New TV Fall Lineup: The Good Wife

Emmy award winner Julianna Margulies stars in the new CBS drama, The Good Wife, a story of Alicia Florrick, the wife of a politician who is exposed for having an affair with a prostitute. The Good Wife is obviously taken straight for real-life events of current politicians we’ve been seeing the scandals of unravel all over the media, like John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer and Mark Sanford, and of course, very much puts Alicia Florrick in the same position we still think of when we think of the life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the life of which was even referenced in the pilot episode.

CBS has used the Tammy Wynette song ‘Stand By Your Man’ in its commercials for The Good Wife and that is exactly what we see Alicia Florrick doing in the opening scenes of pilot episode as her husband Peter, played by Chris Noth of Sex and the City and Law and Order: Criminal Intent fame, admitting to the country that he had indeed committed adultery. But The Good Wife does not focus on the main offender, who is sent to jail although there are very strong convictions that he will not remain in jail for long; The Good Wife rather shows how a woman whose politician husband had been caught cheating on her, whose face is now being shown all over the news standing by her cheating husband, must live through crushing humiliation caused by her husband and how she must persevere in her own life.

Very shortly into the pilot episode of The Good Wife we see Alicia going back to her career as a defense attorney that she had left behind 13 years prior in order to raise a family. Alicia joins her longtime friend and former law school classmate and firm partner Will Gardner (played by Josh Charles) and enters back into the prestigious Chicago law firm as a junior associate. Will is interested in seeing how Alicia will perform after 13 years out of the courtroom and knowing that she is most likely out of practice, she is grateful when the firm’s top litigator Diane Lockhart (played by Christine Baranski) offers to mentor her; but she realizes that the deal has conditions that will force her to succeed on her own merit. Alicia finds herself head-to-head against one of the firm’s 20-something new recruits, Cary (played by Matt Czuchry,) a recent graduate of Harvard University who will use any means necessary to make sure that he, and not Alicia, secures the one full-time associate position that is available at the firm.

Check out the video of a sneak peek into the pilot episode as well as behind the scenes footage and interviews with the stars of The Good Wife:

I could not get enough of The Good Wife; as soon as I finished watching the pilot episode I was absolutely craving the next episode. Admittedly, I was excited about the show as soon as I had heard about it, not because of Julianna Margulies, who has no doubt racked her number of fans since her ER days, but because of Chris Noth, being one of those guilty as charged Sex and the City fanatics. I realized very shortly into the episode that I wouldn’t be getting my fill of Mr. Noth, but that didn’t matter because I was immediately enthralled with the show. I have no doubt in my mind that after the first few episodes of The Good Wife, where we will see Alicia coping with the undeniable anger and anguish of having her life and the lives of her two children altered in a way only an affair can alter a life, The Good Wife will continue on with the series and turn into another show much like the Law and Order series; merely with a more colorful backstory. And it just so happens that I absolutely love the Law and Order series and I do not see my excitement for The Good Wife fading any time soon.

The Good Wife premiers on CBS Tuesday, September 22nd at 10PM ET/PT