The Good Wife + NCIS: Los Angeles

I'll come out and say it.

I love Julianna Margulies. Or rather, her acting abilities. I have no idea what she's like in person, but she's been one of my favorite actresses since I first saw her in the ER pilot (Thank you, reruns on TNT!).


Nothing about that has changed. In fact, I think she's honestly gotten better with age and experience. She doesn't look a day older (the straightened hair helps a lot), but her talent has definitely grown.

It's incredibly visible in the opening scene. As she does a slow motion walk down the hallway, holding husband Chris Noth (or Mr. Big to you Sex and the City fans), you can painfully see the sadness and embarrassment on her face.

I should probably give a bit of a backstory. Margulies plays Alicia Florrick, the title character, the wife of politican Peter Florrick (Noth). Taking a page from the Eliot Spitzer book, the husband gets into a political sex scandal which soon becomes incredibly public. It dives into this plot right away, starting the show off with the inevitable press conference. What begins as an awkward admission of guilt culminates in Alicia slapping Peter across the cheek, the sound of this action being almost too audible. She slowly walks back towards the room the conference was held in, the lights of the cameras taking over the screen. Her face is incredibly stoic, showing no sadness or anger.

So, the plot seems to be about Margulies and Noth's characters dealing with their relationship, right?

I thought that as well. But the scene melts into a time tag, showing the actual timeline of the show starting six months later. Peter has been convicted due to another scandal (taking a page from the Rod Blagojevich book?), leaving Alicia without a means of financial support. She returns to her pre-politician's wife roots and joins a law firm.

See? Instead of being a political drama, it's now a legal political drama. Just think of The West Wing and Boston Legal combined, but take out a lot of the funny. Because The Good Wife isn't meant to be funny or quirky. It takes itself seriously, something rarely seen on most network shows.

The reason The Good Wife is ...well, good, isn't just because it's a serious, well-written drama. The casting is superb. I've praised Margulies, which she entirely deserves, but Christine Baranski is just as stellar, playing Diane Lockhart. Her delivery is sharp and quick, her character's experience playing well against Margulies's ambitious reentry into the judicial system.

The production team also has a fantastic background. The show was created by husband and wife duo Robert and Michelle King, the people behind the short-lived series In Justice. However, the most well known of those working on the series has to be Ridley Scott, director of Alien and Blade Runner, among many other famous films. He also lends an executive producer title to Numb3rs, a lesser, but still well done, drama on CBS.

The Good Wife is incredibly intelligent (I have a thing for alliterations and commas, obviously) but still has a  few drawbacks. The pacing is somewhat slow, detracting from the true drama. It doesn't move like a glacier (like Mad Men), but the timing needs to be picked up a little. You can't have razor sharp dialogue coming from esteemed actors like Baranski dragged down by drawn out scenes. Also, I'm hoping that Alicia will soon overcome the actual grief she's experienced. I give it about a month before she's butting heads with colorful judges, or even better, Baranski. If the show does become a routine case-of-the-week show, the writing and acting will save it from being droll and boring. You'll be hearing no complaints from me.

Grade: B+

As for NCIS: Los Angeles, I'm calling it a night. However, I will leave you with an incredibly in depth review from Variety. The general consensus about the new series is that it's just more of the good, old NCIS that people know and love (and watch, considering the premiere held roughly 90% of its lead in). It's not "Must See TV," but it's quality entertainment, something CBS is essentially known for nowadays.