'The Good Wife' review

She's standing by her lyin', cheatin' man

By Michael O'Connell

Posted September 24, 2009

Special to Metromix

4.0

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(Credit: CBS)

The first episode of Julianna Margulies’ new legal drama “The Good Wife” opens with her character Alicia Florrick standing beside her husband (Chris Noth) at a press conference, while he denies using government money to pay for prostitutes. Don’t get him wrong, he paid those prostitutes, just out of his own pocket—so what’s the big deal?

An ode to the all-to-familiar political partner, standing by her man, “The Good Wife” follows Alicia’s return to her old job as an attorney to support her family while her philandering husband cools his heals in the state pen. She tries a different case each episode, competes with younger lawyers inside the firm, while over-identifying with her wronged women clients and trying to save face after her extremely public embarrassment.

And as much as that is an accurate description, it still doesn’t come off feeling like a Lifetime movie.

The buzz: To say Julianna Margulies has kept a low profile since her days playing Nurse Hathaway on “E.R.” would be an understatement. A supporting role on “Snakes on a Plane” and the (deservedly) short-lived Fox drama “Canterbury’s Law” are not what we’d come to expect from one TV’s darlings of the ‘90s. And though she also had that wonderfully dark visit to “The Sopranos,” that was years ago—and we want to see her as a star. “The Good Wife” could be the vehicle for that.

The verdict: Margulies’ Alice is as luminous as she is put upon, and her brief jailhouse visits to her husband give the show a few minutes’ insight into a really unique relationship in each episode. Other than that, it’s a fairly standard legal drama—but a good one.

Did you know? Husband and wife creators Robert and Michelle King got the idea for the series while watching former New York governor Eliot Spitzer’s wife Silda stand up next to her husband during his own mea culpa prostitution press conference.

"The Good Wife" airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/ PT on CBS.