The Good Wife

Channel: Ten
Day & time*: Sunday, 9.30 p.m. (from Feb 7).
(*as at Feb 2010)

 

Legally, it's all good

Sometimes, not everything is as it seems. The Ten Network has been running a teaser for its series The Good Wife for several weeks now. You know the one… Chris Noth appears before a media scrum to announce he’s resigning from office while Julianna Marguiles (presumably the “good wife” of the title) stoically stands beside him. Cut to them talking privately – he asks if she’s OK; she slaps him across the face.

This little snippet (a cut-down version of the first 5 minutes or so of the pilot episode) gives the impression that The Good Wife is some kind of political drama a la The West Wing. I guess in a sense it is that too, but it’s primarily a legal drama.

After those gripping first 5 minutes, we find Marguiles’ character, Alicia Florrick, six months later as the new associate at a big Chicago law firm. Yes, she’s a lawyer and with her lawyer husband banged up on charges of having misused public money (to fund his predeliction for ladies of the night – the cause of his resignation as a State prosecutor in the first place) she has to go back to work to support the family, which includes two children; not to mention her mother-in-law (Mary Beth Peil), who’s moved in to help with the kids.

It’s apparent she’s stood by her man; although the reasons for this are a little less clear. In the first episode she makes it clear that she doesn’t really care whether husband Peter (Noth) is guilty or innocent of the charges that have landed him behind bars. She is however deeply hurt by his infidelity, which is undeniable. Nonetheless, there’s a whiff of a set-up surrounding Peter’s case; a situation that the new chief prosecutor Glen Childs (Titus Welliver) does nothing to dispel with dark mutterings about his dislike for Peter and – by extension – Alicia.

Within the firm itself, Alicia has to deal not only with authoritarian female partner Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) who doubts her abilities, but also ambitious new associate Cary Agos (Matt Czuchry) with whom she has to compete for her job. Her knight in shining armour however is the kindly Will Gardner (Josh Charles), who’s willing to give her a shot. She also gains the grudging respect of ballsy investigator Kalinda Sharma (Archie Punjabi).

So what it all comes down to is an unusual mix of legal drama and political intrigue. In each episode, Alicia has to take on new cases (some of them hitting close to home) while the mystery surrounding her husband’s predicament bubbles along under the surface. I have to say it works pretty well in the early episodes of the series, although I have some doubts about where it’s all heading in the long run. Those doubts are reinforced by the fact that Noth is credited as a “guest star”, suggesting his character has a limited time with the show.

The other item of note about this show is that it focuses on lawyers defending their clients. Over the last few years, the trend has been firmly on the prosecution side of the ledger, perhaps reflecting a wider anxiety about crime and alleged “softness” in the justice system. While one swallow doesn’t make a summer, it’s perhaps indicative of a trend away from the CSI-style shows that have become so common. Certainly, it seems to have worked in America, where the show has been regularly winning its timeslot in the ratings.

In the lead role, Juliana Marguiles seems quite at home. Of course, her most memorable ongoing role to date has been as a member of the medical profession in E.R. so her transition to the legal world is hardly unexpected. She imbues the character with a kind of steely resolve; which is great in the courtroom scenes, but takes a bit of effort to parlay into the show’s domestic scenes.

As a general rule, the casting is pretty much spot on, with the performances of Charles, Punjabi and Noth particularly eye-catching.

In the end, whether The Good Wife succeeds or not will depend on how taut the writers can keep the plot as the show develops. As a legal drama, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before; so the focus needs to be on playing up the political angle to keep things spiced-up. If the show can keep up the momentum, Ten might be on a winner.

Phil James