'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
Comedienne's Second TV Show Canceled This Year
The Good Wife: Pilot (series premiere)
by Allison Waldman, posted Sep 22nd 2009 11:02PM
(S01E01)
You might think that you're watching a variation on Law & Order when the first few minutes of The Good Wife commences. It's not just that Chris Noth is in the scene, looking every bit like Mike Logan. It's more that the scene is ripped from the headlines. Disgraced politician -- Elliot Spitzer, David Vitter, Jim McGreevey -- caught in a sex scandal. His innocent, good wife, standing beside him.As Alicia Florrick, the wife of a Chicago prosecutor who was caught sucking the toes of prostitutes and forced to resign, Julianna Margulies masters the shell-shocked, distant gaze. Her eyes, in fact, fixate on a stray thread on his suit. But the fog lifts quickly and away from the podium, reality comes in the form of a smack in the face. She delivers the smack, and from that moment, you're on her side. Maybe it was a cheap trick, but it worked.
The Good Wife is a very good show. It has the feel of Judging Amy, the kind of solid, character-driven drama that can get under your skin and keep you coming back for more. Alicia's no Tammy Wynette, although she does stand by her man in that she doesn't divorce him. It's the best Julianna Margulies' work since ER.
Six months after the scene at the podium, Alicia's dusted off her legal degree from Georgetown and -- using her connections -- landed a job as an associate with a law firm. It's not a lark. She needs the money, and has already sold the house and moved, with her two teens, into an apartment. It's realistic, and so is her visit to see Peter in prison (he's being tried for abuse of power) when she rejects his promise that soon everything will be back to normal. "It will never be normal again."
Alicia's thrown into the deep end of the pool at the law firm; it's sink or swim time. There are smiling faces in the firm ready to stab her in the back, many underestimating her, but Alicia finds the muscles she hasn't used for years and gets to work. A tip from Peter helps, but Alicia does the detail work to help her client.
Interestingly, she's stuck with Peter's last name and it works for and against her. But her success, at least in the pilot, is more about her due diligence. But just as she tastes victory and feels good about herself and her future -- including the hint of something-something with her boss -- she gets a phone message from her husband. He says "I love you" and it's all about him and his case. What does Alicia really want?
Other points of interest
• Alicia's ring tone is The Twilight Zone theme.
• The supporting cast is excellent -- many with fans from other shows, including Chris Noth, Christine Baranski, Josh Charles and Matt Czuchry.
• Really liked the chemistry between Margulies and Archie Panjabi, who played the investigator.
• In an ironic twist, which Alicia recognizes, her mother-in-law takes on the homemaker role and Alicia's forced to fill Peter's shoes.
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