For once, my skepticism about a new television series proved to be unwarranted.
"The Good Wife" is a great show.
Back in September, when it premiered, I was hopeful. My headline then was " 'Good Wife' might be better than good."
But you never really know. Most of the time — including with "The Good Wife" — TV critics are writing reviews based on a single episode. So I'm skeptical about everything.
You can never be sure where a show is going after the pilot. That is the episode producers are using to sell the show to the network, and sometimes they throw everything they've got into it.
Which means they have nothing left to keep the series going.
That has definitely not been the case with "The Good Wife." And I've watched all 21 episodes that have aired since the pilot.
Not because I had to, but because I wanted to.
This is a very entertaining show that deftly mixes legal drama, family drama and political intrigue. It has taken an intriguing premise and expanded it into a very good series.
As the series opened, Alicia Florek (Julianna Margulies) was in shock. Her husband, Peter (Chris Noth) — an Illinois state's attorney — confessed to a sex scandal and was sent off to prison.
Alicia, who had a law degree but has spent her entire marriage as a stay-at-home wife and mother, got a job at a law firm. And, in the midst of dealing with her two teenage children, her difficult mother-in-law and her husband's efforts to get out of prison and back into politics, Alicia has dealt with some very interesting legal cases.
Margulies has proven herself an incredible actress — and is getting the kind of acclaim that eluded her, to some extent, during her six years on "ER" playing nurse Carol Hathaway.
It's not like she was overlooked on that long-running medical drama. She did, after all, win one Emmy (and was nominated for five more). But she was a member of an ensemble cast on that show — and her fine work was often overshadowed by her co-star, George Clooney.
Nobody is overshadowing Margulies in "The Good Wife."
And the cast is loaded with great actors, including Noth; Christine Baranski (Diane, one of the partners at Alicia's law firm); Josh Charles (Will, the other partner and possible love interest for Alicia); Archie Panjabi (investigator Kalinda); Matt Czuchry (fellow associate and now prosecutor Cary); and Alan Cumming (Eli, Peter's political guru).
Everything isn't black and white on "The Good Wife." Moral dilemmas abound, and there are open questions about many characters — most notably where Peter fits on the sliding scale of hero/victim.
Alicia has some decisions to make in the season finale (Tuesday, 9 p.m., CBS/Ch. 2).
I'll be watching. And I can't wait for Season 2 to begin in the fall.
e-mail: pierce@desnews.com