The Good Wife: The Second Season

One of the best shows on network television, The Good Wife combines courtroom and character drama while telling the story of Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), the titular figure who stands behind her disgraced husband, Peter (Chris Noth), during his comeback run for district attorney, even as she restarts her own career as a litigator at a Chicago law firm. As a legal show, with Alicia and senior partners Will Gardner and Diane Lockhart (Josh Charles, Christine Baranski) in a weekly battle of legalities and stratagems, The Good Wife makes for very entertaining viewing: the individual cases are solid, while the inner workings of the partnership (including the decisions on which cases to try—and why) add an interesting layer. But the series' backbone is the private life of Alicia and Peter as they work through the detritus of his extramarital affair that was churned through the tabloid media. In its second season, the show earned nine Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series and six acting nods (among them Margulies, and Michael J. Fox for Outstanding Guest Actor in his recurring role as a rival attorney with a degenerative condition). The Good Wife is an adult show in the best sense, respectfully serving up mature stories about grown-ups facing tough personal decisions and responsibilities. Compiling all 23 episodes from the 2010–11 second season, DVD extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, and mock music video viral spots from the fictional political campaign. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)