really have much talent. But several other posters disagreed with me and my assertion and said that stating this is being unfair to him and the roles he played in the past. I had to admit that's kind of true and that my statement was unfair, because I think I haven't seen him acting in anything else other than TGW, and - of course - what I think about his acting is certainly my own opinion and not set in stone in general. Also, he has so many devoted fans; over at the FanForum there's a whole fanbase discussing all of his moves en detail.

On the other hand, what I can say now for me after 6 seasons of watching him on TGW and reading about him during this time: I don't think that I will ever look forward to any new project he'll be in because of him specifically. He is a good looking fella, without a doubt. But his acting abilities left me cold in many scenes that were intended to be far more engaging, or made me see through his character and watch him act. Especially when he had to show anger and it was quite overdone (for example, Cary's reaction after Will's death, or the scene with the client and the George Orwell reference, or the scene with Diane and Lana in the FBI office, and many more).

And this includes season 6, especially season 6! Because in my opinion he got the material and he couldn't deliver or make more out of it. I remember that many fans and critics were over the moon with his acting during the first half of this season and were engaged in what happened to Cary; some even thought it's worth an Emmy nomination/win. Sadly, it left me all very cold. I thought that, with the exception of the scene with the knife, his acting of a stressed person was overdone and sometimes even comical (the first scene in the prison for example was one I had to laugh about and couldn't take seriously). The same goes for showing sadness and/or desperation in some situations; when he rushed to Kalinda's apartment at the end of season 6 and she wasn't there, and him sitting on the bed and starting to cry - I laughed so much about this scene because it was a melodramatic overkill and badly acted. 

All in all, that might be his acting style or idea/method of how to act, which I have to accept. However, for me, he was very unconvincing in such scenes, and in general just note-worthy and not a special member of the cast who showed fantastic skills in his profession. I think that he's good in such tv roles as a supporting character with "fluffy" content (I guess he might be even a good comedian), but I can't really picture him in any other roles that demand more passion or drama or even craziness from his part. For example, imagining him in the role of Jeffrey Grant, which was done so marvelously by Hunter Parrish in season 5, is not possible for me; I don't think Matt Czuchry would be able to pull something off like this.

To me, he just doesn't seem like someone who's as passionate and "relentless" about his job and about creating fictional characters than others. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if he quits acting all of a sudden to do something else, more fulfilling in his life. I certainly wish him all the best for his career, and I read in a recent interview that he had/has some interesting new offers for the future (http://hauteliving.com/2016/11/matt-czuchry-talks-fashion-fame-and-the-gilmore-girls-reunion/624248/). Maybe he proves me wrong in the future and I'll see him again and look forward to other roles played by him - but as of now, I doubt it (I also read recently that nobody asked him to be part of the TGW spinoff: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/matt-czuchry-his-gilmore-girls-return-good-wife-finale-949939).

 Regarding point (2.), the character Cary Agos: For me, the character was massively ruined during season 5, and with the scene of him holding down Kalinda on the bed in the season 5 finale, this character was dead to me because of the fatal damage the writers did to him. And the exposure in season 6 didn't really help, it made it much worse.

I actually liked Cary at the beginning of the show as an antagonist to Alicia in her professional sphere and in relation to Kalinda as a "crushing" friend without benefits. I think the Kings did a very good job to build those relationships and create tension within all of them. Especially Cary changing sides and becoming an asset to Glenn Childs / Peter Florrick at the SA's office was clever and gave him a certain form and status defining his character. I think he was a strong character, very smart in his job, a good lawyer, working hard, even when he lost against Alicia he didn't give up and took opportunities. He played all the games very well, was even promoted to Deputy SA. Even after he made the "mistake" dating a colleague, he moved on and almost became a partner at Lockhart/Gardner. And I think the boldest move was to build his own law firm - up until this moment, I have no problem with his character development.

But with the beginning of season 5, the writers "dumbed him down" without any reason that I can see for myself. Suddenly, he made foolish mistakes at work so that Alicia (the main character of the show) could shine and develop some kind of doubts about their mutual adventure to build the new firm. Suddenly, the man who had all these ideas and persuasive power and willingness struggled with other characters we as viewers were just introduced (the other Carey) about his (!) project of a new firm. I never understood why Cary acted this way, why he was relegated into the background by his own undoing - that was completely out of character und hard to believe while watching. You can see a similar thing happening in the relationship to Clarke Hayden and even to Kalinda - it totally changed between the seasons, and Cary was basically left on his own.

Something similar happened at the beginning of season 6. However, for me, it was even worse. When they gave away the reason why he was arrested - that he trash-talked casually with some client about internal drug smuggling as if he was some dumb high school boy on vacation -, I was bewildered by such stupidity coming from those writers. I mean, someone like Cary from season 1 to 5 would've never done that; he was way to smart to do such a thing. And what's interesting: Early on in season 6 there was an episode with an arbitration case in which Cary was the smartest guy in the room; he was the one who came to an agreement between the parties.

After that, I couldn't take Cary seriously anymore; maybe the writers should've made clear that he had some kind of two-person-disorder, because this was so inconsistent and unbelievable. Kidding aside, it's obvious to me that this character just became a puppet for the heroine of the creator's story. Whatever suited Alicia, they formed Cary accordingly - there was no genuine character development for Cary anymore in his professional life. He was just a tool, and the character became a movable plot point whenever needed.

I feel the same disappointment about how the relationship of Kalinda and Cary withered into a dumb romantic highschool cliché written by a white heterosexual male that left a bitter taste rather than anything exciting in my memory. I actually liked them being very good friends during the first 4 seasons; their constant banter about their relationship was fun to watch, always knowing and assuming themselves that they're so different to be ever together in a romantic, intimate, sexual way. Until the writers went full on to explore exactly this and ruin them for me completely, culminating in this awful scene at the end of season 5 at which point this relationship should've been over and out.

But, instead of dealing with what has happened - the writers buried this scene, without discussing what Cary did to Kalinda, and went on as if nothing happened. In hindsight, for me, that was unforgivable in a show that was praised by critics for so many years - and now the writers chose the safe way out and buried the whole issue of misguided male dominance and violence in sexual relationships (I don't write rape, but it's not far from that in my opinion). Interestingly enough, many viewers who write about Cary as a beloved character of this show completely forgot about this scene - it's kind of telling and very sad in my opinion (just as one example, Noel Kirkpatrick about his favorite character recapping episode 6.10: http://www.tv.com/shows/the-good-wife/community/post/the-good-wife-season-6-episode-10-the-trial-review-141676295175/).

That's not the only thing I hated about how the writers developed this relationship; there are many other details during season 6 I never understood and/or was disgusted by. And don't get me wrong, it's not so much about the struggles within their relationship that I dislike - this could've been told in an exciting way. It's about the inconsistency and stupidity of both Cary's and Kalinda's characters and actions during this time, as if they were both teenagers with hormonal imbalance and gaga in the brain. In one episode, Cary wishes Kalinda should go to hell, the next episode, Kalinda promises Lana to take her seriously, and a few episodes later Kalinda sleeps with Cary as a last (creepy) gift before he probably goes to jail (that was some disgusting scene).

And, when the jail plot is over, we barely see them together in scenes for almost the whole second part of the season, not knowing anything about how they feel about each other at all (oh, yeah, and Lana also disappeared, how convenient)? Until it's time to say goodbye with a kiss that came out of nowhere, and Cary mourning about his loss and seeing someone in the doorway that looks like Kalinda in boots and so on. So, Cary was only after the looks after all? I don't really know, because the writers never explained to me in what this relationship grounded exactly other than that they worked together (which is also funny, because Cary - again - slept with a co-worker, kind of). It's a mess, a big mess, and Cary as a character is part of this mess.

I can't say anything about Cary in season 7. The only two things I read about him and that I still remember are one guy trying to get in his pants at the beginning of the season and him being pushed out of the firm to become a teacher at the end of the season. Given that Cary was always shown as someone who was attracted to the Kalinda-type of women, I was laughing some time when I read about this Dirk guy - that's character assassination 101 (the people from tv|line even made an - laughable - article about this and took this stupid plot point seriously: http://tvline.com/2015/10/13/the-good-wife-cary-gay-season-7-spoilers/).

And the end of Cary as a teacher of law? The guy who always wanted to be a lawyer and was strong and brave enough to build his own law firm, is now going to be a teacher? I'm not sure how this works in the US, but here in Germany it's almost impossible to switch into the academic field without connections of any kind of sorts you made before in your career. Cary had none as we know of, he was never the academic type to me after all. And given that the salary for someone who teaches is much less than someone who actually practices law, I wonder how he finances his apartment with this new job? I assume that's not explained in the show, is it. 

You see, my opinion about Cary and Matt Czuchry is quite different from yours. But as I wrote before, I know that many other people think like you or similar to you - and that's totally fine with me. And maybe it is just a result of the bad writing for this specific character in this sepcific show; I certainly agree with th_brown_eyes that "when it comes to characters Robert King's writing is dispersive." Hopefully for Matt Czuchry, he will find better roles in the future. 

Best wishes,

janar

"Love [...] is the most incredible gift to give and to receive as a human being." - Ellen Page

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