Hillary Clinton. Elizabeth Edwards. Silda Spitzer. The well-dressed, shell-shocked political wife, discreetly standing by her man (albeit to the side and one step back), has become a staple of those news conferences in which an unfaithful husband and prominent political figure delivers a terse apology to the voters for his gross misconduct and his violation of their trust.
The man used to be the sole focus of public ire and outrage. More recently, the wife has come into her own as a figure of speculation and scorn in the eyes of many women who smugly say, "I'd never do that. I wouldn't 'stand by my man.'"
CBS is banking on the curiosity of female viewers to tune into The Good Wife, a TV series which follows Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) after her husband, Illinois state's attorney Peter Florrick (Chris Noth, brilliantly cast), is caught consorting with prostitutes and convicted of ethics violations.
But the show isn't so much about his indiscretions as her attempts to rebuild a life for herself and her children. Alicia resumes a legal career after a 13-year absence, joining a law firm where she's in competition with a younger, manipulative, and slyly sexist male attorney. Her mentor in the firm is a woman who doesn't want to be upstaged by another female attorney. And on her very first day at the firm, sitting alone in an empty conference room, she wonders why everyone else is late to a staff meeting Only after flagging down a co-worker does she find out that she's on the wrong floor.
The Good Wife is really a legal drama wrapped around one woman's struggle to come to terms with her past. She's never simply accepted for who she is, but judged by the actions of her crooked politician husband. He's cut a wide swath in the legal system and left a bad taste in the mouths of judges, attorneys, and others she comes in contact with. Like Hillary Clinton, she tries to establish her own career on her own terms. Like Elizabeth Edwards, she wants to be judged on her own merits and establish her own reputation free of her husband's tainted one. And like Silda Spitzer, she stands by her man publicly but questions why she's doing it in private.
In a denouement near the end -- a moment that every viewer's been waiting for -- a business associate asks what we all want to know: Why did you stand there next to him? Why did you stay with him? It's only after a shot of tequila that Alicia can loosen up enough to admit the truth. She too felt the same way watching all those other political wives who went before her. When they stood by their man, she wondered to herself,"How can you allow yourself to be used like that? Then it happened, and I was...unprepared."
Giving all those silent 'good wives' a voice through the fictional character of Alicia Florrick is a dream job for a TV writer intent on using art to imitate life. It's an opportunity to imagine the public and private struggles of a woman who refuses to be a victim and is intent on regaining her footing after a major scandal derails her. It's a chance to explore the choices we make and those we don't, the judgments others make about us, and the reality of what it takes to survive infidelity with some sense of self still intact.
The Good Wife shows us that until we stand in the shoes of those we judge, like Alicia we can never be fully prepared for what we'll do, what we'll say, and what others will think of our actions.
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Comments
Been there,done that,and have the scars to prove it.
Honestly,I think I knew a head of time that my ex-spouse was going to cheat on me.The signs were there and I just ignored them.I think deep down I thought I was going to ‘change him’.I thought I was going into this with eyes wide open,when in fact my ‘eyes were wide shut’.I don’t know why I thought I could ‘fix’ him,but I could’nt and ended up with a whole huge mess.No, I did not forgive and forget,I left and divorced.I learned a very valuable lesson,’go with your instincts’.Don’t fall into the trap and then dig out.Avoid the trap and avoid the pain and embaressment.
Di
I think The Good Wife is destined be a winner because of the public’s insatiable appetite for all things infidelity — especially when cheating politicians and other public figures are involved. The popularity of this show confirms what I’ve been saying for several years now – Infidelity has become the new spectator sport.
For more info on this, see my article entitled The Good Wife Confirms That Infidelity Has Become a Spectator Sport at http://bit.ly/4G5mHl or see my Infidelity News and Views blog.
As an infidelity expert who is frequently called on by the media to comment on high profile infidelity and infidelity issues in the news, I can attest to the public’s never-ending interest in cheating politicians, cheating celebrities, and other public figures having, or even rumored to be having extramarital affairs. The Good Wife is a TV series whose time has come.