The Good Wife – Recap & Review – Pilot

photo: cbs

The Good Wife
Pilot

Original Air Date: Sept 22, 2009

Patricia Morris Buckley —Staff Writer
pmb@thetwocentscorp.com

We’ve all seen it — the wife standing by her man as his political career goes down the toilet over some sex scandal (yes, John Edwards, we’re thinking about you). And we ask one question: What the hell is she doing supporting her lying, cheating, no-good man? Is this a country song waiting to happen, or what?

That’s the premise of The Good Wife, which then blows every political wife stereotype away. After the press conference, with Julianna Margulies looking shell-shocked as Alicia Florrick, we zoom to six months later as she’s trying to jumpstart her law career as a junior associate after a 15-year lull. And the fact that her now-imprisoned husband’s sex tapes are still getting big media coverage doesn’t help with her reputation or her parenting.

Alicia quickly finds out she has competition from another junior associate who looks fresh out of law school, but ready to sharpen his shark’s teeth. He’s assigned to work on the firm’s biggst case, while she gets a pro bono retrial. A woman is accused of killing her ex-husband over a custody agreement and making it look like a car jacking.

As a sidenote: A lot is being made of Margulies deadpan expression and it is clear that she’s had a good bit of facial work done. But the deadpan fits the character and her situation — the stoic politician’s wife becomes the stoic lawyer. Alicia is just trying to keep from drowning by putting on an unemotional face (and Margulies smiles quite a lot in the flashbacks)

Anyway, Alicia tackles the case with everything she’s got, although disheartened to discover the last jury deadlocked over the case not six to six as they’d heard, but 11 to one, and that one was a nut job. How can she prove the woman didn’t do it? She throws out the defense from the first trial (making an enemy of the woman partner who first had the case, played beautifully by Christine Baranski) and starts from scratch.

Of course, now the plot shifts to more of a procedural as we watch her throughout the trial. But what I liked about Alicia is how she doesn’t hinge her case on big revelations, like so many other courtroom dramas. A staple in a paper with no attachment leads her to evidence that hadn’t been presented. An airborne plastic grocery bag in a surveillance tape causes her to discover that a crime scene video had been falsified.

The success of any lawyer story depends on the twists and because of these a small details, I didn’t really see them coming. Now that’s good TV! The twist we could see from the opening credits is that she does so well that she’s assigned second chair on the firm’s big case. But it still feels like a good pat on the back for her.

The show also has the background of what’s happening on Alicia’s homefront (two kids and a mother-in-law) as well as her relationship with Peter, her jerk of a husband (could Chris Noth be any better casting?) and the members of the law community who despise Peter. Making it all work is a stellar cast, which includes Josh Charles as her old classmate and now boss.

But the most promising relationship is between Alicia and Kalinda (Archie Panjabi), the firm’s private detective. Kalinda is sassy, sexy and extremely devious. It’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

The Good Wife is off to a good start. Let’s see if it can maintain the premise and start to really flesh out the characters. Will you be watching the next episode? Give us your Two Cents…