I watched The Good Wife over the holidays from S1.
Its an excellent series, very well made, great characterizations. I am surprised there is not more love for it here.

Usually crime/law etc shows are purely story driven with no character backgrounds. The Good Wife is different --- I could not wait to get to the next episode!!

PS:
Its as much a show *just* for women as
Veronica Mars and Buffy were shows *just* for 16 year old girls.

Probably because there are mostly males on this forum.

I watch the show regularly and I don't know if you see, but there are threads every week. We probably have 5-6 fans here who are willing to chime in. It's tough for the show being on Sunday at 9pm with so much on and people here don't tend to stay up late Sunday nights.

I think alot of the hesitation from some people here is:

1) Being a Lawyer show (which most people here hate)

2) Being on CBS (most people here think it's a drab procedural network)

3) People also assume it's a procedural being on CBS. But, it's more serialized than procedural IMO.


But yes, Julianna Margulies is fantastic on the show. Was never a big fan of her when she was on ER. I don't know how many people know, but the show is Produced by Ridley Scott. Tony Scott also worked on the show before he died last year.

Its as much a show *just* for women as
Veronica Mars and Buffy were shows *just* for 16 year old girls.

There is always DVR

I agree, its as much serialized as procedural.

I actually like the other cast better than Julianna. Cumming and Noth are great. The characters of Garder, Sharma and Lockhart are very good too.

I've caught a few bits here and there and it just seemed very heavy-handed.

Its heavily serialized, has to watched from S1 beginning.

Just like Veronica Mars or Angel.

Its not you law and order kind of show.

While the character arcs are serialized, most of the cases aren't. The casting is fantastic, especially the guest stars--the judges were particularly good when the series was new, but the opposing lawyers and other peripheral characters are also great now. This is my current favorite show on network TV.

Same reason why i never watched Everybody Loves Raymond. I can't stand the title.

So it's for women and super-nerds?

It's the best written show on network TV. It also has the best casting.

If you added sexy doctors, crime scene investigating, and precocious know-it-all kids your list would cover just about everything I hate in a TV show.

One of the (if not THE) best written/acted shows on network television.

You hate CBS shows on principle?

I'm sure its well made but I don't find the subject matter interesting at all.

I don't hate CBS shows, the network just doesn't offer anything I like at this time.

It has piqued my interest from time to time, it's always nominated for something. And I do like Christine Baranski.

I would normally agree, but in this case, it's not so much what the show is about that's interesting, but how it's about it that makes it a fascinating watch. IOW, it's craft transcends it's subject matter.

I wish I'd sampled it when it started.

No interest in jumping in this late, and not high on my watch-from-the-beginning list.

So I'm an example of a coulda-been fan.

Only in the "assume it's another dopey procedural first" sense I have come to accept. I know not all of their shows are, but I have learned to assume awful until proven otherwise. The only CBS shows I actually still watch are: Survivor, The Amazing Race, and the NFL. I literally can't think of anything else they offer that remotely interests me. During times when the NFL is in the off-season and Survivor/TAR are not running I could go months without turning to CBS.

I highly recommend starting it from S1 whenever you have some free tv time. It is really very good and engrossing.

Exactly.

I had the same disinterest in Buffy for a long time. A high school chick, vampires, stakes???? Meh.....

In execution, the "good wife" is not a huge part of the show, just part of the backdrop. Campaign management, investigations, trials, politics form the show.

Bumping this because I'm finally getting around to watching it after years of hearing about how good it is. I avoided it initially because it sounded like another boring network procedural and even after I started hearing a lot of positive buzz about it it remained a very low priority. But the buzz wouldn't go away, then I got Amazon Prime, and finally I had the time to give it a whirl. I am now fully sucked in and halfway through season 4, binging on episodes like a bag of potato chips. It really is a lot of fun and the guest stars are great!

I think there are 6 seasons in the can, correct? How does the show hold up over time? Am I about to run into anything like Buffy season 6, or was the worst of it? Thanks!

yes, 6 seasons are in the can. 7 starts this Fall. Glad you discovered this isn't the typical by the numbers law procedural. It's probably 80% serialized and 20% procedural.

Seasons 4 and 6 are regarded as the weakest seasons by most. The Kalinda ex-husband plot was indeed a disaster in season 4. As for the guest stars, they manage to get a lot of great guest stars despite their budget limitations because the actors want to be part of this show.

Thanks for the info, good to know!

(I also added spoiler tags to my post. Sorry about not doing that to begin with.)