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 The Good Wife

(July 13th, 2009.  Editor)                Julianna Margulies, Chris Noth, Christine Baranski, Matt Czuchry, Archie Panjabi, Graham Phillips and Makenzie Vega star in the one hour drama series The Good Wife, airing Tuesdays on CBS this fall.

Emmy Award winner Julianna Margulies stars as a wife and mother who must assume full responsibility for her family and re-enter the workforce after her husband's very public sex and political corruption scandal lands him in jail.  Pushing aside the betrayal and crushing public humiliation caused by her husband Peter (Chris Noth), Alicia Florrick (Margulies) starts over by pursuing her original career as a defense attorney.  As a junior associate at a prestigious Chicago law firm, she joins her longtime friend, former law school classmate and firm partner Will Gardner (Josh Charles), who is interested to see how Alicia will perform after 13 years out of the courtroom. Alicia is grateful the firm's top litigator, Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), offers to mentor her but discovers the offer has conditions and realizes she's going to need to succeed on her own merit.  Alicia's main competition among the firm's 20-something new recruits is Cary (Matt Czuchry), a recent Harvard grad who is affable on the surface, but will use any means to ensure that he, not Alicia, secures the one full-time associate position that's available.  Fortunately, Alicia finds an ally in Kalinda (Archie Panjabi), the firm's tough in-house investigator.  Gaining confidence every day, Alicia transforms herself from embarrassed politician's scorned wife to resilient career woman, especially for the sake of providing a stable home for her children, 14-year-old Zach (Graham Phillips) and 13-year-old Grace (Makenzie Vega).  For the first time in years, Alicia trades in her identity as the "good wife" and takes charge of her own destiny.

The circumstances of this one hour drama are similar enough to a few cases we have heard and seen in the press that it may find an audience of people who have always wondered how these women get themselves into that situation, and how they deal with it afterward. There will be plenty of interesting weekly plots as she tries to turn her life around, by re-entering the work force as a junior lawyer. And the background story, of her husband trying to appeal his criminal charges and repair the damage done to his relationship, is a sub-plot that could take several seasons to play-out. Even with that hook, this legal drama needs to bring something new to the table. The background story is a great start. But it mat not be enough.

I'm rooting for Margulies to be a success with this series, but the viewers is going to need more. Perhaps a bitter rivalry between her character of Alicia Florrick and the tough partner, Diane Lockhart, played by Christine Baranski, would help spice up the plots. The ground work was laid in the plot episode, lets hope the writers go there real soon.

Margulies has finally found the right show, on the right network. This one is worth a look.

 

Editor

 

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