The lead character is an empty vessel, and the whole programme is an upper-middle-class fairytale, but I still love US drama The Good Wife
I'm torn. Part of me is mystified that the Good Wife isn't more widely feted. But part of me is rather gratified that not everyone is as easily pleased as I am. Most worryingly, I love Alicia, the eponymous Good Wife, even though she's such a hopelessly empty vessel. Played by the former ER actress Julianna Margulies (pictured), Alicia is an impossibly perfect, youthful, intelligent and competent middle-aged mother. She had to go back to work as a lawyer after a two-decade break, when her Democrat politician husband (played by Chris Noth, Mr Big in Sex and the City) ended up embroiled in a prostitutes-and-corruption scandal that landed him in prison. Amazingly, Alicia got right back into the swing, and manages to make some awesomely clever and imaginative contribution to her firm's winning of a seemingly impossible legal case every single week. Hurrah!
The Good Wife, produced by the British brothers Tony and Ridley Scott, is US propaganda, portraying a polished version of the American dream in which everyone is beautiful and manicured, yet makes their large piles of $$$$ by using the law to protect the underdog and deliver natural justice, also represented by $$$$. Last week's episode even featured Eddie Izzard, playing Mr Thrush, an unscrupulous English lawyer, who tried to manipulate Britain's quaint libel laws, its silly super-injunctions, and its general crapness to earn some big bucks. Mr Thrush didn't get away with it, of course. No one beats Alicia. No one beats America.
The Good Wife has no subtext. It's an upper-middle-class fairytale, complete with its lovely, innocent princess and the handsome, upright princes who fight for her hand. It's great that people seem to want more edge, more realism ? The Sopranos, The Wire, Forbrydelsen, Mad Men.
But I have to say that I enjoy spending an hour each week imbibing the ludicrous fantasy that developed western modern life is simple, and that the reward of virtue is professional success and great outfits. The Good Wife is about as escapist as drama without unicorns in it can get.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2012/jan/28/deborah-orr-the-good-wife
Eric Pickles Russell Brand Soap opera Robert Schumann Simon Barker European Union
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