Margulies shows her serious side

BY JANE CLIFTON

Poor old Chris Noth. It's a pretty big demotion to go from being the suave, wisecracking Mister Big in Sex and the City to the sleazy politician in TV3's new The Good Wife (Tuesdays, 9.30pm).

It's not a role that requires much range, as he's obliged to look like either a whipped puppy or a dying duck in a thunderstorm, depending on the level of disapproval of whoever else he is doing the scene with.

Repentance is a hard act to sustain over the long term, so this role could get a bit monotonous for Noth - and for us.

Playing opposite Mr Sad Sack is the ever-grim-faced Julianna Margulies, who is Alicia, the eponymous good wife. While she's a high-credibility actress and gorgeous looking, she seldom ranges far beyond Serious with a capital S.

She can look extremely serious, distractedly serious, seriously concerned or in serious danger of bursting into tears. But there's not a lot of light and shade in her performance.

Between his marathon of wretched contrition and her grim concentration, the novelty of the story - wife of a disgraced politician has to go back to work - could wear off pretty quickly.

Not that there's that much novelty to begin with. There have been numerous television dramas made about this dynamic, and exponentially more real-life examples, because, particularly in the United States, male politicians do go in for naughtiness with unsuitable women, and have been known to break financial security laws, and their wives are always plucky.

They have to be. Their husbands' malfeasance puts them into the public spotlight as either stand-by-your-man martyrs, or, less often, righteous dumpers.

One wife in the former category was so plucky, she agreed to take part in the American version of I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here - an offer that only came her way because her state-governor husband's corruption charges made her a celebrity, and presumably one she accepted because it put an agreeable distance between her and the rat.

No such offers have come Alicia's way, and facing monstrous legal bills, and with children to support, she goes back to work as a lawyer. And that, rather than her husband's disgrace, is going to be the main point of interest here, because despite the sleaze-trial packaging, this is really just another courtroom- centred crime drama, like Law and Order and Boston Legal.

It will depend more heavily on each week's tricky, surprise-filled court case than on the soapier aspects of the plot, like "Will she forgive him?", or "Can he ever redeem himself?"

On the first episode's evidence, in which she gets off a woman who apparently covered up her husband's murder by making it look like a carjacking, The Good Wife will wear well as a good storytelling series.

As with all good court stories, this one did a nice job of portraying the way in which the law often yields morally ambiguous outcomes.

The cut-throat environment of the law firm is tackled without mercy, another point in the programme's favour. Christine Baranski plays the senior partner, who has not decided whether to be a mentor or a viper, but who is keeping her mentor mask on while she makes her mind up.

"She got through it, you can too," she says, indicating a photo of herself with Hillary Clinton - somewhat ambivalent as words of comfort go. While the uber-groomed legal supercow has become a bit of a cliche, Baranski's barracuda-esque Dianne is a saltily dangerous interpretation of the cliche and well worth watching.

The other treat is Alicia's young rival in the law firm, Cary (Matt Czuchry). The tacit understanding is, the firm will only keep one of them long-term, and as Alicia's husband has made himself toxic, and Cary is a Harvard star, Alicia will be tactfully bundled out after a polite period of time. Naturally, as this series is past its 12th episode in the United States, Alicia makes herself unsackable.

And the firm will find a way of keeping Cary on because he is such an enjoyably loathsome villain.

Once you get past the frowning, glowering and moping intensity of the two leads, this promises to be an engrossing series. It's just that, subliminally, it may make you want to reach for the Panadol.

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