As The Good Wife returns for a second season on RTÉ Two, John Byrne celebrates a TV show that has it all: a great cast, fascinating characters, terrific storylines – and a magnificent Julianna Margulies in the lead role.
The audience for TV drama has never been more splintered. At one end of the spectrum, there are the Mad Men aficionados, those arbiters of good taste who insist that their aesthetically immaculate show is the best thing on telly, by a long stretch. Then there are the Glee cheerleaders. The Gleeks maintain that nothing compares to the life-affirming feelgood factor of a show that glorifies the underdog. Well, sorry folks: you’re all wrong. The best show on TV these days is back on RTÉ Two on Thursdays and while it isn’t as cool as Mad Men or as cute as Glee, it has an abundance of everything a great show requires: a cleverly assembled cast playing an arresting array of characters, all wrapped up in stories, plots, twists and turns that keep you glued to the screen as another hour-long episode just flies by, leaving you yearning for more. The Good Wife is so good that it puts nearly everything around it to shame.
It’s a courtroom drama; it’s office and sexual politics; it’s a love story; it’s a woman/wife/mother doing her best in the face of almighty odds and a husband who can’t keep his hands to himself. But ultimately, it’s Julianna Margulies in a career-defining role. Last year’s debut season on RTÉ Two became one of those growers; a real watercooler show. ‘Did you see that new show called The Good Wife? Can you believe Alicia and how she sticks by her husband and becomes a working mother? What about that Kalinda? She’s one tough cookie! Do you think Will and Alicia will get it together? What sort of an ass is that Eli Gold? I don’t like the look of that Cary guy – he’s sneaky!’
Yep, that was a debut season that sneaked in quietly and really got people hooked – and talking. No hype, just great television. But while last year, The Good Wife was something of a well-known secret, those of us who now worship at the altar of Alicia Florrick need to spread the Good Wife word wide: this show is brilliant and deserves to be huge. Another bonus is that you don’t need to have seen every episode (or any at all, for that matter) to take a look and become as hooked as someone who’s been watching since Alicia had to go back to work in season one’s opening episode.
Let’s start with Mrs Florrick, irresistibly played by Julianna Margulies. Seasoned TV viewers will remember her unforgettable break-out starring role as Nurse Carol Hathaway, opposite George Clooney’s Dr Doug Ross, on the now legendary medical drama ER, for which she won an Emmy Award. After her departure from ER in 2000, Margulies went more or less off-radar, but came back as spectacularly as Take That when she signed-up for The Good Wife in 2009. So far she’s won a Golden Globe, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and – just last week – landed the inaugural American Critics’ Choice Television Awards for Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She’s that good.
In a nutshell, for those of you who may not have seen The Good Wife yet: Alicia Florrick is the wife of Peter (played by Sex and the City’s Mr Big, Chris Noth), a disgraced state’s attorney with whom she has two children. In the wake of her husband’s fall from grace, she returns to work as a junior litigator at the law firm Stern, Lockhart & Gardner, where there’s still a spark of romance between her and Will Gardner (played by Josh Charles), a company partner she knew at college.
After years being ‘the good wife’, she finds herself at the bottom of her career ladder, trying to juggle both home and professional life with the ongoing scandal surrounding her husband. As season two kicks off, Alicia is deciding whether to stick with Peter, but there’s still a strong attraction to Will, who may yet win her over.
Meanwhile, the court cases that form the day-to-day business of the show provide some fascinating sub-plots, most notably whenever Louis Canning (Michael J Fox – see below) is on the other bench. While Margulies and her character remain the central focus of The Good Wife, the show’s supporting cast and secondary characters also excel. The main ones are Will Gardner, played with a steely intensity by Josh Charles, who was previously outstanding in the first season of Gabriel Byrne’s In Treatment, and Kalinda Sharma, the law firm’s ass-kicking in-house private investigator, played by British actress Archie Panjabi (Bend It Like Beckham). Will likes to have things his own way, and he’s a shrewd operator, but this season he’s got to learn to work with a new partner (FlashForward’s Michael Ealy), who’s keen to make a mark. Kalinda, meanwhile, finds herself dealing with competition at work from a new and equally sharp investigator, Blake Calamar (Friday Night Lights’ Scott Porter). Kalinda also plays a pivotal part in season two’s big jaw-dropper, but we won’t spoil that for you. Just watch and enjoy Panjabi’s stand-out performance as the show’s most ambiguous and interesting character; a true maverick who works and lives according to her own rules.
Thursday’s opening double episode on RTÉ Two concludes the cliffhanger from the first season finale, as Alicia makes her decision about whether to stay with a campaign-ready Peter or pursue a relationship with Will, who’s caught up in the law firm’s merger.
Later on, Cary Agos – who lost out to Alicia for a place at the firm and now works for the state – takes her on in a case involving a young army reservist accused of murdering his wife. So spread the word around: Thursday night telly-viewing’s just got a whole lot better now The Good Wife is back.
John Byrne
