The Good Wife 2011 Reviewer: Ricard Tara Director: Brooke Kennedy Cast: John Charles, Julianna Margulies, Christine Baranski, Archie Panjabi, Matt Czuchry, Alan Cumming

The Good Wife (Season Premier Fall 2011)

In America, critics often talk about the great quality of British television and envy the expert acting and direction of the English series. We even stoop so low as to try to copy the intellectual work of the talented people.  Many series such as Sanford and Son in the sixties to the Office and the Prime Suspect have been copied with various degrees of success. But, they are still copies. Any good artist can copy Mona Lisa to perfection, but, there is always one original! The Good Wife, which premiered two seasons ago, is different in many ways.  It is a real American drama.  Maybe, as some claim, it was originally based on or inspired by sex scandals of Bill Clinton, John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer. But, it has gone beyond that. It is about a single parent, an unrequited love, looking after teenage children and putting up with a philandering husband while being in love with another man.  It also introduces the theme of bisexuality, as in the case of Kalinda (Archie Punjabi) who does not care who she sleeps with, as long as she can get information that will help her case.  Then there is bigotry.  The myriad of characters are dense and immense. Take Dian Lockhart, she is a very liberal prudish partner who does not mind sleeping with a Sarah Palin supporter.

The story in this season's premier was not so much about the love between Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) and Will Gardner (Josh Charles.)   That love affair was consummated, ever so elegantly, during the last episode of the second season in May 2011.  In this episode, the lovers seem somewhat distant to the other cast members.  They try to keep their relationship secret by avoiding eye contact and meetings in public.

This episode is about the somewhat inbred hatred that seems to dominate the world, so vividly demonstrated for all in the chasm between Jews and Arabs, who incidentally, were close allies until the early parts of the 20 th century.  A Jewish student is murdered during a rally. A vocal Palestinian student is implicated in the murder. The Judge is a very liberal Jew who tries to bend over backwards to let the Palestinian boy go free.  That is until the newly elected district attorney Peter Florrick (Chris Noth) steps in.  Peter is a punk! Deep down he is a manipulating hoodlum who hates the firm of Stern, Lockhart & Gardner where his wife works and Will Gardner in particular.  His wife, Alicia, kicked him out of their apartment last year and he is full of vengeance for the firm and his wife.  He happens to have an accomplice in the person of Cary Agos (Matt Czuchry) who was fired by Stern, Lockhart and Gardner and is now working for the state attorney's office.  Cary is secretly in love with Kalinda Sharma (Archie Punjabi) and, in the past, has given her valuable information despite his dislike of Alicia and the firm.  However, this time he tricks Kalinda and inflames the liberal Jewish judge.  To make matters worse, since Alicia has found out that Kalinda has slept with her estranged husband Peter, there is no love lost between them.  This puts the defense in a perilous situation and requires an all out effort by Alicia to try to save her client that she believes is innocent.
This episode was directed by Brooke Kennedy who has been involved in the production of several episodes of The Good Wife.