Back in 2009, amidst the dependably boring CBS lineup, Robert and Michelle King introduced The Good Wife. It was a show so refreshing, so swift, and so well-acted it felt like something CBS accidentally beamed in from another planet, or at least another network.
At the outset, The Good Wife was inspired mostly by Eliot Spitzer's sex scandal in New York, but also Bill and Hillary Clinton, Dick Morris, John Edwards, and Rod Blagojevich's fall from the governor's office in Illinois. But it grew from centering on the stunned wife (Julianna Marguiles) of a disgraced politician (Chris Noth) going back to work in her former profession as a litigator to support her family, into one of the most vital interrogations of modern legal issues in narrative entertainment. Its office politics oscillate between the silly ironies of The Office and the heavyweight battles of Game of Thrones, and it has the deepest reserve of recurring characters of any show not named The Simpsons.
To prove its bona fides as a standout among CBS' other longer-running series, The Good Wife has been the only drama on the network nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at the Emmys in the past decade. It's the only series earning CBS any meaningful awards consideration in the current Golden Age Of Television. (The only other CBS series nominated for a meaningful drama Emmy in the past decade: Tyne Daly for Judging Amy, Simon Baker for The Mentalist, and Quentin Tarantino for directing the two-part CSI season finale "Grave Danger.")
It also bears noting just how fiercely The Good Wife has embraced all manners of technological advancements and the legal discussions surrounding them. Our own Clive Thompson wrote about this two years ago—and it remains true throughout the series. Whether it's inventing a stand-in company for Google to tackle issues of giant corporations doing business with oppressive foreign governments or mimicking the Edward Snowden case with NSA analysts, The Good Wife has done a better job at quickly incorporating contemporary legal issues into a cast of familiar, intelligent characters than any fictional television program in recent memory. The Good Wife isn't perfect when it deals with technology or ripped-from-the-headlines issues—we'll get to a few of them below—but it's more cogent and well-reasoned than almost any other television series when dealing with hot-button issues, and it jumps into the ring with a cavalcade of compelling characters on either side of these arguments.
Number of Seasons: 6 (134 episodes)
Time Requirements: At over 90 hours, catching up on The Good Wife before its (presumed) final season begins this fall will take some serious commitment. But averaging about seven hours a week—one episode every weeknight and a few extra on weekends—will do it.
Where to Get Your Fix: Amazon Prime
Best Character to Follow: The damn title character, Alicia Florrick. Her progression from emotionally devastated innocent to hardened legal veteran is fascinating, and absolutely the best role of Marguiles' career. But what separates The Good Wife from other legal dramas is the depiction of the legal world in this version of Chicago as one of cyclical professional encounters. Alicia deals with judges in the first season as a junior associate and makes mistakes, which later pay off when she tries cases with those same judges against less experienced attorneys in later seasons. Her relationships to the recurring judges, opposing attorneys, and her coworkers form the core character arc of the series.
Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip:
The Good Wife isn't immune to the occasional rotten egg episode. It is, after all, a broadcast network show that averages 23 episodes a season, with a co-creator who wrote Cutthroat Island, one of the most notorious box office flops of all time. With that caveat in mind, here are the few patches in *The Good Wife'*s run that may be optional.
Season 2: Episode 18, "Taking Control" Poor Scott Porter. He was eminently lovable as Jason Street on Friday Night Lights, but a terrorizing and exhausting presence on The Good Wife. The idea of competing investigators prone to subterfuge and sabotage is a good one, especially when Archie Panjabi's Kalinda Sharma was such a breakout character she defeated other cast mates for an Emmy, but it's a narrative structure that the show has never fully figured out.
Season 4: Episode 1, "I Fought the Law" This is the turning point in Kalinda's storyline where the character went from wearing out her welcome to completely useless to the larger narrative of the show. Her long-lost ex-husband manages to track her down, and basically ties a hundred anchors to her likability and entertainment value in the process. The reaction to this plot was so vehemently negative that the Kings reversed course by the middle of the season and got rid of the character entirely without a definitive explanation.
Season 4: Episode 9, "A Defense of Marriage" Though it features lovely guest turns from Bebe Neuwirth as a judge and thunderous Bruce McGill as a Supreme Court-tested litigator, this is a bit of a ham-fisted jaunt into the gay marriage debate that was handled more subtly and comprehensively elsewhere. Credit the Kings for wanting to make a big statement about this issue, but politely skip the episode.
Season 6: Episode 12, "The Debate" There are certain weeks when *The Good Wife'*s penchant for commenting on current events is a timely blessing. But this episode, centering around the issue of white police officers being charged and tried for unlawfully killing black men, might be the worst the show has ever handled a hot-button topic. In responding to the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, this episode aired a little over a month after the grand jury decision in the Eric Garner case in Staten Island. This show is about incredibly affluent and powerful people, the vast majority of them white, so when the Kings wade into race issues, it's on thin ice to begin with. But "The Debate" is particularly egregious in failing to effectively satirize its oblivious and out-of-depth characters as they try to score political points by using protests for their own gain.
Season 6: Episode 22, "Wanna Partner" The rumors surrounding a falling out between Marguiles and Panjabi persisted for years, with fans of the show noting that Alicia and Kalinda, once written as confidantes and great friends, hadn't shared the screen (only phone conversations filmed in separate locations) in nearly three seasons. So when it was announced last October that Panjabi would leave the show under the guise of a development deal for her own pilot at Fox, it wasn't much of a surprise. But what did feel like a total cop-out, more than the wimpy escape hatch plot used to send Kalinda into the sunset, was the body double and green screen final meeting between the two for one last cordial drink. It was like the television version of the conspiracy theory that Al Pacino and Robert De Niro didn't film the diner scene in Heat together, only this one turned out to be verifiably true.
Seasons/Episodes You Can't Skip:
Season 1: Episode 1, "Pilot" The general premise is a necessary benchmark for all the character progress that follows. After sex scandal revelations engulf her state's attorney husband (Chris Noth), Alicia Florrick gets a job at a prestigious Chicago law firm from her old law school boyfriend Will Gardner (Josh Charles), whose law partner is the fearsome Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski). But Alicia has to compete with Cary Agos (Matt Czuchry) to earn a full-time associate position over the next sixth months. She gets a bit of a boost from the firm's mysterious and fiery investigator Kalinda Sharma and solidifies her place at the firm by maneuvering around the new state's attorney (Titus Welliver) to exonerate a 2nd grade teacher on trial for her ex-husband's murder.
Season 1: Episode 17, "Heart" This is the moment the series found its footing for good, and not just because it finally gave in to the romantic tension between Will and Alicia. This is a perfect example of the themes that play out over the rest of the series, as Alicia balances loyalty and propriety with her own ambition and desires. It's also a great example of how the show's legal proceedings don't always take place in the confines of a court room, since most of this episode takes place in a hospital. Also of note, this is a few episodes after the incomparable Alan Cumming joined the cast as political operative and Rahm Emmanuel stand-in Eli Gold.
Season 2: Episode 6, "Poisoned Pill" Michael J. Fox has returned to television several times since Parkinson's caused him to leave Spin City, but he was never been better on screen than he was here as the conniving, ruthless Louis Canning. Every time he shows back up, it's a sign that the boat isn't just going to be rocked, but capsized just for fun.
Season 2: Episode 9, "Nine Hours" A few times each season, The Good Wife largely takes a break from inching forward law firm and electoral politics in favor of a ripped-from-the-headlines showstopper. This one takes its cues from a New Yorker article on the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, and the ticking-clock looming in every scene helps to build tension throughout.
Season 2: Episode 14, "Net Worth" Neil Gross, founder of fictional search engine ChumHum, is the biggest whale of a client to walk through the doors of any firm during the course of the show, and this is his first appearance. He's a bargaining chip and a trophy during any squabble within or between firms, and his company provides fodder for several intriguing issues of business ethics in a rapidly changing global technological landscape. Plus F. Murray Abraham guest stars as a star lawyer at another big-shot firm.
Season 2: Episode 17, "Ham Sandwich" Looking back, it's strange that the first appearance of drug kingpin Lemond Bishop (Mike Colter) occurs in the second season, since he's one of the few recurring characters to get beefed up into a regular antagonist. Having fended off a takeover attempt from Derrick Bond (Michael Ealy), Lockhart Gardner attempts to retain Bishop's "legitimate" business. Bishop represents the unseemly practices the firm is willing to put up with in order to keep a ton of business on the books, the counterweight to all the pro bono work that they put in during the episodes meant to make the firm look like do-gooders. In the end though, they're scared of Bishop and desperately want all the money that can take from him, so long as it doesn't ever get them arrested for assisting a known drug trafficker.
Season 2: Episode 22, "Getting Off" The first two seasons of the show build and build to this particular crossroads. Peter (Noth) finds redemption in his reelection campaign, but Alicia and Kalinda are irrevocably torn asunder by the revelation that Kalinda once slept with Peter when she worked for him at the state's attorney's office. That breakdown is utterly crushing, and it's easy to see why both Marguiles and Panjabi won Emmys for this season.
Season 3: Episode 7, "Executive Order #13224" Elsbeth Tascioni, the recurring attention deficit-suffering but furiously brilliant attorney played by Carrie Preston, is without a doubt the oddest and most welcome curveball The Good Wife throws this season. She reliably throws all the regular characters just a tad off-kilter, and comes at legal problems from directions none of the more reserved lawyers could even fathom. This episode, which takes its title from a terrifying Bush-era terrorism-related order that grants the government entirely too much power. This is an episode that combines dark, painful humor with legal complexity and a dash of belated social commentary.
Season 4: Episode 14, "Red Team, Blue Team" The Alicia/Cary professional relationship goes through many stages through three and a half seasons, pitting the two lawyers against each other at Lockhart Gardner, then across the private practice/state's attorney line, and then once again as top-tier associates at the firm. But a mock trial that pits Florrick/Agos against Lockhard and Gardner foreshadows what’s coming—the impending departure to form a new law firm outside a practice that isn't promoting Alicia or Cary as fast as they deserve. Zach Grenier's David Lee is often the epitome of a scummy lawyer, but he's one of the show's most reliable comic relief characters, but he can cut deep—especially when delaying Alicia's partnership. The wrath Alicia unleashes at work in response is one of Marguiles' best hours on the show.
Season 4: Episode 18, "Death of a Client" The Good Wife is a rare beast: a dependable episodic formula drama that doesn't need to be watched in order (though it does reward those who follow chronologically with overarching plots). But it's always fun to pull out an episode like this one, guest starring *Fringe'*s John Noble as a paranoid tech genius, that largely abandons the typical episode structure in favor of focusing on a long-term relationship with a specific client through several flashbacks leading up to his murder. Pair that with the return of the delightfully obnoxious Matthew Perry as the slimeball opponent facing Alicia's husband Peter in the governor's race and this is a classic episode.
Season 4: Episode 22, "What's in the Box" With all the show's struggles to make an election compelling throughout the sixth season, it's amazing that those failings didn't affect the brilliant slapstick pacing of this episode, which involves everyone dashing around to either count or discount a ballot box on the eve of Peter's election as governor of Illinois. It's also got one of the all-time great recurring clients—Dylan Baker's mustache-twirling accused murderer Colin Sweeney—and a big twist ending that sets up the fifth season as the best in the show's run.
Season 5: Episode 5, "Hitting The Fan" The single best hour of The Good Wife strictly on the plane of relationship upheaval. All the romantic drama built up between Alicia and Will, and all the close calls and the secretly lustful nights, dissolve immediately when the news comes down of Alicia and Cary's plans to leave Lockhart Gardner and start their own firm. It sets in motion the highly competitive and dramatic fifth season, where former close allies are suddenly bitter and vindictive enemies unable to reconcile over the smallest point.
Season 5: Episode 15-16, "Dramatics, Your Honor"/"The Last Call" It is difficult to keep major overarching plot twists on a television show a secret in the age of social media. But this episode contains the most astutely executed shock on a drama series in what feels like a decade. No spoilers, but it's a doozy, and looking at the slow decline of the series overall since this point, it may go down as the "jump-the-shark" moment where nothing else could live up to what came before. Season 5 is the best all-around year of the show, with hardly any dips in quality, so consider this a plea to savor each of those 22 hours. That sustained peak only makes the subsequent faltering in the sixth season more disheartening.
Season 6: Episode 10, "The Trial" In the midst of a cast lousy with heavy-hitting actors sporting decades-long careers, Matt Czuchry was the relative newcomer in relation to his costars. He played Logan on Gilmore Girls (Team Rory On Her Own, by the way), a Christian radio DJ on Friday Night Lights, and professional terrible human Tucker Max in I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. But as Cary Agos, he's been a worthy foil to Marguiles, representing the young go-getter opposite the older woman returning to the workforce. He's been a vicious competitor and a dogged ally, but no arc has asked more of Cary as a series regular than his stint in prison awaiting trail on charges related to the firm's business dealings with Lemond Bishop. In the midst of an up-and-down season that focused too heavily on politics and Panjabi's departure, Cary's trial remains the one unsullied, stellar performance throughout.
Why You Should Binge:
The personal relationships that build between Alicia, Diane, Will, and Cary throughout the first few seasons are best appreciated all at once over the course of a binge. It's marvelous to see the Kings bringing together all the characters as they progress professionally from supervisor/subordinate to more or less equal partners. The same goes for the recurring guest star judges and opposing attorneys, since it's easier to remember the last time they were onscreen and what they did when they were there while whipping through the show at a faster clip than usual.
Best Scene—A Parting of the Ways:
Sex and professional ambition form the double helix of allure on The Good Wife, and for four and a half years those intertwining elements were rooted in Alicia and Will's relationship. But when Alicia and Cary feel as though they’re being limited, and surreptitiously form their own firm without telling Lockhart Gardner, it's the biggest blow-up-the-premise moment in the history of the show. Josh Charles emphasizes that moment by unleashing an absolutely volcanic confrontation against Julianna Marguiles in "Hitting The Fan," and it's the most memorable reversal in the show's history. Their attraction doesn't entirely disappear either, but the disgust and betrayal are plain in his face. It hollows out Will Gardner and sets him up for everything he’ll go through the rest of the season, and crushes all the shared history built up for years before that moment.
The Takeaway:
Even the unlikeliest networks, so calcified in their development processes or committed to one type of series, can occasionally surprise audiences with something radically different. Just look at The Bachelor-satirizing UnReal, which is currently doing the same thing for Lifetime's reputation.
If You Liked The Good Wife You'll Love:
Honestly, the best comparison for The Good Wife—a show that deals with the legal system and its relationship to politics, big social issues, and individual families caught up in affecting unwieldy institutions—is probably The Wire, which is a more densely complex show about those same things to graduate to for those who haven’t yet done so. But if you've already got that feather in your cap, then try one of David E. Kelley's legal series like Ally McBeal, The Practice, or Boston Legal. Or if something more contemporary would be best, try the tectonic internal legal firm skirmishes of USA's Suits, which features several guest stars from the Game of Thrones cast in its best seasons.
