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'Good Wife' finale wraps up a solid first season

Julianna Margulies's Alicia once again must choose between Peter and Will

By Daniel Fienberg Wednesday, May 26, 2010 1:05 AM

<p>Alan Cumming and Julianna Margulies of 'The Good Wife'</p>

Alan Cumming and Julianna Margulies of 'The Good Wife'

Credit: CBS
I don't write very often about CBS' "The Good Wife." 
 
That doesn't mean I don't watch every episode. 
 
In fact, I often find that episodes of "The Good Wife" get watched and cleared off of my DVR far quicker than shows I feel more passionately about. I have to be in a mood to watch "Treme" or even "Justified," but "The Good Wife" requires no specific temperament and no specific attention to detail or mythology. Its core is just procedural enough to keep me only liminally engaged, but just character-driven and serialized enough that I feel inclined to keep watching.
 
"The Good Wife" is *good*. "The Good Wife" is solid. "The Good Wife" is proficient. "The Good Wife" is CBS. 
 
And there is absolutely nothing damning about that. 
 
"The Good Wife" completed its good and solid and proficient first season on Tuesday (May 25) night with an episode that tied the 23 episodes together nicely. We began with a press conference and ended with a press conference, but that doesn't mean that we're right back where we started from.
 
[More thoughts on the "Good Wife" finale after the break...]
 
An episode about general trust and general ethics, the procedural plot of Tuesday's "Good Wife" finale was basically a red herring. Our characters spent more time playing detectives than lawyers, as they delved into a case that seemed to involve corrupt cops, but maybe kinda didn't. The A-plot was so unimportant that even though the case hinged on guest star Amy Acker, the Joss Whedon favorite, most recently seen treading water in "Happy Town" or providing backstory on the "Human Target" finale, major revelations about Acker's character happened with the actress off-screen and delivered no pay-off. 
 
But I only occasionally care much about whatever case Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) happens to be working on. "The Good Wife" nearly lost me six or seven episodes into its fall run when every single case seemed to rely on Alica following her female intuition, or her intuition born of her own spousal suffering, and being distrusted by colleagues only to be proven shockingly correct in the final 10 minutes. You'd have thought that eventually the other lawyers would realize that Alicia is almost never wrong in those instincts, but fortunately the writers found a different and better narrative flow for the series.
 
The show is now much more about the interesting character dynamics that don't always have to be connected to the case-of-the-week. And there are so many rich veins of drama that you can be entirely agnostic on major relationships and still watch.
 
I, for example, don't much care about the love triangle between Alicia, Will (Josh Charles) and Peter (Chris Noth). And most weeks, particularly in the second half of the season, that's been the spine of the show.
 
The season's big arc was Peter's liberation from jail, his exoneration and, in the finale, his decision to run again for State's Attorney. The producers realized almost immediately that the plan to have Chris Noth as only an occasional guest star would never work, so we've gotten more and more of Peter, including his religious conversion and his attempts to make things right with his family. However, it's been well over a decade since I believed a word any Chris Noth character has said in any TV show or movie. To me, he's unable to convey sincerity, so I can't sense even ambiguity that the character has changed. Alicia is wary around Peter, but I'd respect her a lot more if she saw through him completely. That doesn't mean I want her to be with Will either, since he's much better suited to his assortment of possible 25-year-old girlfriends, especially the wealthy 3L hottie sending him $8,000 bottles of wine.
 
The finale ended with Will randomly deciding that he'd rather be a grown-up (and waste $8,000 bottles of wine) than dilly-dally,  calling Alicia, right in the middle of Peter's press conference, and starting to profess his love, only to have Alicia cut him off and say, "Will, show me the plan. I get the romance. I need a plan." Will's not really that grown-up yet.
 
Alicia needs to just choose herself and concentrate on investigating crime with the awesome Archie Panjabi, whose Kalinda becomes more and more enigmatic every time she does something which, for any another character, would be defining. Is she a lesbian? Is she into kinky S&M stuff? Is she vicious and unethical or is she the show's moral compass? Panjabi is terrific and she works well with Margulies. [Yes. Magulies works well with almost everyone. Accepting that Katey Sagal isn't going to get the Emmy nomination/win she deserves for "Sons of Anarchy," I won't protest when Margulies wins.]
 
I'm also interested in the potentially adversarial relationship with Matt Czuchry's Cary, who lost the junior associate position to Alicia and jumped to a job with Peter's replacement, the deservedly ubiquitous Man in Black himself, Titus Welliver. As a nemesis/foil, Cary could work next season.
 
The show has struggled to fully utilize Christine Baranski in the first season, but everything about her unlikely relationship with Sarah Palin-loving ballistics expert Kurt McVeigh (Gary Cole) works. It's some of the best, most understated work Cole has done in years, tempering the rarely understated Baranski.
 
I already discussed this with Twitter followers over the weekend, but I would watch a whole series focusing only on Alan Cumming's Eli Gold. I've seen legal dramas aplenty, but a show focusing on a vicious operative working the Chicago political machine? Pair him with an initially idealistic young partner straight out of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, introduce a Barack Obama-style young candidate? And let Eli Gold go to town. Cumming is an actor capable of being either very excellent or very annoying, but his introduction into the "Good Wife" cast coincided with an escalation in my interest.
 
Me, I'd trade all of the domestic squabbling and nosy, tear-prone children for more time with the recurring guest judges played by the likes of David Paymer, Denis O'Hare and Peter Gerety. I'd beef up the parts for Zach Grenier's slightly sleazy divorce attorney and for Michael Boatman, showing more dramatic chops than usual. If Martha Plimpton didn't have a new FOX comedy this fall, she could come back whenever she wanted to. And any circumstances which will allow Dylan Baker's Colin Sweeney to commit new horrifying crimes would also be appreciated.
 
Perhaps what impresses me most about "The Good Wife" is that even if the show that the writers prefer to think of as the core series -- that love triangle stuff -- isn't the one I like, a universe of characters I *do* like has also been developed in no time. 
 
"The Good Wife" ended with a cliffhanger, but I guess I don't see much suspense to it. Peter is reaching out his hand to Alicia, but she's also fielding a call from Will. She's going to take Peter's hand, because that's what the character does. It's not that she's just a "good wife." No, Alicia has spent a full season expanding her ethical limits, sometimes feeling guilty about it and mostly not. She's learned the compromises she's had to make to live the life she wants to live and keep the life she wants for her kids and taking Peter's hand keeps that life intact. 
 
She'll just listen to Will's plan a little bit later. 
 
She already promised Eli Gold that she's going to make his life hard  and that's conflict I want to see.
 
"The Good Wife" is a show that some folks think is great and although I'm not close to there yet, I see within the show several permutations that might reach that level for me. I'll keep watching for those glimpses and that potential.
 
What'd you think of the "Good Wife" finale? And what'd you think of the show's first season?
Dan-feinberg-sm
Daniel Fienberg
Executive Editor
A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.
Related Searches: The Good Wife, CBS, Julianna Margulies

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  • Summer09hitfix_talkback_profile

    gregel

    They like this

    May 26, 2010 at 2:03AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Thinkblue_talkback_profile

    dsm9412

    The ending reminded me a little bit of "Two Cathedrals" from The West Wing.

    May 26, 2010 at 3:34AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Broccoli_talkback_profile

    floretbroccoli

    I think you mean "general ethics," not "general ethnics." (Please picture me saluting, a la HIMYM.)

    May 26, 2010 at 10:05AM EST Reply to Comment
    • Gizmo_bigger_talkback_profile

      dan floretbroccoli - Half the time when I do the ethnics/ethics switcheroo, it's intentional and I'm joking. The other half, it's my fingers making a joke that my brain didn't want to make. In this case? Totally my fingers, unfortunately... Fixed. That was a major bummer. -Daniel

      May 26, 2010 at 11:22AM EST
    • Default-avatar

      7s Tim On a related note, you also state "Alicia has spent a full season expanding her ethnical limits", and while she did start hanging out with a woman named Kalinda Sharma, but I don't know how much expanding that is.... But don't fix it, please, since it kinda works.

      May 27, 2010 at 3:55PM EST
    • Tattoo_talkback_profile

      Hatfield "No, Alicia has spent a full season expanding her ethnical limits..." So this was a joke about her acceptance of Kalinda, yes?

      May 27, 2010 at 4:05PM EST
    • Gizmo_bigger_talkback_profile

      dan Darnit! Apparently my fingers no longer can even *type* ethically. Sorry, 7s Tim. Gotta correct it. But just keep checking any time I write about ethics, because they're always gonna be ethnics, apparently... - Daniel

      May 27, 2010 at 4:48PM EST
    • Tattoo_talkback_profile

      Hatfield 7s Tim, my apologies for seeming to steal your joke. Your comment hadn't appeared yet when I finished reading. Great minds and all that, though.

      May 27, 2010 at 5:29PM EST
  • Broccoli_talkback_profile

    floretbroccoli

    Major bummer (salute).

    May 26, 2010 at 12:37PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    blackstone

    Its's agood show. There are a few problems, but most good shows tend to lubricate the rough spots in the second year.

    May 26, 2010 at 3:21PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Eric

    Fell the same way you do about how I'm often eager to watch the Good Wife over other more mythology-heavy shows, and yet that shouldn't in any way denigrate the fact that it's a really terrific show. There are so many compelling characters and relationships between them that it's always compelling and satisfying.

    May 26, 2010 at 6:59PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Stubby1_talkback_profile

    cadfile

    Love this show. I do get caught up in the cases most weeks as they do have enough twists and turns.

    I agree that the cast of characters adds depth to the series.

    I also like the Kalinda character the most just because you aren't sure what she is - although I was not too happy they avoided the obvious kissing scene between her and the lady from the FBI in the storage room but figured because it was CBS and not FOX that's why they didn't show it.

    The show also got a mention in the finale of Big Bang Theory so the nerds on that show must like it too.

    May 27, 2010 at 11:21AM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Mark

    Why are you "accepting that Katey Sagal won't get an Emmy nom or win"? She was amazing.

    May 27, 2010 at 2:43PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Gizmo_bigger_talkback_profile

      dan Mark - My skepticism is based on Emmy's history of ignoring or under-rewarding FX shows and, not that there's any correlation, on "Sons of Anarchy" getting 100% ignored by Golden Globe voters. If *I* had a vote, Sagal would get it, hands down. I, however, do not have a vote. [Though Katey Sagal did get a TCA Awards vote from me.] -Daniel

      May 27, 2010 at 3:05PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    motteditor

    Personally, I'd watch a series about Kalinda. She's by far the most interesting character on every ep.

    (Show also gets props for briefly employing my sister backstage.)

    May 27, 2010 at 3:18PM EST Reply to Comment

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