TV Review - The Good Wife: Season 6

Julianna Margulies (right) won an Emmy this year
for her work dealing with loss in "The Good Wife"

After what was a fantastic Season 5, the series returns still just as strong and no sign of slowing down. Unequivocably, this is the best TV show on broadcast television, and I am leaning on making the argument that this series is the best on all of television this year. The writing, the acting and the direction are all just so superb, so excellent, so exciting and so engaging that it truly is currently the only show that no matter what I have to watch and preferably do so live on Sunday nights. The Good Wife is just so damn good!

Season 6 picks up right where Season 5 left off, as most of the seasons have done. This year's Emmy-winner Julianna Margulies stars as Alicia Florrick who has been approached by Eli Gold, played by Alan Cumming, who is the Chief of Staff and former campaign manager for her husband, the Governor of Illinois, played by Chris Noth. Eli approaches Alicia to get her to run for her very first political office, to become the State's Attorney, her husband's old job. Alicia resists but pieces on the chessboard of her life begin to move, pushing her to run. Yet, she does make the decision herself in Episode 3 and when she does, it is a total knockout moment.

Meanwhile, Alicia's newly formed law firm comes under attack, as it also undergoes some changes. It all kicks off in Episode 1 when Matt Czuchry who plays Cary Agos, the other named partner of Alicia's firm, finds himself in serious trouble. Czuchry's performance in those first three episodes, piggybacking off his fire at the end of Season 5, positions him more as a leading male in this show. It's also deserving of him to get an Emmy nomination, which based on this he should absolutely get.

The supporting actors or guest stars are always great. Christine Baranski as Diane Lockhart is just elegant and graceful yet strong as always. Matthew Goode as Finn Polmar as a possible love interest is "goode." Forgive the pun! Taye Diggs as Dean Wilkins is a great foil to Alicia as well as associate lawyer who plays off her lack of religion.

Michael Cerveris as SA James Castro makes for a good villain in a long line of good villains on this show, including those played by Michael J. Fox, Zach Grenier, Mike Colter and Dylan Baker. Probably one of the best reoccurring roles has been Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni who has done over a dozen episodes since she first appeared in Season 1. She won an Emmy last year and continues to be a source of joy and comedy, even during serious cases. She's just a delight. Even actors like Linda Lavin who plays Joy Grubick, a pretrial service officer, and Robert Sean Leonard who plays Del Paul, a Christian arbitrator, are all spectacular in their brief, and sometimes one-episode roles.

I have to also point out that Robert Sean Leonard worked with Josh Charles who left the show last season. If Leonard had guest starred last year, this show could have had a slight Dead Poets Society reunion.

Episode 4 titled "Oppo Research" is perfect. It's simple. It's mainly three people in a room for the whole hour talking to each other, and somehow it's the most riveting and most shocking thing ever. It had me on the edge of my seat. Episode 5 of last year titled "Hitting the Fan" was so explosive that it was doubtful that the writers could have topped it this year, but Episode 5 of this year titled "Shiny Objects" did something probably better. It had a full circle moment that paid proper due and homage to the show's pilot and premise that rarely a show in its sixth year can do and this show did, which is why it continues to work so well.

Five Stars out of Five.
Rated TV-14-LVS.
Running Time: 1 hr.
Sundays at 9PM on CBS.