The Good Wife

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The Good Wife - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Good Wife is an American television legal and political drama television series set in Chicago that premiered on CBS on September 22, 2009.[1] The series was created by Robert King and Michelle King. It stars Julianna Margulies, Josh Charles, Christine Baranski, Matt Czuchry, and Alan Cumming, and features Chris Noth in a recurring role. The current executive producers are Ridley Scott, Charles McDougall, and David W. Zucker.[2] It is a heavily serialized show with many story arcs that carry over several episodes and also features stand-alone procedural story lines that are resolved or concluded by the end of each episode. The serial plots have been especially showcased in its highly praised[citation needed] fifth and sixth seasons. This is a rarity among The Good Wife's broadcaster CBS, as most of their shows are procedural.[3]

The series has received critical acclaim.[4][5][6][7] The Good Wife has won numerous prestigious awards, including five Emmys and the 2014 Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Drama. The performances of the show's cast have been particularly recognized, with Julianna Margulies' role as Alicia Florrick receiving significant praise.[8] The show has especially received wide acclaim for its insight on social media and the internet in society, politics and law. A seventh season of The Good Wife was announced on May 11, 2015 and premiered on October 4, 2015 on CBS.[9] CBS announced in a promo aired during Super Bowl 50, on February 7, 2016, that the show was ending with its seventh season. The final episode of the series is set to air on May 8, 2016.[10][11]

The show is shot on location in New York. While exact budget figures for other seasons are currently unavailable, Season 5 had a budget of $73 million.[12]

 

Contents

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Premise[edit]

The series focuses on Alicia Florrick (Margulies), whose husband Peter Florrick (Noth), the former Cook County, Illinois State's Attorney, has been jailed following a notorious political corruption and sex scandal. After having spent the previous thirteen years as a stay-at-home mother, Alicia returns to her old job as a litigator to provide for her two children.[13] The series was partly inspired by the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal,[14] as well as by other prominent American political sex scandals, such as those of John Edwards and Bill Clinton. As one of the creators, Michelle King, explains:

We came up with the idea about a year and a half ago. There had been this waterfall of these kinds of scandals, from Bill and Hillary [Clinton], to Dick Morris, to Eliot Spitzer, to name just a few. I think they are all over our culture. And there was always this image of the husband up there apologizing and the wife standing next to him. I think the show began when we asked, "What are they thinking?" And Robert and I started talking about it from there. ... You know, what's interesting about a lot of these political scandals is that the women are lawyers, too. Hillary [Clinton] is a lawyer. Elizabeth Edwards is a lawyer. I think that got us thinking along those lines. That is, we knew she had to go back to work, and we had so many female lawyers to draw on.[15]

Cast and characters[edit]

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Main cast[edit]

Actor Character Season
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Julianna Margulies Alicia Florrick Main
Matt Czuchry Cary Agos Main
Archie Panjabi Kalinda Sharma Main
Graham Phillips Zach Florrick Main Recurring Guest
Makenzie Vega Grace Florrick Main
Josh Charles Will Gardner Main Guest*
Christine Baranski Diane Lockhart Main
Alan Cumming Eli Gold Recurring Main
Zach Grenier David Lee Recurring Main
Matthew Goode Finn Polmar Main
Cush Jumbo Lucca Quinn Main
Jeffrey Dean Morgan Jason Crouse Main

*Josh Charles voiced Will Gardner in a dream sequence in season six.

Main characters[edit]

Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick, portrayed in season five
The wife of Peter, a disgraced State's Attorney, she returns to work as a junior litigator at the law firm Stern, Lockhart & Gardner, through her old law school friend Will Gardner, for whom she has feelings. Having spent so many years as "the good wife", Alicia finds herself at the bottom of the career ladder, trying to juggle both home and professional life with the ongoing scandal surrounding her husband, with whom she has two children, Zach and Grace. Alicia is smart, independent, fiercely protective of her children, and much more than just a good wife. She excels at keeping a cool exterior. She is rarely ruffled and almost always thinks through what she is going to say, choosing her words for maximum impact or sting. Alicia graduated top of her class from Georgetown University Law Center in the mid-1990s. After graduation she worked at Crozier, Abrams & Abbott for about two years but left to focus on her kids and Peter's career. She and her gay younger brother, Owen, have a loving relationship despite having personalities that are polar opposites. In season three, Alicia is a third-year associate at the firm. She and Peter are separated, and she has a sexual affair with Will; but, by mid-season, she breaks it off. Alicia struggles with her feelings for Peter. She is deeply hurt and has not entirely forgiven him, but she still loves him. Toward the end of season three, Peter announces his candidacy for governor of Illinois; Alicia stands at his side as he makes the announcement. In season four, Alicia gets and takes a promotion as an equity partner of the firm and begins planning to start a new firm with Cary. After Will dies in season five, Alicia goes into a period of mourning, and separates from Peter, maintaining their marriage for the sake of their careers. In season six, Alicia runs for State's Attorney and develops a friendship with prosecutor Finn Polmar. Soon after winning the election, Alicia is caught up in an electoral fraud scandal, and though innocent, must resign her post. Broken and humiliated once again, she returns to law, and is offered a legal partnership with her archrival Louis Canning.
Kalinda previously worked for Peter for three years. He fired her after accusing her of working two jobs. Kalinda is unflappable, inscrutable, fiercely private, and occasionally physically violent. She is exceptionally good at her job, although her tactics are not always strictly legal. She is often the key to the firm's winning a case, usually at the 11th hour. She generally does not work well with others. Although Kalinda doesn't let many people close to her, she becomes good friends with Alicia, with the aid of tequila shots; and she feels protective of Alicia. After becoming good friends, Alicia finds out Kalinda had a one-night stand with Peter before she knew Alicia, damaging their friendship; but over time, the two start to reconcile. Kalinda has a cynical, misanthropic outlook on human behavior. She is openly bisexual and has a series of relationships through the show, mostly with women and often because they can help her with a case. Kalinda once claimed that she prefers women because to her, women are better lovers than men for women understand her needs and feelings better. Very little is known about Kalinda when the series begins, and she is incredibly secretive about her past. The character's signature wardrobe piece has become a pair of knee-high boots;[16][17][18][19] the character initially wore pumps but Panjabi felt that boots "grounded her in the character."[20] In season four, it is revealed that Kalinda has an estranged abusive husband, Nick Saverese, played by Marc Warren. Kalinda also grows romantically close with Cary. In season six, she desperately tries to save Cary from a malicious prosecution on drug-related charges while Alicia is busy running for office, and at a point of desperation, fakes a Brady violation through computer hacking to have Cary's charges dropped. Later, when her deception is caught, she is forced to surrender drug dealer Lemond Bishop to the state's attorney's office in order to spare Diane from prosecution; Diane had unknowingly used the fake evidence in court. In order not to be found by Bishop for turning him over to the state's attorney office, Kalinda disappears for her own safety.
An old friend of Alicia's, in the pilot he helped her get a job with the firm and is constantly trying to avoid appearing as if he favors her. This is complicated by the fact that the two have feelings for each other. Will and Alicia have an affair beginning at the end of season two. In season three they break up when Alicia's daughter goes missing, and Alicia decides she needs to focus more on her children. He is seen as very much of a ladies' man throughout the series and had various love affairs and girlfriends. Will generally had a good working relationship with Diane Lockhart, his co-managing partner at the firm, and the two demonstrate a shrewd ability to guide their business, even through difficult times. Will plays in a regular pick-up basketball game with other attorneys and judges, and has friendships with the players that are eventually scrutinized. During season three, Will is suspended from practicing law for six months as punishment stemming from an old bribery scandal but returns to the firm in season four. In season five after much planning, Alicia and Cary leave Lockhart & Gardner to start their own firm; Will takes this betrayal personally. In episode 15 of the fifth season, he is shot and killed in the courtroom by his client Jeffrey Grant (played by Hunter Parrish).
She is liberal and is a champion of women's causes, thus having strong opinions on many issues, including an extreme dislike of guns and violence, although in one plot line she had a romantic relationship with a conservative ballistics expert. She speaks fluent French and seems to have an active social life. Among her paramours is Kurt McVeigh, a firearms expert and conservative Republican, whom Diane is drawn to despite their political opposites and her dislike of guns, and they eventually marry. Although she is initially skeptical of Alicia Florrick's abilities as a lawyer when she joins the firm, Diane becomes a sort of mentor to her. But she is a mentor at a distance, and her support often comes by way of cryptic advice that only points Alicia in the right direction. She does not hesitate to tell anyone when she thinks they are wrong. Diane is often torn between supporting Alicia and Cary Agos when the two are in competition.
In the first season, he is a first year associate at Lockhart Gardner with Alicia Florrick. In the first episode, it is established that there is only one permanent position, putting Cary into competition with Alicia. At the end of first season, the firm selects Alicia, and Cary goes to work for the state attorney's office. In season three, Cary is appointed Cook County Deputy State's Attorney, though he subsequently demotes himself for having an in-office affair. Dissatisfied with the demotion, he accepts an offer to return to Lockhart Gardner. He is often placed in rivalry with Alicia and sometimes resents her for this and her political connections thanks to her husband, Peter Florrick, the disgraced State's Attorney. His own career trajectory takes many twists and turns, often because of bad luck, but Cary maintains his integrity and loyalty to individual relationships he has formed. He seems to have a crush on Kalinda Sharma, the firm's investigator. It is later revealed that Cary has a very difficult and distant relationship with his father, Jeffrey Agos, a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., who does not ever seem to think Cary is good enough. As season four ends, after not getting the partnership at Lockhart Gardner that he sought, he forms a new firm bringing with him the other fourth year lawyers at the firm, and manages to convince newly minted Lockhart Gardner partner Alicia to come with them.
He is the elder of the Florricks' two children, the older brother of Grace Florrick, grandson of Jackie Florrick and Veronica Loy (Alicia's mom), and nephew of Owen Cavanaugh. Zach has an interest in politics, at one point joining Peter's campaign as an intern. Zach is smart, stubborn and also has a strong sense of right and wrong, which has led him to not be afraid of questioning authority figures at times. Zach's computer skills and technical know-how also expose lies that are being spread about his dad. Beyond his computer skills, he shows an aptitude for using the law like his mother. He is protective of his mom because of what his father has put her through. Zach is coping with his parents' separation and starting at a new school and also starting to date. Throughout the series, Zach dates the scheming Becca and later a girl named Neesa who happens to be African-American and whose race and religion are occasionally brought into his father's campaign, which causes some issues. This becomes complicated when his father is released from prison and contemplates a run for office, making his children's life political fodder, despite their mother's best efforts.
She is the younger of the Florricks' two children, the younger sister of Zach Florrick, granddaughter of Jackie Florrick and also Veronica Loy (Alicia's mom), and niece of Owen Cavanaugh. Although pretty and compassionate, she is friendless, which is most likely due to her outwardness. She begins to become deeply religious, thanks to a friend at school, much to Alicia's bemusement, and questions her faith and reads the Bible, which Alicia does not understand, but tries to support. She is naïve and young for her age. She has a tutor, Jennifer, who likes to bust out dancing in public. She has many questions about her father's infidelity, which she does not understand. She previously idolized her father, and despite his sins, she wants her parents to get back together. Grace was not happy about the move from their house in Highland Park to their apartment, and initially struggles to make friends in school.
Eli consults for Peter when he considers a return to office. His style of management is to be blunt, often rude. Eli is politically astute and doesn't waste time with niceties. Eli is separated from his wife, Vanessa Gold, who has political aspirations of her own, and has a daughter, Marissa, who is similarly outspoken like her mother and shares a healthy relationship with her father. Eli believes that securing the support of Peter's wife Alicia is crucial to any ambitions he may harbor, and he quickly realizes that Alicia is no pushover and his usual wife-coddling techniques will not work. He mostly seems to respect the boundaries Alicia sets up, particularly where they concern her children Zach and Grace. As a top political consultant who is also an expert in damage control, Eli has talks with Diane Lockhart and Will Gardner about joining their firm in some way. Eli seems genuinely invested in Peter Florrick and respects both him and Alicia, although she is often a frustrating enigma to him. He has a brief shot at romance with Natalie Flores, a student who worked in the past as a nanny for Wendy Scott-Carr. Eli leaks details to the press of Natalie's status as an illegal immigrant but as he comes to know her he is seen to regret this and later helps her get a job as an intern at Lockhart & Gardner. Cumming's portrayal of Gold has been compared to Rahm Emanuel.[21] He became a main character in season two.[22] Eli is Jewish, but not very religious. He does, however, request the Sabbath off. In season 5 Peter asks him to be his chief of staff, which he accepts.
The Family Law division is responsible for a sizeable chunk of the firm's income, so David has more sway than Diane or Will would like. David is misanthropic and is prone to scowling, sarcasm and being directly rude to people when he thinks things are not going his way. More than anything, he is unambiguously concerned with making money. He particularly hates Julius Cane, the firm's head of litigation and an equity partner. Nevertheless, at rare moments, Alicia Florrick turns to him for help and he comes through. Although no easy judge of character, he has a liking for Alicia's mother, and sporadically asks Alicia about her. After recurring in the first four seasons, he was promoted to a series regular for the fifth season.
Introduced in the fifteenth episode of the fifth season; Finn is responsible for the prosecution case against Jeffrey Grant (played by Hunter Parrish). During a shooting in the courtroom, Finn is wounded pulling an injured Will Gardner to safety. Unlike Will, Finn survives his injuries. Alicia later seeks him out, looking for answers after Will's death, and even acts as his lawyer when the State's Attorney's Office tries to scapegoat him. In the sixth season, he is the Assistant State's Attorney up against Florrick-Agos, trying to take down one of their top clients, drug kingpin Lemond Bishop (played by Mike Colter). Finn's sister died of a drug overdose, he is divorced, and has a son. At one point Finn confides in Alicia that he and his wife had a miscarriage. Finn's character was intended to help fill the gap Will's death left behind.[23][24]
An attorney who Alicia encounters at the start of season seven[25]
A calm, experienced hourly investigator whom Alicia hires in season seven.[26]

"The Good Wife" More at IMDbPro "

Episodes Rated by IMDb User Rating

Rated Episodes

# Episode User
Rating		 User
Votes
5.5 Hitting the Fan 9.6 1,015 9.6/10 X
5.15 Dramatics, Your Honor 9.4 801 9.4/10 X
5.16 The Last Call 9.2 503 9.2/10 X
5.10 The Decision Tree 9.1 460 9.1/10 X
3.14 Another Ham Sandwich 9.0 385 9.0/10 X
6.11 Hail Mary 9.0 343 9.0/10 X
5.22 A Weird Year 8.9 347 8.9/10 X
6.4 Oppo Research 8.9 347 8.9/10 X
2.9 Nine Hours 8.8 357 8.8/10 X
4.14 Red Team, Blue Team 8.8 337 8.8/10 X
7.18 Unmanned 8.8 13 8.8/10 X
6.19 Winning Ugly 8.8 300 8.8/10 X
5.18 All Tapped Out 8.7 291 8.7/10 X
6.1 The Line 8.7 417 8.7/10 X
5.4 Outside the Bubble 8.7 338 8.7/10 X
6.2 Trust Issues 8.7 326 8.7/10 X
5.1 Everything Is Ending 8.7 387 8.7/10 X
5.6 The Next Day 8.6 307 8.6/10 X
3.22 The Dream Team 8.6 306 8.6/10 X
4.18 Death of a Client 8.6 336 8.6/10 X
4.22 What's in the Box? 8.6 324 8.6/10 X
2.23 Closing Arguments 8.6 352 8.6/10 X
5.13 Parallel Construction, Bitches 8.6 274 8.6/10 X
6.18 Loser Edit 8.5 239 8.5/10 X
2.16 Great Firewall 8.5 298 8.5/10 X
7.3 Cooked 8.5 202 8.5/10 X
7.7 Driven 8.5 178 8.5/10 X
2.21 In Sickness 8.5 308 8.5/10 X
3.12 Alienation of Affection 8.5 304 8.5/10 X
4.12 Je Ne Sais What? 8.5 317 8.5/10 X
5.17 A Material World 8.5 277 8.5/10 X
7.13 Judged 8.5 182 8.5/10 X
4.1 I Fought the Law 8.5 333 8.5/10 X
7.1 Bond 8.4 252 8.4/10 X
1.18 Doubt 8.4 377 8.4/10 X
6.10 The Trial 8.4 271 8.4/10 X
3.10 Parenting Made Easy 8.4 309 8.4/10 X
6.20 The Deconstruction 8.4 241 8.4/10 X
3.19 Blue Ribbon Panel 8.4 281 8.4/10 X
6.17 Undisclosed Recipients 8.4 236 8.4/10 X
7.2 Innocents 8.4 229 8.4/10 X
7.10 KSR 8.4 176 8.4/10 X
3.7 Executive Order 13224 8.4 284 8.4/10 X
6.22 Wanna Partner? 8.3 230 8.3/10 X
2.5 VIP Treatment 8.3 327 8.3/10 X
2.20 Foreign Affairs 8.3 308 8.3/10 X
5.7 The Next Week 8.3 279 8.3/10 X
4.6 The Art of War 8.3 266 8.3/10 X
5.14 A Few Words 8.3 310 8.3/10 X
3.11 What Went Wrong 8.3 256 8.3/10 X
2.13 Real Deal 8.3 292 8.3/10 X
7.16 Hearing 8.3 133 8.3/10 X
3.20 Pants on Fire 8.3 261 8.3/10 X
6.3 Dear God 8.2 278 8.2/10 X
7.8 Restraint 8.2 161 8.2/10 X
6.8 Red Zone 8.2 227 8.2/10 X
5.3 A Precious Commodity 8.2 279 8.2/10 X
7.14 Monday 8.2 148 8.2/10 X
1.14 Hi 8.2 317 8.2/10 X
2.22 Getting Off 8.2 285 8.2/10 X
1.23 Running 8.2 303 8.2/10 X
3.15 Live from Damascus 8.2 259 8.2/10 X
7.17 Shoot 8.2 92 8.2/10 X
2.6 Poisoned Pill 8.2 305 8.2/10 X
1.11 Infamy 8.2 345 8.2/10 X
4.13 The Seven Day Rule 8.2 259 8.2/10 X
7.6 Lies 8.2 186 8.2/10 X
6.9 Sticky Content 8.2 241 8.2/10 X
3.21 The Penalty Box 8.1 249 8.1/10 X
6.7 Message Discipline 8.1 236 8.1/10 X
1.22 Hybristophilia 8.1 284 8.1/10 X
6.5 Shiny Objects 8.1 277 8.1/10 X
1.16 Fleas 8.1 311 8.1/10 X
2.17 Ham Sandwich 8.1 269 8.1/10 X
4.11 Boom De Yah Da 8.1 260 8.1/10 X
3.16 After the Fall 8.1 262 8.1/10 X
2.4 Cleaning House 8.1 286 8.1/10 X
6.12 The Debate 8.1 243 8.1/10 X
1.6 Conjugal 8.1 360 8.1/10 X
3.5 Marthas and Caitlins 8.1 264 8.1/10 X
6.21 Don't Fail 8.1 218 8.1/10 X
5.2 The Bit Bucket 8.1 280 8.1/10 X
5.19 Tying the Knot 8.1 260 8.1/10 X
4.19 The Wheels of Justice 8.1 248 8.1/10 X
3.17 Long Way Home 8.1 255 8.1/10 X
7.4 Taxed 8.1 177 8.1/10 X
5.8 The Next Month 8.1 262 8.1/10 X
4.15 Going for the Gold 8.1 253 8.1/10 X
3.18 Gloves Come Off 8.1 256 8.1/10 X
5.11 Goliath and David 8.1 295 8.1/10 X
7.5 Payback 8.1 197 8.1/10 X
1.10 Lifeguard 8.1 318 8.1/10 X
3.1 A New Day 8.1 328 8.1/10 X
2.2 Double Jeopardy 8.1 301 8.1/10 X
1.1 Pilot 8.1 566 8.1/10 X
2.10 Breaking Up 8.1 284 8.1/10 X
1.17 Heart 8.1 339 8.1/10 X
3.9 Whiskey Tango Foxtrot 8.0 259 8.0/10 X
2.15 Silver Bullet 8.0 274 8.0/10 X
2.1 Taking Control 8.0 312 8.0/10 X
2.19 Wrongful Termination 8.0 259 8.0/10 X
1.15 Bang 8.0 311 8.0/10 X
1.21 Unplugged 8.0 284 8.0/10 X
3.2 The Death Zone 8.0 280 8.0/10 X
1.9 Threesome 8.0 336 8.0/10 X
1.8 Unprepared 8.0 318 8.0/10 X
5.9 Whack-a-Mole 8.0 272 8.0/10 X
5.12 We, the Juries 8.0 260 8.0/10 X
2.18 Killer Song 8.0 265 8.0/10 X
4.20 Rape: A Modern Perspective 7.9 245 7.9/10 X
4.5 Waiting for the Knock 7.9 258 7.9/10 X
2.11 Two Courts 7.9 268 7.9/10 X
3.4 Feeding the Rat 7.9 265 7.9/10 X
2.8 On Tap 7.9 287 7.9/10 X
4.3 Two Girls, One Code 7.9 255 7.9/10 X
1.7 Unorthodox 7.9 348 7.9/10 X
6.6 Old Spice 7.9 251 7.9/10 X
4.16 Runnin' with the Devil 7.9 248 7.9/10 X
1.2 Stripped 7.9 411 7.9/10 X
4.2 And the Law Won 7.9 263 7.9/10 X
3.13 Bitcoin for Dummies 7.9 269 7.9/10 X
7.15 Targets 7.9 148 7.9/10 X
3.8 Death Row Tip 7.9 258 7.9/10 X
2.14 Net Worth 7.9 300 7.9/10 X
6.16 Red Meat 7.9 215 7.9/10 X
1.20 Mock 7.8 281 7.8/10 X
2.3 Breaking Fast 7.8 280 7.8/10 X
7.9 Discovery 7.8 173 7.8/10 X
4.9 A Defense of Marriage 7.8 265 7.8/10 X
2.7 Bad Girls 7.8 290 7.8/10 X
1.3 Home 7.8 384 7.8/10 X
7.12 Tracks 7.8 135 7.8/10 X
1.4 Fixed 7.8 361 7.8/10 X
1.19 Boom 7.8 277 7.8/10 X
1.13 Bad 7.8 306 7.8/10 X
1.5 Crash 7.7 341 7.7/10 X
4.10 Battle of the Proxies 7.7 237 7.7/10 X
5.21 The One Percent 7.7 233 7.7/10 X
3.6 Affairs of State 7.7 262 7.7/10 X
6.15 Open Source 7.7 215 7.7/10 X
1.12 Painkiller 7.7 305 7.7/10 X
4.4 Don't Haze Me, Bro 7.7 238 7.7/10 X
3.3 Get a Room 7.7 276 7.7/10 X
5.20 The Deep Web 7.7 246 7.7/10 X
4.21 A More Perfect Union 7.7 229 7.7/10 X
4.8 Here Comes the Judge 7.6 240 7.6/10 X
2.12 Silly Season 7.6 258 7.6/10 X
4.7 Anatomy of a Joke 7.6 259 7.6/10 X
7.11 Iowa 7.5 182 7.5/10 X
4.17 Invitation to an Inquest 7.4 241 7.4/10 X
6.13 Dark Money 7.3 222 7.3/10 X
6.14 Mind's Eye 6.6 487 6.6/10 X
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Old News ;-)

Best New Drama of the 2009 Season! "Fellow Men" take note: This is NOT your standard "woman scorned"


Author: tom terri from NY, United States
24 October 2009

This wonderful new series, takes what I felt was a dubious premise, and instantly turns it into entertainment gold.

I'd never liked "ER", though Margulies has formidable talent. Given the right character, script & director, I felt certain she could deliver. In The Good Wife she does. Her distinctive ability lies in nuance, & here she is finally given the perfect vehicle.

The scripts as well as the entire cast, take directions you'd never expect. That's is the real appeal of the show. Archie Panjabi is a spiffy surprise as the "investigative assistant", if you will. She approaches her character as if she's the entire supporting cast of "Shark", (James Woods 2-season crime drama) rolled into one easy-on-the-eyes, package. She's tough, loyal, funny, & adds to the show's depth.

Kudo's also, to veteran Christine Baranski for playing her "been-everywhere...done everything" role in a fresh way she seldom has in recent years.

I watched the first episode with my wife.. (ok, FOR my wife) not expecting much at all. Boy, was I surprised. Subsequent episodes have been exponentially better, richer, & have demonstrated that THIS show simply refuses to go down already beaten paths. I really love that! I have yet to be able to predict anything at the beginning of an episode, as I can with just about any other major network drama. This show is a TV page turner...

TGW is at once touching, topical, intriguing, even funny. Example: The courtroom judges are not your "standard-TV-crime-show-judges". They always prove to be yet another surprising element this show takes advantage of. In my opinion, this is the show's greatest strength. There ARE obvious choices at every turn in the story lines, the characters, even directorial choices, but NONE are ever followed. Prepare to be entertained and surprised.

Rare in this era of formulaic crime dramas... formulaic everything on TV, "The Good Wife" deceives slightly, even in it's title, which almost caused me not to watch what I figured was going to be "chick-flick-TV". Males take note. This is simply a great show & will not disappoint.

Everything in it is fresh, imminently watchable, & the result of great creative effort to not be just another law-oriented drama. IMHO, this really IS "Must See TV".

Love this Show. Hate to see each episode end.


Author: schnappi_croc from Nova Scotia, Canada
13 December 2009

This is the best new show of the season. The "story within a story" method is used to great effect, as we follow Alicia's marital woes, the inter-office politics, the husband's efforts to get out of prison, and the family ups and downs at home. Interwoven with these ongoing plot lines, there's a new legal case to tackle each week. I find this show a rich combination of humour, pathos, romance, mystery...

Kudos to the young actors who play Alicia's children (Makenzie Vega and Graham Phillips). They are likable teenagers, neither bratty nor too-good-to-be-true. In fact, I think this show is very well cast overall.

One of the best legal dramas I've ever seen - compelling viewing (Review updated May 2012)

Author: chillgreg from Australia
2 April 2010

First post. Thanks to other IMDb reviews, I decided to give The Good Wife a try. And boy I was not disappointed. Julianna Margulies leads a stellar ensemble cast, the acting and script writing is near-flawless, and the weekly stories are believable yet not over-the-top. A nice almost Thriller main storyline flows throughout the episodes, adding a compelling undercurrent to what could have been just another legal drama.

The Good Wife examines the lives of legal professionals as affected by their cases and work circumstances. It certainly does not mirror the style of any other legal drama in style, timing or episode structure, and I believe it has found a well-deserved niche of it's own on current high-quality television drama.

I highly recommend you watch this series if you enjoy fine acting and tight, coherent and interesting story lines.

Greg PS. Thankfully there is no "This is based on a true story" etc. tag-line to distract the viewer from the scriptwriters obvious prodigious talents, and a very enjoyable hour of weekly escapism!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1st May 2012 Review Update (no spoilers): ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have just finished watching Season 3. Literally sitting on the edge of my couch. WOW!. Since my original review this fantastic drama has grown in depth and breadth - I can now place it (almost) with Deadwood, Dexter, The Walking Dead, Battlestar Galactica and Six Feet Under as an all time television great - no exaggeration.

The interplay between characters (of whom the depth is truly 3 dimensional) is complex, yet does not try to confuse the viewer in an attempt at narcissistic scriptwriting "greatness" (We all know shows that do that). It just flows.

Amongst the stellar cast, my favorite character would have to be exotic and mysterious Kalinda Sharma, played by the mesmerizing Archie Panjabi (2009 Emmy award winner for best actress, and Chopard Trophy winner for the phenomenal 2007's "A Mighty Heart").

Subtle humor is so well crafted and acted, you are guaranteed at least one belly laugh per episode; these become almost a small gift from the writers - an (we want these characters to resonate with you) unexpected and welcome tangent from the often serious, sometimes even chilling story lines.

Truthfully I can't recall one episode where I reflected "gee that was a bit dull, I guess they had to do that to pad out the season". Forget the usual clichéd formula episodes from the Scriptwriting For Dummies handbook - you won't find them here. No lame flashbacks, no "24 hours earlier" and no musical/costume themed episodes here thanks. Just gritty, compelling and eminently enjoyable television.

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Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :   Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism  : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy

Quotes

War and Peace : Skeptical Finance : John Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand : Oscar Wilde : Otto Von Bismarck : Keynes : George Carlin : Skeptics : Propaganda  : SE quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes : Random IT-related quotes :  Somerset Maugham : Marcus Aurelius : Kurt Vonnegut : Eric Hoffer : Winston Churchill : Napoleon Bonaparte : Ambrose Bierce :  Bernard Shaw : Mark Twain Quotes

Bulletin:

Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :  Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law

History:

Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds  : Larry Wall  : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOS :  Programming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC development :  Scripting Languages : Perl history   : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history

Classic books:

The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-Month :  How to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite

Most popular humor pages:

Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor

The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D

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Last modified: March, 12, 2019