The Good Wife: Season 1 (2009)

When The Good Wife came out, it was a bit of an anomaly for CBS – and that’s been reflected in steadily low ratings ever since, despite its critical acclaim. Whereas CBS prides itself on perfecting the episodic periodical, the first season of The Good Wife boasts an intricate, intriguing and sustained narrative arc, revolving around Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), the wife of a disgraced States Attorney, who has to support her family by returning to her original job as a defense lawyer, while her husband (Chris Noth) awaits trial in prison. However, in keeping with CBS' procedural focus, this story plays out, week by week, as a series of fascinating court cases, many of which turn on cutting-edge legal and technological issues, reflecting Chicago’s heritage as a centre of legal academia, research and culture (no other legal procedural is quite so fascinated, or quite so wry, with specialist testimony). Every episode advances the main narrative thread in the most elegant, organic way imaginable, partly by way of a series of equally intriguing subplots and satellite dramas that make the most of the outstanding supporting cast, which includes Christine Baranski, Josh Charles, Archie Panjabi and (toward the end of the season), Alan Cumming. They’re all pitch perfect, but the show belong to Margulies – at least, it wouldn’t be the same show without her particular brand of remoteness; her face modulates almost subliminally, giving the show space to sustain long periods of ambiguity and suspense. And that means that it also has room to develop its quite distinctive brand of legal-political procedural, with cases often exposing or clarifying the threads connecting private legal practice with public political election. In particular, series creators Robert and Michelle King are brilliant at evoking the tenor and agenda that each judge casts over a courtroom –Season 2 is propelled by a judge running for States Attorney – and the rotating cast of judges weaves a rich tapestry of minor, beloved character actors. It’s not surprising, then, that it’s been critically acclaimed, nor is it surprising that it hasn’t been more critically acclaimed, since it lacks the insistence on its own originality that tends to draw the most fervent critical acclaim, which isn’t to say that it’s not original, but that it’s eminently modest in its originality.