GUEST BLOG #64: Diane Holloway thinks 'Good Wife' makes great TV

[Bianculli here: Contributing critic Diane Holloway gives The Good Wife a good review -- so good that she calls the CBS drama series "the good news of the fall season"...]

'The Good Wife' is good news for viewers

By Diane Holloway

As far as I'm concerned, The Good Wife is the good news of the fall TV season -- a quality drama that started with a strong pilot and lived up to its promise.

There is nothing more disappointing than a good pilot that turns into a lousy series. It happens. But it didn't happen this time.

In large part, the success of The Good Wife (Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET, CBS) comes from the powerful yet subtle performance of Julianna Margulies as attorney Alicia Florrick, a woman painfully and publicly humiliated by her politician husband Peter (Chris Noth).

But the strength of the CBS drama also stems from exceptional writing (by married writers Robert King and Michelle King) that gives us compelling legal cases each week, along with an ongoing mystery about the sex scandal that sent Alicia's husband to prison. It will be interesting to see how long the mystery can be maintained. Either Peter was set up by political enemies, or he wasn't. If he was, who did it?

But as David Letterman said after revelations of his hanky panky emerged, Peter has a lot of work to do in his marriage. Alicia has resumed her career and seems to have moved on emotionally, although watching old family movies can pluck at her heartstrings. Betrayal is a bitter pill to swallow.

When CBS was promoting The Good Wife before its debut, the concept looked like a ripped-from-the-headlines effort. Wronged political wives and tainted politicians were popping up all over the news. Gov. Mark Sanford, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and former Sen. John Edwards triggered salacious coverage. The real-life wives soldiered on, grim-faced with resolve on the outside, but undoubtedly shattered on the inside.

The fictional version portrayed by Margulies comes across as painfully accurate. But as the series has continued, she has gone from shell-shocked to steely -- with a dose of vulnerability tossed in.

After slapping her husband's face in the pilot following his excruciating press conference (I cheered when she did that, didn't you?), Alicia stomped off in her tasteful suit and high heels to revive her career as a high-powered attorney. Peter went to prison for abuse of power. We did not know then and we do not know now (for sure) if they will reconcile. She is a proud woman, and she has been scorned. She won't come back easily, if she comes back at all.

The political and marital corruption are subplots, however. The Good Wife is primarily a legal drama, which means the episodes focus on each week's case. So far, the courtroom stories have been unusual and riveting. In a recent episode, Alicia was paired with a young storefront lawyer who impressed her with his skill and idealism. The typical story arc would have found the young legal eagle returning as a potential love interest. But at the end of the hour, we were surprised, along with Alicia, to find out the man was an imposter. He never went to law school or passed the bar. He was a fake. And Alicia was duped again.

The writers have much to explore in the law office characters. We know very little about the haughty but slightly insecure law partner Diane Lockhart, played by Christine Baranski. There would be no point in casting someone of Baranski's considerable skills without giving her some meaty stuff, so we've got that to look forward to.

In fact, everything about The Good Wife is bursting with promise. It's my new appointment TV. And I can't wait to see what happens next.