WHYBW: The Good Wife

Hey hey! It's Dan once again. Just quickly before I get started...

WHYBW = What Have You Been Watching. We usually do these WHYBW segments on the show but I've been watching a lot and I won't be able to fit all of them on the show so I'm just going to start posting some here. Okay let's do this!

I don’t follow this show but I see random episodes every now and again. I usually watch this on Saturday nights (reruns) while waiting for Bobgar to wake up and go online so we can record. They've been showing it just before midnight on Channel 10 here in Australia.

Quick recap: The Good Wife is a legal drama and it just started its 4^th season in the US (on CBS). The series began some time after the Eliot Spitzer scandal. For those who don’t know, Eliot Spitzer was the Governor of New York until he got involved in a sexy time prostitution scandal.

In this show, the same thing happens to the husband of Alicia Florrick (played by Julianna Margulies) and it’s about her dealing with the scandal and moving forward. We initially see how the scandal affects her life as a lawyer and now single mother who is taking care of two kids (with the help of her mother in law).

I think the title does it a bit of a disservice. It is about Alicia and she’s a wife and there’s a theme of her doing the right thing and being a good wife. But I get the sense that some people don’t tune in because they think it’s just about being a good wife (possibly a housewife). The wife/mother aspect does seem present in all the episodes but it’s not done in an annoying way for someone like me who is neither a wife or a mother.

I’m also not a big lawyer show fan but I like this and I think it’s done really well. It’s a lawyer show but it’s a bit like House in that the focus is more on the characters as opposed to the lawyer stuff. But I think the lawyer stuff in here is far more interesting than the medical stuff in House. I like watching the characters and seeing what they’re going to do on any given episode.

The main cast of The Good Wife

Other cast members include Nightcrawler himself, Alan Cumming. He’s sooo great in this. Like he could be an awesome Riddler or something. Hawkeye’s buddy from the S.W.A.T. movie Josh Charles is in here as one of the big shots from the law firm that Alicia works at. Archie Panjabi also does a good job as the law firm’s private investigator. Oh hey! It's got the man in black from Lost, Mr Titus Welliver! There’s your Lost connection. He’s not a regular though, just recurring. Plus some other good looking people.

Tangent: Titus Welliver is in some of the Marvel short movies as one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. staff. The latest thing I saw him in was on the Item 47 short film (part of the Avengers bluray special features). I hope he’s in that new S.H.I.E.L.D. tv series. Joss Whedon is blowing up!

Oh hey, I saw Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) in this show! She guest starred once or twice. I think it was after her stint on House.

Another thing I like about this show is that it doesn't seem too formulaic. There is some sort of formula (mix some lawyer stuff with wife/mother things) but it’s not crazy obvious like on House.

Like I said, I don’t tune in all the time but it’s a good show. I might pick up some box sets and watch them all in one go. I might actually just jump on from the start of season 4 onwards. For Aussie readers, season 4 premieres on Channel 10 on Wednesday, October 10 at 8:30pm. Hmm, that's a lot of tens.

Poster for The Good Wife.