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Herc’s Seen CBS’ Much-Lauded Lawyer Drama THE GOOD WIFE!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
A CBS drama from screenwriter Robert King (“Clean Slate,” “Speechless,” “Cutthroat Island,” “Red Corner,” “Vertical Limit,” “In Justice”) and Michelle King about the wife of a disgraced Illinois state’s attorney, “The Good Wife” uses scandal-haunted former New York governor Elliot Spitzer’s hot lawyer wife Silda as a jumping-off point.
Julianna Margulies, highly watchable as always, plays Alicia Florrick, who finds herself a fortysomething forced to revive her law career following a 13-year hiatus.
It may be fall’s best-reviewed new series.
USA Today says:
… 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. …
The New York Times says:
… The opening scene, which times the pace and soundtrack to the pounding heartbeat of Alicia’s shock and her sense of surreal detachment, is as vivid a depiction of personal crisis as any on television. But after this cleverly written series deconstructs the exact moment when everything falls apart, it imaginatively explores how one scorned spouse struggles to get past a life-shattering scandal. …
The Los Angeles Times says:
… hands-down the best new drama of the season. …
The Chicago Tribune says:
… "ER" vet Margulies gives this classy drama presence, and her scenes with Chris Noth, who plays her husband, crackle. …
The Washington Post says:
… Everything feels exactly right in this drama, to an almost clinical degree, especially Julianna Margulies's tough-but-wounded portrayal … Assigned to pro bono defense work, Florrick is immediately thrown into CBS crimeworld, where shocking new evidence always saves the day.
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
… there's nothing inherently wrong with "The Good Wife" other than it's a legal series with too many close-up shots of knowing glances and "attagirl Alicia" moments of empowerment that you saw coming 20 minutes prior. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
… both a well-written legal drama and a terrific showcase for actress Julianna Margulies, who elevates the already-good material with her perceptive, open performance. …
The Newark Star Ledger says:
… confident and polished, and a much better showcase for Margulies than her last legal drama, Fox’s "Canterbury’s Law," which was mostly an excuse for viewers to ogle her legs. She can be equal parts tough and vulnerable, commanding the screen even in those moments when Alicia isn’t in command of much of anything. And the nature of her story means the show won’t just be a law procedural — though I’d be fine if that procedural featured David Paymer heckling Julianna Margulies every week. …
The Boston Herald says:
… In the lead role, Margulies has never seemed more luminous. …
The Boston Globe says:
… The problem I have with “The Good Wife’’ is something that mars too much TV: telegraphing. The obviousness that winds through tonight’s premiere is irritating and lazy. The script, by show creators Robert and Michelle King, practically screams its workplace issues at us, as Alicia encounters gender discrimination and ageism at her law firm. Whispering would be far more effective. Whenever Alicia deals with an arrogant younger male hotshot (Matt Czuchry), or when one of her female bosses (Christine Baranski) self-servingly urges “women helping women,’’ the writers’ points get all up in your face. That works in an op-ed cartoon, not on a TV drama. …
Variety says:
… 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. … Granted, "The Good Wife" doesn't win many style points for originality, but nor does it seek to squeeze into unflattering hipster clothes. …
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… 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. …
10 p.m. Tuesday. CBS.
From The Guy Who Wrote
The Making of Star Wars
And The Guy Who Wrote
Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays!!
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sounds like a chick show
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I was watching an episode of a canceled Supreme Court series called First Monday on Universal HD and really dug it, the mix of law, procedure and politics. I think I'll like this if it has the same spirit.
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seriously this is CBS why not another CSI spinoff?
Julianna Margulies? sorry not interested.... -
Not really sure how this could go on for more than a season or two. She takes on her husband's case, forgives/abandons him, THEN it turns into a CBS procedural lawyer show. Really innovative there.
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For a long time, as I half-watched the commercials, I thought it was a tv movie about a politician's wife who was dealing with her husband's public sins. Then I started seeing ads for a show about a lawyer who, after a long period of time, goes back to work. A kind of fish-out-of-water show with a big name star. Took me a while to realize they were the same show.
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Wife and I were pretty impressed by the preview; already have it programmed into the DVR, we'll see if it stays after a few episodes.
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always has to meantion a chick as a high point for a show herc is such a perverted loser.. nice reviews for today.. wow a whole 2-3 sentences for each one... get a new reviewer allready.. lazy bastitch
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You posted it saying you've seen it, but, you give the same basic overview of all the other shows you HAVEN'T watched? Methinks you're a little skeptical in reporting how much you love this man-hating soap!
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Sounds like Ally McBeal, only divorced and 40-something.
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spunky yet vulnerable. -
or "Separated Female Lawyer"does she stand-by her husband?"Cheating Husband Female Lawyer""Single Female Lawyer's Older Colleague"
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Aside from the brilliant review of this series’ faults by the likes of The Boston Globe: many of the reviews you quoted from seem to have been edited to read the way you’d want them to read. While USA Today praises one *moment* of the premiere, it then attests that “nothing else in the hour…quite measures up.” San Francisco Chronicle’s supposedly positive comments are from an article titled, in brutal honesty: “3 New Dramas [that] Look Good, BUT NOT GREAT.” In fact that article prefixes the supposedly positive comment you posted with the more logical question: “…you wonder if [Margulies] wouldn't have been better off following so many other actresses to cable television where *meatier* roles reside.” Not the best reviews, Herc, though you did get me to read the full reviews out of bored curiosity. The show? Ask me again tonight...though I'm not very impressed.
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Calling Margulies "watchable", I guess...?
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I mean the premise is a fine jumping off point but I hope the whole show doesn't hang on that. She's a lawyer; she should have gotten a divorce and taken back her maiden name and THEN done the series! Also I'm sorry to see that it looks as if Matt Czuchry's going to once again be wasted on a spolied little rich boy role. (sigh) Change the title, let Margolis do her thing (which I thought she did well tonight) and give Czuchry some life-changing epiphany so you can meat up his role and use his talent; NOW you've got a show!
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"Havin' lots of sex!"
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