When I first heard the premise of The Good Wife, I was not a fan to say the least. I didn't see how a politician caught with his pants down could be a lasting premise for a TV show, and I thought it was a novelty “ripped-from-the-headlines” show that would probably get the boot midway through the first season. While The Good Wife is initially about an affair (and that affair continues to affect the central story-lines), the show actually encompasses three main stories. First, there is the story of Alicia rediscovering her passions and seeing just how far she can go in her career, with or without her husband. Second, the show is a tale of Chicago politics with corruption, backdoor dealings, and unlikely allies. Finally, The Good Wife is a damned good courtroom drama with cases that are timely but won't seem dated in years to come. I might have been an early doubter, but count me a believer. The Good Wife is one of the best shows on TV today.
Season 2 of The Good Wife starts right where season 1 left off. Peter (Chris Noth) has launched his re-election campaign with Alicia (Julianna Margulies) standing by his side. Will (Josh Charles) calls Alicia and leaves a heartfelt voicemail which was deleted by Eli (Alan Cumming), Peter's campaign manager. Alicia thinks that whatever might have happened with Will is over, and she focuses her energies on rebuilding her relationship with Peter. Over at the firm, Diane (Christine Baranski) and Will have merged with Derrick Bond (Michael Ealy) who has brought on a number of new clients including a wealthy local drug kingpin Lemond Bishop (Mike Colter). Throughout the season, Eli is trying to help Peter build a new image of a reformed man, and new scandals (and a new candidate) plague the campaign. Alicia struggles with her feelings for Will while trying to salvage her marriage with Peter. Diane and Will try to make the tough decisions to keep the firm in business, but someone in the firm is trying to pit Diane and Will against each other and force Diane out. In the midst of all this drama, Kalinda (Archie Panjabi) is trying to hide secrets in her past as a new investigator Blake (Scott Porter) starts working for the firm and takes an interest in her.
Plot wise, season 2 is juggling quite a few stories at once from Alicia's week-to-week cases to Peter's re-election campaign and even smaller stories like the Kalinda-Blake conflict. From week to week, there are more than 10 season regular characters to keep track of, and none of them are two-dimensional or underdeveloped. What I love about The Good Wife is how in spite of all these plots and characters to keep track of, the show never hits a sophomore slump. Other shows with large ensemble casts have lost their way in the second season with characters floundering and plot lines treading water, so afraid of losing what made their first season great that they grow stagnant. The best example is Glee. Once Glee got through the first season, the writers couldn't figure out what to do with an overgrown teenager masquerading as a responsible Spanish/choir teacher and his band of misfits. The Good Wife evolved in its second season without abandoning its initial premise. Instead, the writers treated it as an opportunity to show how Peter's fall and redemption continue to shape these characters' lives.
Luckily, the writers of The Good Wife have an incredible cast to bring their scripts to life. Julianna Margulies, Chris Noth, Josh Charles, and Alan Cumming give these already well-written characters nuance and shades of gray. The whole cast is praise-worthy, but the stand-outs for me were Margulies and Cumming. Margulies' Alicia is a good woman who has stayed with her husband despite everything, but she is not a weak character or someone to be pitied or rescued. If anything, she is admirable and strong in her convictions. Alan Cumming, in contrast, does something I didn't think possible with Eli Gold. He takes a manipulative, egotistical political operative who is essentially the democratic Karl Rove and makes him funny and likable. I suspect that the whichever writer gave Jane Lynch her best lines in season 1 of Glee is moonlighting over at The Good Wife writing Eli Gold's zingers.
The Good Wife could have easily been what I suspected which was a gimmicky pulled-from-the-headlines show. Instead, CBS produced an intelligent law drama that continues to pull me back every week, and season 2 solidified its status as one of television's top political and courtroom dramas right next to The West Wing and Law & Order.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Special features include deleted scenes, interviews with creators Michelle and Robert King, footage from the season 1 launch party, behind-the-scenes videos by Alan Cumming, “An Evening With The Good Wife,” the full-length campaign music videos featured in season 2, and the featurette “Alicia Florrick: Real Deal, Inside the Episode.”
"The Good Wife: Season Two" is on sale September 6, 2011 and is not rated. Drama, Television. Directed by Dean Parisot, Fred Toye, Griffin Dunne, Michael Zinberg, Nelson McCormick, Peter OFallon, Phil Abraham, James Whitmore Jr, Rosemary Rodriguez, Roxann Dawson, Julie Hebert , Tom Dicillo, Brooke Kennedy. Written by Michelle King, Robert King. Starring Alan Cumming , Archie Panjabi, Chris Noth, Christine Baranski, Josh Charles, Julianna Margulies, Matt Czuchry.
