Nothing about The Good Wife should have appealed to me. I’ve never been a fan of legal shows; the only one I’ve watched with any regularity is Damages, and that show rarely enters a courtroom. (And the law aspect is the least intriguing thing about it to me; Damages appeals more to my love of complete plot insanity.) I was never a big ERwatcher, so I had no great allegiance to Julianna Marguiles, and Sex and the City drove me batty, so I certainly don’t get the warm fuzzies when Chris Noth shows up. And yet, The Good Wife won me over.
When the Fall 2009 lineups were announced, I groaned at how the struggling networks – who know damn well they’re endangered, so they better start making some changes – trotted out yet another wave of legal and medical dramas. I thought, haven’t we seen just about every permutation of “Objection overruled!” and “You’re not gonna die on my watch!”? But, unlike many of this year’s derivative medical shows (I could take up half the space on the internet complaining about Three Rivers), The Good Wife proves that you can spin entertainment out of the same old settings.
(All right, let me just say one thing about the inane Three Rivers, because I need to get it off my chest, yet there’s no way that I would subject the PCC to actually watching the show: It’s about transplant doctors, a specialty for which there are only so many dramatic variations. It’s basically just an entire hour hinged on someone running around with a cooler. That’s it. I like to turn down the volume and pretend it’s a show about a people who are constantly late for picnics.)
But back to The Good Wife. What elevates it beyond cliched tripe? We’ve certainly seen the story of a law-practice newbie taken under the wing of a seasoned courtroom veteran before. But the newbie is usually an idealistic recent law school grads who loosens his tie after a long day in court and goes out to a bar with fellow young grads who remind each other that while you win some — and get ready for the flipperoo — you lose some as well! But having Marguiles’ character Alicia be middle-aged instantly gives her a compelling new angle, and then there’s the really unique twist of her being a public figure who loathes the scandal that made her one. What could just be a lurid ripped-from-the-headlines gimmick (her disgraced-pol husband loves the whores!) is actually an intriguing twist. This week I was a little disappointed when they added the mystery subplot of, Who is faking photos to make her husband’s scandal seem worse? This show doesn’t need an ongoing conspiracy, the human drama is enough. Plus, we already know that Noth’s Peter has admitted to being a cheater — and a spendy cheater at that. So if someone is trying to make his actions seem worse, there’s only so much redemption that anyone can hope for: Oh, so you only spent $60,000 on prostitutes, not $80,000? I knew you weren’t all bad!And turning the son into a supercomputing detective is a little weird, all the more so for the fact that he’s tackling the diabolical Case of the Pictures of His Dad Boning.
I like the characters. Alicia’s hypercompetitive co-associate Cary is realistically passive-aggressive in a way you don’t often see on TV. Usually the office rival is a nose-snorting jerk prone to comments like “Just stay out of my way!”, a la Scott Caan in Entourage. The in-house detective, Kalinda, is a little stereotypical (isn’t it always the tough gal who comes down hard on the strippers?), but Josh Charles and Christine Baranski bring some nice crackle to the roles as top partners. I don’t think this show will be appointment viewing for me — though I was entertained, it never occurred to me to watch the “next week on…” ads, which is my brain warning me that I won’t be a regular viewer. But it was reassuring to know that even if there aren’t any new tricks on network television, there are people who are working hard to freshen up the old ones.
What did you think about The Good Wife? Are you happy to sign on for any number of legal or medical dramas, as long as they’re good? Or do you think TV needs to find some more settings? I’m torn: as much as I wish writers would branch out, whenever shows do try to plow new fields (a show set in a post office!), it rarely works out and leaves me sheepishly thinking, “Come to think of it, hospitals are interesting.”
Next week’s assignment? As you remember, last week when we discussed Bored to Death with Ted Danson, I waxed on (for probably the millionth time) about my love of Cheers. And what kind of Cheers fan would I be if I didn’t check out the latest Woody Harrelson project? So Zombieland it is. See you next week to discuss it, and try not to fill up on brains before you show up: you know how drowsy a big meal makes you. Okay, on to The Good Wife…
Photo Credit: Craig Blankenhorn/CBS
I like this show. I think it’s refreshing to have a show about a woman re-entering the paid workforce after being at home with the kids and supporting her husband’s career. That’s what appeals to me most about the show -the added twists about her husband being in jail and having been a prominent figure in the legal community are just a nice twist to the story.
CN is one of my favorite actors and that’s what brought me to the show initially. That it turned out to be a good show as well made me add it to my dvr weekly list!
I have been taping them…will try to catch up this weekend. Where’s our Glee recap…last night was awesome!
The Good Wife definitely got a season pass on my dvr. I do like legal/courtroom dramas and I did watch JM on ER and CN on Law & Order so those three things combined made it worthy of a looksie. That it turned out to be pretty darn good was icing on the cake. Although I did want to slap CN quite hard when he asked “when are you ever going to forgive me”. Men.
ps JM’s hair looks pretty good too.
I didn’t put this one on my list of new shows to watch but this one has pulled me in. I like it and hope it stays.
Same here. I was like..okay, I’ll give it a shot and found myself getting into the show. I hope this sticks around.
The Good Wife is the only new show I have committed to this season. It is good and I really like it. I only hope it gets better and is on tv for a long time.
While I was entertained by both the pilot and its second episode, for some reason, here and there, I found a whiff of sexism going on.
Some female characters are portrayed as passive, weak, and as victims while others seem to bend over at the will of their male counterparts. It didn’t help that they treated the stripper/dancer characters as props and plot devices instead of actual characters.
Another thing that bothers me is that Alicia fights for the case but never for herself. Cary completely takes over their shared assistant and she just lets it happen without a wink? Jeez. She is just lacking any backbone. It could be argued that it’s a character trait, but really, she just comes off bleh.
Still entertained though.
This is a story about a woman’s transformation. She will learn and grow and that is what will keep me coming back.
I have to respectfully disagree here. True, the whole tough chick doesn’t believe stripper dynamic is a bit staid. It presents a pretty unrealistic dichotomy of whore vs. wise woman; few real women fall soundly into either one of those categories. But JM’s character is a wonderfully well-developed strong but shaken woman who is, I believe, trying to pick her battles – both at home and at the office. We only have so much fight in us.
I enjoyed it a lot, original and interesting. And as for Kalinda – there was an interesting tense moment when she knocked on Alicias door, and the daughter´s chocked look – more here to come, I expect. I will watch every week.
I did not want to like this show but for some reason I can’t explain I’m hooked. Maybe it’s the great supporting cast.
I didn’t think I was going to like it either. I kind of wanted to see if it was just a rehash of Canterbury’s Law, which I didn’t like. But the very first episode made me take notice of it right away and I wasn’t expecting that. I like whole cast – only the young actress playing the daughter seems a little weak to me – and I think the show has a specific story to tell.
The Good Wife is fantastic! Marguiles is a superb actress, breathtakingly beautiful in that effortless, natural way (whoever said she has great hair is spot-on). It is refreshing to see a lead female character so poised, elegant, understated, real, and hey, classy, yet never losing the compelling aspect of her character. I say this because I see so many other shows where females are portrayed as obnoxious, demanding, whiny, bitchy, superficial and depressingly desperate to prove their attractiveness/sexiness/worthiness by humping anything that crosses their path. Cougar Town anyone? It’s disgusting, and I for one am glad a show like The Good Wife has come along to give hope that maybe, just maybe female characters can start evolving in the right direction, for once.
You’re right, I haven’t been drawn into any of the medical dramas (Mercy is boring and Trauma isn’t compelling), but I really like The Good Wife. It’s a reasonably standard formula with standard ingredients, but somehow it still provides something new. I hope Marguiles does start standing up for herself, but I understand that’s a character trait they’re probably building up to. Thanks for writing about this great new show.
From 1-10 stars this deserves a 10! I like seeing two of my favorites actors back, especially Chris Noth!
from 1-10 this show deserves a 10! I like seeing two of my favorites actors back in tv, especially Chris Noth!
This is the only new show I’m watching on Network TV. It’s ok, but I was hoping for more. I was psyched that a show would address a publically humiliated wife (since that seems to happen every week now), but that’s not the main focus of the show. I was a disappointed that it was just another legal drama, but it is a fresh take on an old genre. Why can’t network TV get a clue from cable. There are plenty of new ideas in Drama out there. Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Sopranos, The Wire, The Shield, Dexter. In the end, I think we all prefer ground-breaking to a fresh perspective on an old genre. LOST was ground-breaking, but that was 5 years ago.
I actually think that if this show were on something like FX or HBO, it would just be about the scorned, humiliated wife. On a network, though, I guess they felt they needed to put the legal stuff front and center to give it a more tried and true gimmick. I enjoyed this show, but I would like to see a show that envisioned what life is like for someone like Spitzer’s wife as they try to put their life back together.
I happen to think that it is the best new show of the season. I thought the pilot was tight, the writing snapped crackled and popped and the cast was fabulous. I’m not a regular tv watcher, i only make time for LOST on my appointment television schedule, so imagine my surprise when i completely googled calendared this in.
As a lawyer I generally stay away from legal-themed shows: either too much like work or too annoyingly unrealistic. I never would have watched this show if EW hadn’t rated it so high. So far, I really like it and gave it a “Season Pass” on my TIVO. Even the far-fetched stuff doesn’t bother me too much. The characters are really well-written and the politics and tension of the firm feels very real.
Thanks for the heads up. My lawyer background keeps me away from most law shows as well, and my lawyer present gives me very little time for TV. But now that I know it’s good, maybe I’ll give it a shot.
Could you satisfy my curiosity, please? As a lawyer, which TV show did you find to be most realistic? And least?