The series premiere of "The Good Wife" airs on Tuesday, September 22, 2009 @ 10 PM ET on CBS. This could be something notable for Julianna Margulies next year if the series is a hit.

Upcoming reviews.

Variety's review:
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The Good Wife
(Series -- CBS, Tues. Sept. 22, 10 p.m.)
by BRIAN LOWRY

Filmed in Vancouver by CBS Television Studios. Executive producers, Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, Robert King, Michelle King, Dee Johnson, David Zucker; director, Charles McDougall; writers, Robert King, Michelle King;

Alicia Florrick - Julianna Margulies
Diane Lockhart - Christine Baranski
Will Gardner - Josh Charles
Kalinda Sharma - Archie Panjabi
Cary Agos - Matt Czuchry
Grace Florrick - Makenzie Vega
Zach Florrick - Graham Phillips
Peter Florrick - Chris Noth

Julianna Margulies played a lawyer in her last primetime venture, Fox's "Canterbury's Law," but she's turned the page to a more comfortable playbook in "The Good Wife." Part legal procedural, part high-profile-betrayed-woman melodrama, the series capitalizes loosely on all the political sex scandals that began with Eliot Spitzer and continued through multiple Republicans. But the salacious foundation merely helps make the protagonist even more sympathetic as a fortysomething woman starting over as a junior associate. Positioned as CBS' only non-"NCIS" entry on Tuesday night, this solid-and-safe entry appears to be right in the network's sweet spot.

The premiere makes rapid work of documenting the humiliation of Alicia Florrick (Margulies), as she watches her politician husband (Chris Noth, in a recurring gig) exposed for cavorting with hookers and sent to jail for corruption. (He's the Illinois state's attorney, but with less-outlandish hair than the last disgraced pol from that state, and just to further confuse matters, the pilot lensed in Vancouver, but the series will be shot in New York.)

Alicia is thus left to raise two precocious teenagers alone, with the customary skepticism about this one-time privileged matron's ability to adjust to her new life and trade elbows with hungry young corporate rivals.

Series creators Robert and Michelle King ("In Justice") don't scrimp on the melodrama, including a hostile judge (guest David Paymer) who had sparred with Alicia's husband and will do her no favors in her first court case, in which she must defend a young woman accused of murder.

Nothing about the trial is particularly distinguished (for all I know it's recycled from leftover "Shark" scripts), but watching Margulies -- stately, beautiful, but showing some signs of age and vulnerability since her "ER" days -- it holds together well enough. Moreover, her husband's imprisonment and his protestations of innocence provide a potential hook beyond the rather tired procedural milieu.

Although the cast contains other familiar faces (Josh Charles as a partner in Alicia's new firm and Christine Baranski as an imperious litigator), the series -- which, like "Numbers," flies under Ridley and Tony Scott's banner -- is clearly meant to be Margulies' show, and she seems like a pretty solid fit for the CBS audience. The term "TV star" is sometimes bandied about loosely, but in this case, the description applies.

Granted, "The Good Wife" doesn't win many style points for originality, but nor does it seek to squeeze into unflattering hipster clothes. And on a network where meat-and-potatoes drama has generally performed beyond merit or expectations, that's probably a very good fit, indeed.

This show looks very interesting! I am excited to see it actually! Julianna Margulies seems like she finally will have that hit that she's been after since E.R. If this turns out well then I will fully exepct that she will earn Golden Globes, SAG, and Emmy nominations. Definitely watch out for this show and for Margulies, and already it's been getting great reviews!

Entertainment Weekly's review:
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"The Good Wife" (2009)
by Ken Tucker

The good wife on "The Good Wife" is Alicia Florrick, married to a politician who, in the premiere episode, is exposed for having cheated on her with a prostitute. Wife and husband are portrayed by Julianna Margulies and Chris Noth, so the marital strife is played at a high level of quality — these aren't whiny newlyweds but mature adults brought low by scandal. His wrongdoing: He was caught ''sucking the toes of a hooker.'' While this is something you can easily imagine Noth's Mr. Big doing on "Sex and the City," the context of "The Good Wife" places such mild kinkiness in the most heinous light, since what this character does is damage a marriage-plus-two-kids.

"The Good Wife" has the timely advantage of arriving in the wake of sex scandals including those of John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer, and Mark Sanford. The series is not above putting a picture of Hillary Clinton behind one character (the terrific Christine Baranski, as Alicia's ambivalent law-firm ''mentor''). Nor is CBS beyond using Tammy Wynette's ''Stand By Your Man'' in its commercials.

Creators Michelle and Robert King explore both why a wife appears at the side of a guy like this in public, and how she proceeds with her life. Very quickly — less than 10 minutes into the pilot, in fact — Alicia is doing what she used to do, resuming a career as a lawyer that she left behind 13 years earlier to raise a family. She returns to her old firm, an opportunity extended by an old friend, played by "Sports Night"'s Josh Charles. Alicia is immediately confronted with ageism (the twentysomethings in the office either ignore her or talk to her as though she's senile) and thrown into the middle of what looks like a loser of a pro bono case.

Throughout, Margulies displays the combination of bright-eyed intelligence and husky-throated emotionalism that made her a star on "ER." Noth's character is sent to jail in the first episode, but there are strong hints that he won't be there long, so the good wife will have to keep deciding how ''good'' she wants to remain in dealing with this cad.

My guess is, once we're past the first few weeks of Alicia coping with anger and anguish over her wayward husband and her hazing at the defense attorney's office, "The Good Wife" will settle into a case-of-the-week lawyer show. I'd also bet it'll have a rotating bunch of colorful judges with whom Alicia can debate. And you know what? Given the caliber of the acting and writing, that suits me — and, I'll wager, millions of viewers — just fine.

Grade: B+

Hollywood Reporter's review:
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THE GOOD WIFE -- TV Review
by Barry Garron, September 20, 2009

Bottom Line: Better than good. It's great.

It is a fascinating question: Why do all those cheated-on political wives stand there and take it? They always look so meek and tolerant of their husbands' infidelities. It doesn't matter whether the cheater is a Democrat or Republican or if the wife has a reputation as a feminist or a believer in traditional gender roles.

Under the glare of the spotlight, they all appear to come from Stepford. Why don't they do what millions of nonpolitical wives do -- call the guy a skunk and find a divorce lawyer who can point him to the cleaners?

"The Good Wife," in which Julianna Margulies plays the wife of a philandering Cook County state's attorney (guest star Chris Noth), spends little time wrestling with this question. There is a point, though, when the character confesses that she, too, wondered about the timid responses of other publicly humiliated wives. In her own case, she says, she was merely caught "unprepared."

That might be as good an answer as any. In any event, it is a terrific springboard to a series that is appealing -- even compelling -- in a variety of ways.

There could not be a better choice for the title role of Alicia Florrick than Margulies. Through words spoken and unspoken, she paints a detailed, moving portrait of a woman whose largely private, well-ordered life is suddenly and publicly shattered. Now every stranger has an opinion about her and her jailed husband. Meanwhile, her husband's transgressions and possible criminality have become fodder for endless TV broadcasts.

Alicia was a lawyer before she quit 13 years earlier to raise two children. Six months after the scandal breaks, she returns to work to support her family. She soon discovers that former colleagues have moved up the partnership ladder and that she must share the lowest rung with a recent and highly competitive law school graduate.

The premiere deftly combines an introduction to Alicia and her situation with an intriguing case about a teacher who is retried for the murder of her former husband. Her work on the pro bono case turns out to be a test of Alicia's legal acumen and her ability to navigate treacherous office politics.

There also are smart scenes with Alicia's children. They are written with commendable restraint by creators Robert and Michelle King. And there's a complicated dynamic between Alicia and her mother-in-law (guest star Mary Beth Peil), who urges compassion for her son while she helps out with the kids.

CBS scheduled "Wife," a show with built-in female appeal, following "NCIS" and the new spinoff, "NCIS: Los Angeles." Very smart. Male viewers who stick around for this new drama might find themselves hooked.

Airdate: 10-11 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22 (CBS)
Production: CBS Television Studios
Cast: Julianna Margulies, Christine Baranski, Josh Charles, Archie Panjabi, Matt Czuchry, Makenzie Vega, Graham Phillips, Chris Noth, Mary Beth Peil, Gillian Jacobs, David Paymer
Executive producers: Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, Robert King, Michelle King, Dee Johnson, David Zucker
Director: Charles McDougall
Writers/creators: Robert King, Michelle King
Director of photography: David Mullen
Production designer: Matthew Budgeon
Editors: Dody Dorn, Robb Sullivan
Music: Danny Lux
Set decorator: Victoria Soderholm
Casting: Mark Saks, Michelle Allen

I'm really looking forward to this. Hopefully it lives up to my expectations.

Episode Title: "Pilot"

Synopsis: In the series premiere of CBS's "The Good Wife," Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), a politician's wife, resumes her career as a defense attorney after her husband (Chris Noth) is jailed for corruption charges and is disgraced by a public sex scandal; her first case is the retrial of a woman accused of murdering her spouse; after settling into her new case, Alicia goes against the strategy and wishes of her new boss once new evidence surfaces that could exonerate her client.

Discuss.

I've been looking forward to this show almost since it was announced as a pilot. Everything about this show sounds appealling to me. I can't wait to see this, and i hope it trounces ABC and NBC in the ratings.

USA TODAY's review:
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Julianna Margulies marries strength, smarts in "Good Wife"
by Robert Bianco

There's no sure-fire path to TV success, but giving a good actress good material is an awfully good place to start.

The star in CBS' latest likely hit is "ER"'s Julianna Margulies, who proves with "The Good Wife" that she's ready to step out of the ensemble and carry a show on her own. She has always excelled at playing strong, caring women whose empathy stems from their own struggles (in "ER," remember, she survived a pilot-episode suicide attempt). But where her last TV effort, Fox's "Canterbury's Law," put too much stress on the character's weaknesses, "Wife" plays up her strength — and is all the better for it.

She's going to need all the strength she can muster. Margulies' Alicia Florrick is a woman we may not know, but we've certainly seen: the loyal wife, standing behind her disgraced, about-to-be-imprisoned politician husband (Chris Noth, in a recurring role) as he apologizes for getting caught sucking a prostitute's toes. The first, vastly enjoyable sign that Alicia is something other than mindlessly supportive comes after the requisite press conference, when she gives him the kind of roundhouse slap such husbands so richly deserve.

ABOUT THE SHOW

"The Good Wife"
* * * (out of four stars)
CBS, Tuesday, 10 ET/PT

It's a great moment — and nothing else in the hour, as admirably constructed as it may be, quite measures up. Once we're past that newsy gloss, the show settles into a fairly predictable legal/procedural routine, with Alicia a back-to-working-mother attorney fighting for a client everyone else assumes is guilty.

Of course Alicia is right. But the way she proves it, with a dryly humorous assist from Archie Panjabi as the firm's in-house investigator, is expertly done.

Still, if tonight's setup is more competent than thrilling, it does what a pilot needs to do. It establishes the main character — and reintroduces us to a totally winning TV star — while creating a multilayered world that gives that character room to maneuver and grow.

Luckily, we won't just have to follow Alicia to court. She has pressures at home and battles to fight at her new law firm, with strong support from an old friend (Josh Charles) and less support from a supposed mentor (the wonderful Christine Baranski in a role one hopes will expand beyond its current snippy limits). Throw in the added burden of public disgrace and the difficulty of trying to relaunch a career in middle age, and you have a lot of area for Margulies to explore, and plentiful reasons to watch her do so.

Which is good TV news, indeed.

This show looks great. Julianna Marguilies has an excellent role.

This show does not interest me. When I first heard the concept I did not know how a show about a wife of a scandal plagued politician who is kicked out of office would even work week to week. Now that I have read reviews it seems that even though the concept may be novel it is just leading to another lawyer show. Pass.

quote:

Originally posted by pacinofan:
This show does not interest me. When I first heard the concept I did not know how a show about a wife of a scandal plagued politician who is kicked out of office would even work week to week. Now that I have read reviews it seems that even though the concept may be novel it is just leading to another lawyer show. Pass.

I agree.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bazookka Joe,

LA Times' review:
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TELEVISION REVIEW
"The Good Wife"

Julianna Margulies perfectly understates her portrayal of a mom headed back to the workforce after her politician-husband's infidelity. It's the season's best new drama.

by MARY McNAMARA
Television Critic
September 22, 2009

A year after the lamentable "Canterbury's Law" was followed by a brief but shining resurrection of Carol Hathaway during "ER's" final season, Julianna Margulies is back on television. And with any luck, she's here to stay; “The Good Wife,” which premieres on CBS tonight, is hands-down the best new drama of the season.

As Alicia Florrick, the wronged wife of philandering politician Peter Florrick (Chris Noth), Margulies could easily have been stuck trying to fill out a ripped-from-the-morning-shows caricature of a gutsy victim. But thanks to creators Michelle and Robert King, she has been given the opportunity to create a smart, subtle, richly nuanced Everywoman facing disaster. Who also happens to be a great defense attorney, because this is prime time, after all.

When Peter winds up disgraced, jobless, and jailed in the midst of an ongoing sexual and political scandal, Alicia shows up for the obligatory photo op, standing ashen-faced and upright beside "her man" at the all-too-familiar apologia press conference. But backstage, she makes it clear that the title of show shouldn't be taken at face value. Peter may while away his jail time hoping for a successful appeal and the return of "normal life," but Alicia is on her own time now.

Brought into a high-profile Chicago law firm by old friend (and possible love interest) Will ("In Treatment's" Josh Charles), Alicia has to cope with her own notoriety and the fact that she's been out of the courtroom for 13 years. "Wow, I was 12," says Kalinda (Archie Panjabi), who is the firm's in-house investigator and less than sympathetic when Alicia mentions her first-day-back qualms. Taken immediately under the less-than-sheltering wing of top litigator Diane (a perfectly cast and most welcome Christine Baranski), who still says things like, "We women have to stick together," Alicia finds herself in direct competition with the firm's other new associate, a baby-faced barracuda named Cary (Matt Czuchry).

Given a seemingly hopeless pro bono case to handle, Alicia not only has to remember how to practice law, she also has to figure out who committed the crime if her client didn't. That, and deal with her smarmy jailed husband (Noth at his liquid-eyed best), all those legal bills, the insatiable media churn, her possibly traumatized but still engaging teenage children, and the overbearing mother-in-law she is forced to turn to for child care. It's strangely refreshing to see a beautiful, brilliant, and beleaguered professional whose problems are not all of her own making.

And Margulies doesn't miss a beat. Her face carefully arranged to display only the most basic and necessary emotions, she quickly and brilliantly evokes a woman who is literally holding herself together one hour at a time.

"Go home, take a shower, take a nap," she tells her client, a young mother accused of murdering her ex-husband. "Do you like to read? I'll bring you some books. Fiction is best." Rattling off a list of the little things that will keep her client sane, Alicia is clearly speaking from experience.

"Does it get easier?" the woman asks.

"No," she answers lightly, "but you get better at it."

It's an astonishing little exchange, which Margulies chooses to underplay to perfection, revealing more in her character's restraint than the pathos of the words, which are a much more valuable and true example of women helping women than any shabby-feminist mentoring could be. With the rest of the cast hitting the same high notes as Margulies and the script, "The Good Wife" promises to be that Holy Grail of television: a good criminal procedural that barely disguises the insightful, multilayered human drama that lies beneath.

quote:

Originally posted by pacinofan:
This show does not interest me. When I first heard the concept I did not know how a show about a wife of a scandal plagued politician who is kicked out of office would even work week to week. Now that I have read reviews it seems that even though the concept may be novel it is just leading to another lawyer show. Pass.

I get a Judging Amy vibe from this show. Which is good. Have both her home and work life. Although, I am really fine if this turns into a case of the week type deal as I am really itching for another great, well-written law show. The last one was The Practice which veered off the rails after the fourth season.

I'd be happy if this were a more dramatic version of "Judging Amy". I think the thing that builds so much excitement for this show is the delving into her personal life. Who can forget that slap in all the promos.

I really hope this show gets good numbers and holds up (in "Amy's" timeslot no less).

quote:

Cast: Julianna Margulies, Christine Baranski, Josh Charles, Archie Panjabi, Matt Czuchry, Makenzie Vega, Graham Phillips, Chris Noth, Mary Beth Peil, Gillian Jacobs, David Paymer

Also the show has a great cast.

Baranski(in a hopefully comedic/dramatic role), Charles, Czurchry, Noth(is he going to be a regular or do a few eps a year), and Mary Beth Peil(i hope she's recurring).

Roush's review:
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The Daily Review
by Matt Roush

CBS has had much more trouble in recent years sustaining a hit in Tuesday’s 10/9c hour. NBC has made that job easier by relocating "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" to Wednesdays, having been displaced by the ubiquitous "The Jay Leno Show." (That’s still on?) Even without lesser competition, CBS would have had a real contender in "The Good Wife," a smartly conceived and well executed legal drama with a strong star (Julianna Margulies) at its core and, even better, a terrifically timely hook.

Margulies plays Alicia Florrick, the latest in a long line of chagrined spouses forced to stand by the side a disgraced public figure—in this case, Chris Noth (Mr. Big!) as a smarmy Chicago politician caught with his pants down and his hand in the till. No surprise in the set-up, until she hauls off and whacks him once the TV cameras as turned off. While Mr. Jerk rots in jail, Alicia picks up her life and career after a baker’s-dozen years out of the workforce and joins a tony law firm as a junior associate, having to prove herself on the job amid a cloud of scandal and skepticism.

It’s a glossy underdog story that, if the pilot episode is any indication, will often find Alicia fighting for the underdog. Lots of rooting interest to go around here, and Margulies, who’s quite good here, is given fine support by Josh Charles (her most supportive co-worker), Matt Czuchry (her smug young competitor) and the always-welcome Christine Baranski (her flinty boss, who both sympathizes with and deplores Alicia’s situation, extending an olive branch with thorns attached).

I’m thinking "The Good Wife" has a chance of racking up a "Judging Amy"-size run in this time period. This one I might actually be compelled to watch.

I missed the first two minutes which means I missed the slap. Man...

No, this show isn't 'Mad Men', but it's extremley entertaining and it's very good at what it does.

I really enjoyed all the actors here, and they seem to put a lot of things in place nicely for the first season. Her competition with Czuchry character seems like it will be fun and funny to watch.

And, the possibility that her husband will get out and her look at the end (her fear and disappointment of what that means) was absolutely great. I don't think Juliana Marguellies gave a perfect performance (she should have fully committed to that "that was the day you made me collateral damgage" line), but she did a lot here that was great, particulary the scenes where she listened and worked through the facts of the case. I'm excited about this show, and I think that as she grows into this roll, Margulies will become a contender in a big way next year.

I'm really excited to see the ratings for this. I hope they're strong and that they stay strong.

I thought it was great, and definitely think CBS found their "Judging Amy" replacement, finally!

JM had many, many great moments and she delivered it good in this pilot. Not to mention her yummy chemistry w/Josh Charles.

Very Happy and like this smartly written drama.