17 Years Later, Ridley Scott’s 7-Part Thriller Keeps Getting Better

In the fall of 2009, I tuned into a new TV series about starting over, moving past a big scandal, and following dreams. It had an intriguing cast of big names who had previous TV success, a premise that makes you think, and clever, funny dialogue. Sometimes you can tell that a show won’t last long and wonder if the pilot episode should have been a movie instead. Not every idea can lend itself to a seven-season hit. That wasn’t the case here. I felt strongly that this story would be told for several seasons, and thankfully, that’s exactly what we got.

Ridley Scott served as an executive producer on The Good Wife, a fascinating legal thriller, and Scott’s most exciting TV shows. I definitely consider it one of the best shows of the 2010s. Through Scott Free Productions, Ridley and his late brother Tony Scott produced the show. Along with creators Michelle and Robert King, they told an important story about work, family, love, and life.

‘The Good Wife’ Still Holds Up, Almost 20 Years Later

When The Good Wife premiered on CBS in September 2009, I was immediately interested in the story of Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), whose husband, Peter (Chris Noth), the State’s Attorney of Cook County, goes to prison after a terrible controversy. Alicia goes back to her legal career and joins Stern, Lockhart & Gardner after years of raising children.

All seven seasons are fast-paced as Alicia works on cases, deals with her personal life, helps her kids, and wonders if she can find love again. While Alicia’s story is always compelling, as you want her to succeed and prove everyone who doubts her wrong, the people in Alicia’s world are what make the series work so well. Peter’s crisis manager, Eli Gold (Alan Cumming), and investigator Kalinda Sharma (Archie Panjabi) are both smarter than most TV characters. Watching them figure out secrets and stay two steps ahead of everyone else is always thrilling. You’ll also love partners Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) and Will Gardner (Josh Charles). While the cases are interesting and it’s fun to cheer the lawyers on, the dynamic between Diane, Will, and Alicia is something special.

The show focuses mainly on Alicia, though. After watching Margulies play beloved and brilliant nurse Carol Hathaway on the ’90s medical drama E.R., it’s great to see her take on another meaningful role that explores confidence, hard work, and tough decisions. Even just watching Alicia on her first day at the firm is both thrilling and relatable. Everyone starts over at some point, whether changing school, starting a new program, getting a new job, or changing careers entirely, and feels the anxiety and self-doubt that Alicia does. It’s also easy to relate to the excitement she feels when realizing that she’s good at the very thing she’s so passionate about.

The Good Wife has an amazing cast of minor characters who pop in and out, including quirky lawyer Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston), who got her own spin-off, Elsbeth. My favorite is lawyer Louis Canning (Michael J. Fox), who frustrates Alicia every time they’re in court together. Louis has tardive dyskinesia, and Fox has Parkinson’s disease, which he has spoken about publicly over the past several decades. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2016, Fox said the role let him “funnel a lot of my life experience into a character and be coy with it and kind of let it out in dribs and drabs and see if I can make it an effective tool for him to do his job, as opposed to something that prevented him from doing his job.”

Other big names include Pedro Pascal as an assistant state’s attorney and Stockard Channing as Alicia’s mother, Veronica Loy. It’s also exciting to see Bosch star Titus Welliver as State’s Attorney Glenn Childs, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Jason Crouse, who becomes a big part of Alicia’s life in Season 7.

I’ll be honest and share that I’m still not sure about The Good Wife‘s ending. It can be seen as a divisive series finale that won’t please everyone. On the other hand, I’m still thinking about it, just over a decade after it aired in May 2016, which counts for something. Maybe the conclusion of Alicia’s journey isn’t 100 percent perfect, but that’s kind of the point of the series. Alicia leaves her marriage, changes her life, and learns more about who she is and what she wants. Most won’t think that she does the right thing in the final episode, and in the last scene, it’s clear that she agrees. Ultimately, The Good Wife is a story about mistakes, morals, love, and happiness, and it’s an interesting ride.