The Good Wife - season 1

I thought it was a decent premiere and an okay premise. The courtroom scenes in particular were pretty well staged IMO. I enjoyed seeing Josh Charles and thought his pairing with Marguiles worked well in the handful of scenes they shared. To me personally though, I found the whole "good wife" backstory the least compelling and least interesting aspect of the show. I hate the title because it doesn't really reflect the true focus of the show's "legal drama" nature, but CBS has shown in the past that they know how to make this kind of series work...regardless of an awkward show title. For my money, I just wish they called it something else, got rid of the political scandal backdrop, and had come up with a different reason to have Marguiles back in the workforce and joining the firm.

As someone who state has a governor (and former prosecutor) with an appetite for prostitutes not too long ago, it was the premise that drew me into the show. I've always wondered what happened to these false families that have been built around a man's political ambitions once his ego trips him up and ruins that game plan. Chris Noth got it just about right, I think, as the hard charging prosecutor who doesn't quite understand why his wife's so pissed about everything. I don't believe you can make these mistakes if you have a properly calibrated sense of your own worth and your responsibilities toward others. And at the same time, I'm glad Noth's character was portrayed as smart because I don't believe you can make it as far as he did being stupid -- even with a judge for a father.

The show is built around an all-star cast of B-listers: more, "Oh! I remember him/her from..." than "Holy crap! How'd they get ... to do television?" E.R. was built around Julianna Margulies for several years, and this pilot reminds you of why. Somehow she makes a wealthy, socialite lawyer and political wife into someone down-to-earth and relatable. Off the stage, Christine Baranski will always be remembered as Maryann Thorpe from Cybill. Her shrewish law associate here is more than familiar territory for her. Likewise, Josh Charles will never entirely escape Sports Night but his character was one of the few to really shine in this pilot. He is perhaps only decent post-pubescent male on the entire show. I like that he hired Margulies's character because he was a friend from law school -- not because of her husband's notoriety. I only saw Matt Czuchry a couple times on Gilmore Girls, but his faux-nice character here is probably the most obnoxious of them all. He's perfect at seeming so nice you want to stab him with a screwdriver. I liked Archie Panjabi just fine in the UK Life on Mars pilot. She's probably my favorite character here. Finally, it's hard to imagine Nicholas Cage's cute little daughter with the lisp in The Family Man as this gangly teenager calling to ask whether the rumors about Dad's hookers being her age are true or not.

I don't have anything else on Tuesdays at 10, so I'm probably sticking around.

Good critique and excellent points, Adam. Although I currently live in Missouri, I'm a native Upstate New Yorker and I absolutely 'get' the Noth character and I think he is very solid in the role. I guess I was just saying (and apparently not very well) I thought that part of the story was superfluous and not as interesting (to me) as the Margulies lawyer storyline. I was not familiar with Archie Panjabi, but I agree, she is great in the role and it's a great character. Also like you, I'll be sticking around for a while... unless the wheels fall off.

I truly loved this show, despite what I feel is a horrible title.  Margulies is superb as always and her understated playing of the character was welcome.  My quibble with the title is that it seems the show must move on from the scandal, yet it's always there in the title.  I thought all characters well-cast and played, and the writing very good.

This has an interesting premise and I thought the story held together really well.

I just saw the Pilot, and hope they put the 2nd episode online soon. And I read it did pretty well in the ratings, which is very good news, considering it's in the troublesome slot for CBS.


I find myself doing that, at the start of the episode, as they appeared.

I hope they're not setting Chris Noth up to be totally innocent. Innocent of the corruption charges, sure, but not of soliciting the prositute. Otherwise I'm still on board.

I also like that the lawyers ask permission to approach the witness. So many courtroom shows have the lawyers walking all over the place while interviewing the witnesses, but I've never seen a lawyer approach the witness when I've actually been in court.

CBS gives it a full season pickup.

http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/10/cbs-picks-up-ncis-la-good-wife.html

Good, it deserves it. To my great surprise, it's my favorite new show of the season. I loved Tuesday's episode, where she and the kids go back to their high-end neighborhood and realize their new more middle-class life might be less glamorous, but it's more honest. There's not a bad actor in the bunch, and the kids aren't used as props for a change.

The thing is, in the end it won't matter. A better litigator is a better litigator. He may get to keep the associate position after the six months, but Alicia is still going to be the more successful lawyer on the long run.

This has quickly turned into an extremely well-written, well-acted legal drama. Although it easily wins its timeslot each week, the audience numbers seem to dip a bit with each outing. I'm not sure that the Tuesday night NCIS duo is the best and most compatible lead-in for this program. Perhaps Sunday night at 9 p.m. might be a better fit. About the only thing I still struggle with is the Chris Noth storyline, but I have to say I thought it was used effectively last night. Even if Noth somehow manages to get released from prison, from what we know about Alicia, there is no way in hell she's going to take him back. I don't know where the story goes from there that it can add any meaningful dramatic weight to the rest of the proceedings.

I'm happy CBS gave it a full-season pickup. I hope they protect and nurture it so it doesn't wind up as yet another "one and done" series.

This show has some of the best female portrayals on television. It doesn't empower its women at the expense of its men, but it does acknowledge that the decisions of everyone are complex and often fraught. The final scene between Diane and Kalinda was perhaps the best written and acted scene of I've seen this year. So much was going on, entirely conveyed through subtext. One of many moments on the show where the audience is trusted to get it right. Alicia is still portrayed as basically superhuman, but more flaws are starting to surface. These flaws make her no less sympathetic as a protagonist, because she grapples with them in an honest and considerate way. Will is less obviously decent than he first appeared, and Peter is less obviously awful than he first appeared. Alicia's prison visits are some of the most interesting moments of each episode. Julianna Margulies and Chris Noth really convey years and years of history between Alicia and Peter, and each has a level of respect for the other's intelligence that you wouldn't expect from a philanderer and his oblivious wife. Alicia's success during Peter's incarceration has surprised him, but he's not such a small man that he resents it. If anything, it has made Alicia interesting to him again in a way that she hadn't been for years as the loyal housewife. He is also a good father who cares about his kids' well-being, and cognizant of what Alicia has done to keep them emotionally intact in the face of his extraordinarily humiliating failings. Speaking of the children, I'm really amazed at how great of a job the show does at portraying them as neither naive idiots nor neurotic, verbose thirtysomethings in teenage bodies. They both come across as decent and intelligent, but very much 15 and 16 years old.

I've like the show since the beginning. Half-way through last night's episode I thought to myself that this is one of the smartest shows I've seen in a long time.

I also am pleasantly surprised that this has become must-see tv for me.  

I never watch tv live--Tivo everything.  This is one of the few shows that I consistently watch as soon as possible after recording, while some of my former favorites languish on the Tivo for a week before I get around to watching them.

As others have mentionned one of the great aspects of this show is that it trusts the viewer to catch and enjoy it's subtlety instead of hitting us over the head with plot points.  Certainly rises above the glut of police procedurals. 

This and Castle are my two favorite new dramas.

Frustrating ending tonight. Are judges that petty in real life? Almost certainly. Especially if they're elected.

They're really making the new state's attorney scummier than scum. We'll see how that plays out.

I've not watched this week's episode yet; but I was wondering if I was the only person watching it. This is my favorite new show this season. I feared it was into merely another lawyer procedural -- which I suppose it is -- but it's wholly engaging, with great characters.

Really strong episode tonight. I've seen more than my fair share of Orthodox Jew religious persecution episodes in my time, so I was ready for a real groaner. For the most part, though, they avoided the usual cliches and pontifications with an ending that made the religious angle completely irrelevant. I found it fascinating seeing Alicia faced with her first real romantic possibility since her husband's imprisonment, not counting the overtones in her relationship with Will. Speaking of Will, there was a moment in this episode that perfectly demonstrates what makes this show a step above: At the social justice lawyer's storefront office, Alicia learns that Will dragged out a court case until the toddler's death in order to reduce the liability. (Incidentally, Holiday Inn did the same thing with my grandmother: she tripped over a piece of rebar jutting up through crumbling concrete next to a handicap parking spot and took a nasty fall. Her health was already fragile, and the incident sent her into a slow and miserable decline; by delaying the case until she died, Holiday Inn settled with her estate for a tiny fraction of what the living woman would have got.) In a lesser show, Alicia would have stormed into Will's office and demanded to know how he could do such a horrible thing. Instead, she carries on with her day. Will asks how it's going with the outside lawyer, she begins to bring it up and then decides it's not worth it. When Will unabashedly admits it later, noting that he was merely representing his client and Alicia accepts that. It's ugly, but that's part of life and Alicia knows it. In the mean time, we the audience see our white knight character turn one shade darker gray.

On the flip side of things, Alicia's son seems to have found proof that at least some of the incriminating evidence against his father was doctored. I'm okay with Peter not being the over-the-top awful guy he was made out to be in the pilot, but I want to reiterate how much I hope they don't make him too squeaky clean. Not guilty of the abuse of office claims, I can accept. But the whole show is built around the idea that he was a philandering tool. The affairs at the very least have to be real.

There seems no doubt that he was cheating on his wife. I don't think he's even attempted to deny that to Alicia.

The "competition" is becoming annoying; I hope they bring back some of his charm.

But a strong episode. Alicia's pragmatic, worldly attitude carries the show. She's ever hopefully, but not Pollyana. She's seasoned and wounded, but not an all-knowing sage. The balance for her character feels real to me (has lots of "truthiness", if you will). And it's not bogged down in multiple sub-plots with multiple lead characters. The secondary stories are lightly touched on, advanced, but never slowing the episode stories. I look forward to the rest of the season.

I have doubts that he was cheating on his wife. There's already been proof that there has been digital and computer enhancement was done to photos and that the same might be said for the video.

The only problem I have is that the TV series is inappropriately named. The Good Wife sounds more like a Lifetime series or Oxygen Network series about women's relationships. They should have picked a title that was more descriptive of the series.

What initially seemed to be a scummy prosecution for personal ambition now appears to be a full-fledged conspiracy. I like the son and daughter investigating the Deep Throat evidence, but the show's pulling one of my biggest TV pet peeves: concealing information from a character for no other reason than because if that character knew, the plot would unfurl faster than they want it to. When the first photos came, I could buy the kids wanting to protect their mother from seeing apparent evidence of further infidelity. But things are getting really serious, and I don't buy that the son would still be holding out on his mother.

Other than that, a great show that continues to be great.

This week's episode was both odd and pitch perfect. The mysterious main partner, Stern, was revealed. Peter's story was advanced -- or at least important things happened which will be important to the story. And Alicia's homelife -- especially the son -- grows more complex (and real).

I'm not sure why, but I really enjoy the female-centric dramas (Judging Amy, Ally McBeal) and The Good Wife is the best show of that sort in a number of years.

The Good Wife stands out to me because it's one of the few female-empowerment dramas that doesn't pander to its target demographic. All of the characters have flaws and redeeming qualities.

The reveal of the oft-spoken-of but previously unseen third partner on a lesser show would have been the kind of character that the Jacopo Peterman character on Seinfeld so savagely satired: the brilliant free-spirit who follows his whims to profound personal enlightenment. The casting of Kevin Conway would at first glance seem to reinforce that perception. But everything after Stern's ostentatious entrance muddied the waters. The big reveal, that Stern uses the flamboyant lifestyle to provide cover for his declining mental faculties, was an interesting twist. Conway did a terrific job balancing tremendous charisma and obvious brilliance with the insecurity and mood shifts that have resulted from his condition. The bomb shell he dropped at the end advances things considerably: now Alicia has caught up with the audience in doubting the case against Peter. It also confirms that Peter's downfall is either at the center of or on the periphery of a pretty huge conspiracy. Was the bad bet Stern mentioned Glenn Childs, who became State Attorney for Cook County after leaking the sex tape? Or was it someone else that Peter's office was investigating?
The
I loved the kiss. It makes Alicia more interesting by showing her so passionately grateful about the least ethical thing we've actually seen Peter do on-screen. It also hints at undercurrents of their relationship that we can't fully comprehend.

The kids' storylines were again head and shoulders above the kids' storylines in any other adult-focused drama on the air today. Nerdy Zach's connection to Chicago's most torrid sex scandal makes him an inviting notch on at least one girl's bed post. His exploration of this new opportunity sends his paternal grandmother into avoidance mode again; her immediately disposing of the doctored sex photos of her son was the only plausible action action from her: she can't accept that all of these awful things are true, so she simply chooses not to acknowledge them. Zach considering having sex with a junior is much more within her wheelhouse. I found the conversation between Zach and Grace the most interesting: despite Zach doing all of the sneaking around, it's Grace that's the "bad" child, and she seems  far more aware of what's going on around them than Zach is.

I thought, Alicia will finally learn of the photos! And then g-ma dumps them! It was horrifying, but as you observe, the one action she would take.

And my wife and I look forward to more from Kalinda. She's such an interesting "heavy"; a fun and ironic twist on the conventional go-to guy.

This remains the one drama I would keep over all others this season.

Sadly, the "A" plot for tonight's episode was ripped from the headlines. Two judges from Scranton, PA pled guilty in February for taking "more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers." Those judges got caught only because they made the mistake of targeting a couple higher-income white kids whose parents had the time and resources to take them down. As the "B" plot with Diane being vetted for judgeship made clear, a certain amount of spite or even racism is permissable as long as it falls within the boundaries of sentencing guidelines. In some ways, the selection of infamous Cook County as the setting for the show is a cop-out, because it allows the audience to tell itself that at least that sort of thing doesn't happen around here. Of course it happens everywhere. There are vast swathes of the country, including my home county, where the primaries are the de facto election. And often the primaries have been decided before a single voter walks into the voting booth.

As the layers of the onion get peeled away, we get the impression that before Alicia it was Will that was the nasty one and Diane who was more idealistic. Diane's got teeth, and she clearly favors Cary, but she's no monster.

I thought the "C" plot with Grace and Peter's mom was terrific. It forced the grandmother out of her comfort zone, and put her in the unique position of being the one looked down upon. I was also happy to see that, whatever her prejudices, she put Grace's happiness first.

Grandma's crazy! :)

I'm sure I've seen that plotline in a L&O some time ago, too. I liked Cary pulling out the stats, getting all regression on Calinda. I thought the bias in the cases was portrayed in a very muddled way, so I just accepted it for what they meant it to show.

1x11 - "Infamy"

"The Good Wife" returns for the second half of the season with a very strong episode that highlighted just how much I've come to love these characters. I hate the Nancy Graces of the world with a special passion, so it was particularly easy to hate Duke Rosco. I found the outcome a little implausible, although I'm not a lawyer so for all I know it happens all of the time. Movies like The Verdict had taught me that power of the jury, at least in the trial phase, is absolute: the court gives the jury instructions, but in the end what happens in that room of 12 peers is what goes. Adjustments and dismissals happen on appeal.

Loved the bait and switch at the end, with the whole episode building toward Kalinda being outed only for Rosco to take a wild stab at Diane. Christine Baranski's reaction was priceless. Loved getting to see Will seperate from Alicia, so we get an idea of just how much of an effect she has had on him: it's not just that he's playing the slow game with her, it's that she's actually triggered some of his nobler instincts. Before Alicia was brought on board, one gets the idea that he'd have screwed the network lawyer six ways to Sunday. Peter Florrick is a scumbag, but he's a normal scumbag in a city that has made scumbaggery into an art form. Peter comes at you straight; Childs doesn't have the courage. He's playing a petty game, but he is just the tip of the iceberg. Alicia's daughter Grace remains one of the most interesting young characters on television. Like her parents and brother, she's very smart, but rather than dancing around issues she stabs right at the heart of things: she has concerns, so she addresses them with her mother. When she lies, as she did with the packages, you get the sense that it's not an instinctual decision, but one that she's anticipated and weighed carefully. All of this while still being a plausible 14-15 year old girl. And then there's Cary; pleasant as always, but completely worthless at empathizing with anyone. The scene where he struggled to parallel the death of his distant uncle with the theft and possible murder of a man's infant child was particularly hilarious in a gallows sort of way. Still the smartest show on network TV.

Agreed. What looked to be a silly episode with the mock TV show turned out to be among the best so far.

Lacking cable, I've not seen the TV show(s) that Roscoe Duke was to stand in for. So it was enlightening to think that people watch that sort of dreck. And believe it.

I was satisfied that the Alicia was finally tipped off that she has missed important (and dangerous) scare tactics from Childs. And still they play it for the slow arc. I'm on pins waiting for it to play out -- the children hiding it, and grandma ignorantly discarding it.

As for Jury Nullification -- it seemed a stretch, based on my vast legal knowledged gleaned from Grisham novels and Law & Order episodes. You'd expect it to be overturned on appeal, but they suggested the father won't care to take it further, having found his daughter. A trite ending, but of the show's form. The main theme is never the main theme, and the resolution always takes you away from the inflammatory political issue initially put in the fore.