CBS had a hit last year with The Good Wife. A smart new legal drama, the story centered around Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies in a Golden Globe winning turn), the wife of a disgraced state's attorney. She took a job with a law firm, and had to compete with another junior associate for one open slot. The first season dealt with her adjustment to the work force, and reluctance to do everything that it took to do well. We also saw her husband, Peter (Chris Noth), beat his charges and get out of jail, although the reality was that the he did cheat on her. However, the main focus of most of the episodes of the first season was the case of the week that Alicia worked on.
I'm not a big fan of procedural shows. There are plenty of them on television, and while they can be entertaining, they don't seem to add a lot to our country's storytelling lore. And before you protest, yes, I believe there are plenty of excellent writers out there contributing to this new medium, rather than books, at this time. There are some really awesome stories being told on television, and that's what eventually drew my interest, as I was an avid reader all my life, but only an avid television watcher for the last five years or so. Happily, so far the second season of The Good Wife spends much less time in the courtroom and much more time on the characters.
Even when the show was delivering a similar story every week, a great cast played some really interesting, layered characters. These people have only deepened in season two. Alicia and Peter are living together, but it's far from a storybook happy ending. Peter is running for office again, but sleeps in the maid's quarters. Some fans of the show wonder why they even remain married at all. Alicia has choices; she could easily be dating her boss, Will Gardner (Josh Charles), whom she was close with in college. This past week gave us a little more insight into that situation.
In last Monday's "Breaking Fast", Alicia's brother, Owen (Dallas Roberts, Rubicon, The L Word) came to town. Not at all shy about speaking his mind, he was the first member of Alicia's family that we've seen, other than her husband and children. He talked to her about their parents' screwed up marriage, and how their mother had just broke it off with husband #3. He speculated that perhaps Alicia just didn't want to be her mother, and that's why she refused to consider divorce as an option. Although Alicia denied the charge, learning that about her background, combined with what we'd already seen of Alicia's character, seemed to connect a few dots for me. It just made sense that she wouldn't want to end up like someone she had little respect for, as she clearly does her mother.
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