Sunday at the Movies

I have a very broad defination of "at the movies" and will include anything in the theater, Netflix or movie channels.

The Good Wife, Season 2
Julianna Margulies ... Alicia Florrick
Matt Czuchry ... Cary Agos
Archie Panjabi ... Kalinda Sharma
Josh Charles ... Will Gardner
Christine Baranski ... Diane Lockhart
Chris Noth ... Peter Florrick
Alan Cumming ... Eli Gold

About a year ago, a librarian saw me scanning the DVD section and asked if I was looking for anything specific, “No, just something that will keep my interest.” “Have you seen The Good Wife?” She pulled it off the shelf and told me that I would not be disappointed and to not watch the current season because I needed the back story first.

I have not been disappointed since. Season 1 ended with a great cliffhanger, would Alicia stay with her cheating politically driven husband or start afresh with Will, her boss and old college love interest. Decisions, Decisions, Decisions.

Each weekly episode involves an interesting legal quandary, not like Law and Order, more along the interpersonal lines than the legal one, but they do throw in a curious twist. The interaction between characters is interesting, the viewer finds themselves liking the characters that they shouldn’t, curious about those with a hidden past, feeling the pain of a jilted lover, smiling at the softness of those with harder edges. Overall, the play among the cast is tantalizing. There is always a story within a story.

Whereas in Law and Order you have a bunch of stodgy old judges, The Good Wife has a recurring cast of quirky but fascinating judges that seem to appear with a regularity that makes you glad to see them again. Guest appearances are fun and what is funny, one of my favorite characters is not a regular, yet she should be. Maime Gummer (the daughter of Meryl Streep) plays Nancy Crozier a lovable quirky lawyer that has me wondering if she really is as naïve as she pretends or does that woman have brains under all the blonde hair and beauty.


If you are not much of a late evening television watcher and have not had a chance to see this program, I highly suggest that you take your time; track down the DVD’s of this series and settle in for some great television.