‘The Good Wife’ remains one of the best dramas around

Juan Barquin/Staff Writer 

There’s no lack of drama programming on network television, but CBS in particularly has never really been at the top of the game. Yet, there is one hidden gem relegated to Sunday nights that offers audiences some of the best drama and female characters on television right now. This show–a blend of politics, sex and courtroom drama–is none other than “The Good Wife.”

Good, however, doesn’t even begin to cover what an engaging and strangely addictive series this truly is. “The Good Wife” follows Alicia Florick (Julianna Marguiles), a politician’s wife, who decides to rekindle her law career after having her husband’s sexual affairs revealed to the world. Over its last four seasons, though, “The Good Wife” has evolved in ways few would have ever expected.

There’s no easy way to draw a line down the middle of how the series divvies up its time between courtroom and family drama, but it does so with the utmost care. On one hand, it shows the ins and outs of the law, along with plenty of joking and tension, to propel the narrative forward and often ignoring the procedural plot style that most dramas rely on. The other hand, however, focuses on the human side of the show–the relationships between lawyer and client, mother and child, husband and wife, boss and employee–that keeps viewers coming back for more.

What keeps “The Good Wife” a notch above the rest of CBS’ programming is that it’s so much more than the courtroom drama it often presents itself to be. It utilizes the sort of quick wit you’d find in some of Aaron Sorkin’s earliest works, addressing and satirizing all kinds of modern political situations in ways something like “The Newsroom” could never hope to achieve. Further proof of their superiority to that series is in the way that creators Robert and Michelle King have managed to create some of the most fascinating female characters on television.

The women on the series are all as fully-formed as they come, with personalities that actually provide some semblance of depth. Alicia Florick is not the only one, with Christine Baranski’s Diane Lockhart and Archie Panjabi’s Kalinda Sharma rounding out the main female cast. The fact that they experience a real range of emotions rather than exist as blank slates for the men around them makes them a step above most other CBS shows, especially its tactless comedies, with the stellar writing for Joan Watson on “Elementary” being among the best as well.

Each one is a powerful representation of women in three very different places in life; the roles of wife, head litigator and investigator all being explored. They may be at the same law firm, but each has her own life, her own troubles and her own personality, entirely separate from that of the men in their lives. Of course, the men are always present–offering story progression through their schemes, sex and stupidity–but they often take a backseat to the women, something that has served the series well.

This immense dedication to making a politically charged law-based series that heavily focuses on women is really what has kept “The Good Wife” at the top of the game. With Sunday night programming not being all that strong at this point in the year and its first four seasons being available for free on Amazon Prime, there’s no reason not to be watching “The Good Wife.” It’s smart, it’s funny, it cares about its ladies and it’s remained one of the most consistently interesting shows on network television over the last four years.

 juan.barquin@fiusm.com