As we discussed a few weeks ago, there was a lot of gossip that The Good Wife was finally going to be put out of its misery. The creators, Robert and Michelle King, announced that they would be leaving the show after this season. Julianna Margulies has alienated half of the original cast and actors keep leaving in droves. There was a ton of speculation that no one is getting along with anyone and that the writers and directors specifically hate Margulies. Still, there was a chance that The Good Wife could have stuck around for another few seasons. But as we learned last night during the Super Bowl – which aired on CBS, home to The Good Wife – The Good Wife is ending this season. This is the commercial that ran during SB50:
Don't miss the final nine episodes of #TheGoodWife. Alicia's story concludes May 8th: https://t.co/gCGfum3AIuhttps://t.co/eS3aK4zj4e
— The Good Wife (@TheGoodWife_CBS) February 8, 2016
Good. When Marguiles came on as producer several seasons in, you could feel the shift away from “strong ensemble” to “The Alicia Show.” During the season where Will was killed, the whole f—king thing fell off a cliff, and Marguiles’ off-air drama with Archie Panjabi didn’t help the situation. They needed to end the show a few seasons ago, honestly. Here’s Julianna Margulies’ statement:
“Being a part of The Good Wife has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. As an actress and a producer, it has been an absolute honor to be a part of a series that, throughout seven years, never settled on being just good… but always strived to be extraordinary. I have witnessed magic happen when Robert and Michelle King put pen to paper, and it has been a privilege to be in the company of their brilliance. To the most amazing and talented cast and crew, there will always be a special place in my heart for our Good Wife family. As we close the book on our beloved show, I am humbled and grateful to know that together, we created and were a part of something truly remarkable.”
Blah. It was not “extraordinary” writing that left Cary the most inconsistently written character. It was not excellent producing that had Christine Baranski sidelined and consistently shuffled off with nonsensical plotlines. Oh, well. At least we don’t have to put up with this nonsense anymore.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I am disappointed that she turned out to be such an annoying diva. I thought she was better than that, and it doesn’t make me want to watch her in future TV projects.
Apart from all the stuff with Archie Panjabi…I must have missed all this about her being a diva. Its shocking and I am disappointed as I have loved her in ER and The Good Wife.
How about the fact that CBS made this the hardest to find show in existence? Instead of changing its time slot they kept it where it was, always bumped later by other shows.
And they usually didn’t bother to run a banner w/the starting time, so you had to keep flipping to it to guess at its start.
It’s like they wanted this show — that critics raved about — to die. Why didn’t they move it and plug it like a classy show?
Really? Where I am, it’s been on Sunday nights for at least 4 or 5 years, and they always show a banner with the time when it will start, if it’s been delayed by a sports event.
Same here. I stopped watching when I heard about how she treated Archie.
After Will’s death which I’m assuming is when she took the role of producer the show took a bad turn. Really bad story lines, poorly written characters, etc & I was so on board with this show but the last seasons have been so bad. I’m glad it’s ending because all of those actors are so good at what they do that they deserve to work on something else. Now that everyone knows about her attitude & all of the Archiegate, will people still want to work with her? Because she’s been burning bridges for awhile now, so I’m genuinely curious about that.
She looked stunning in the earlier seasons. It is this season and the last one where the wig looks bad. Before that you can’t even tell it’s a wig
Yes, I agree. I am watching the show from the beginning and the writing was much better in the earlier seasons. I love Diane and Eli, but can’t even watch JM anymore. I don’t know if she is a diva or not, but she is such a horrid person on the show, I am always rooting for her to lose. I can’t stand her and I can’t stand Peter. Are we supposed to want good things to happen to her? Because if I could write the ending, Diane and Cary would have great success along with the new woman lawyer (Luca?), Peter would go to jail for practically bribing Chum Hum to go with Alicia after she betrayed Will and the firm, and Alicia would be right there with him in jail for being such a user.
She used everyone and that is the reason I dislike her the most. She stayed with Peter for the power he lent her, she still flirted with Will. Ugh. Go away, Alicia, and don’t come back.
Feel the exact same way. I’m also hating her hair this season.
I’m pretty sure she’s wearing wigs…..and they’re exceptionally baaaaad wigs. The center part one is horrifying.
They are wigs – something about that being easier than straightening her hair I think. But they are looking progressively worse as the show goes on.
She looks so gorgeous on the red carpet, but on the show often looks odd, sort of tight and weird. I’m wondering if the hair and makeup people have issues working with her too.
It should have ended a few years ago.
It’s too bad they have wasted so many good actors and storylines just to prop up JM’s ego.
Agreed, incredible supporting cast that was just wasted. Can’t wait to see what Christine Baranski does next!
Indeed! Christine Baranski is such a terrific actress – comedic or dramatic – she’s great.
RIP
I’m sad to see such intelligent, good show go but then I remember it hasn’t been good or intelligent for a while. There have been some interesting cases but the show never recovered from Will’s death. For me it would be interesting to know how much the Julianna truly alienated the cast and crew. I mean we know Punjabi for sure. But for the actors who play Will, Diane, and Cary. I wonder how their experience has been. Some people point to the fact that actor who plays Cary didn’t really say anything nice about getting along with Julianna other than she is hard working. I am very curious about the actor who plays Will, since the show changed so much after his death. I wonder how he felt about the show that made him want to leave. It could have been just other opportunities that were attracting him. I think he is on Master of Sex now but man I wish he would have stayed for another season or 2 considering how much the show has suffered. Alicia’s character works best with a strong supporting cast and her interacting with a lot of people. When the focus is just on her and it’s just her the show became pretty depressing. I also hated that they added a token brown friend as if that could replace Kalinda. Frankly, I am glad the show is ending but I just hope we will have more shows like it in the future.
Ha! I just said the same thing downthread re:Will.
Actor who played will said Julianna convinced him to do more episodes and do the Will died storyline so i think she and Josh got on well at least
“I am very curious about the actor who plays Will”
You should probably look up her Emmy acceptance speech where she aggressively points him out and goes, “Why did you leave? What were you thinking?” Then they pan to Josh Charles and he’s doing the most awkward face ever. She’s a crazy, rude *****.
Can Christine stand aside any further? Poor woman had to put up with Cybil Shepard now this chick. When will someone embrace this woman ‘s talent and let her shine ?
Is it to late to bring everyone back except JM,and just rename the show?
They should make “The Diane Lockhart Show” and somehow put Eli in it.
A practice with Dianne, Eli, and David Lee. I’d watch the hell out of that!
I’d watch, too!
I just LOVE to hate David Lee.
David Lee gives us life.
As a loooong and devoted fan I was fearful when Archie’s contract ran out the series wouldn’t be as compelling and unfortunately that turned out to be the case.
She was the lynchpin for the cast as was obvious when she and JM stopped shooting scenes together.
The biggest bummer is it’s going out with a whimper not a roar. TGW used to be must see TV…
Now, not so much.
I wonder if Will asked to be killed off (not even moving to a new city, etc) because of the direction of the show and her diva tactics.
Christine Baranski has been severely underutilized in the later seasons. She’s a fantastic actress.
Will and Alicia story was interesting at first, but when he died it was going nowhere, like, were they getting together or staying apart for good?
Christine and Matt were both highly underused in recent seasons. I hope both of them go on to great things. I only knew Matt from Gilmore Girls, but he was great on TGW. It’s such a shame, they had such a fantastic cast and wonderful guest stars, but it all really fizzled out as the focus was more and more on Alicia.
Matt is always Starla Grady’s boyf to me. They should’ve changed the central character to Diane when she got married to Kurt McVeigh.
Good. Now Christine Baranski can go back to being the snarky shrink mom of Leonard Hofstadter.
No she deserves so much more than that. Personally I’d love if Christine did an appearance on Veep she would fit right in there.
All of this drama because Archie won the Emmy first.
Was she this big of a b!tch when she was doing ER?
It was a good show. I’ll miss it. And in closing, it’s too bad the writers couldn’t develop better storylines involving others including Kalinda.
I must be the only person who loves Julianna on this site. I think she is so beautiful. Until she says something offensive or stupid I’ll continue to be a fan.
As for the Good Wife…wasn’t it always The Alicia show? It always revolved around her relationship with Will. As brilliant as Baranski is, she was never fully utilised from the very start.
Agreed.
What a waste. Few actresses get a starring and critically acclaimed show for themselves at her age with their careers sort of stagnant. Now she’s killed the show and put out the perception that she’s a jealous and childish sort of woman who feels threatened by other’s success.
Well said, Kaiser. I’ve been tweeting nonstop about how this show should have ended at Season 5 after Will died. I believe Josh Charles only signed on for 4 seasons unlike the usual 7 for most actors on series, but JM was already a producer and begged him to give them half a season more to wind up the story. THAT is the only thing I will give her credit for.
Re: the drama and her ridiculous behavior, it just gave me one more reason to stop watching, but in truth the Kings have always really bothered me by the inconsistency of their character development and plot lines left hanging forever. The fact that they kept her “married” to Peter for the entirety of this show is laughable. Getting Alicia and Will together (sort of) only to have Alicia stay closed off and cold and then break his heart AGAIN was just bad writing and unnecessary. Their “flashbacks” from Josh Charles’ last season are things they should have filmed and shown the audience when it was supposedly happening!
Sadly, any series that creates its buzz from a will-they-or-won’t-they setup almost always fails when they bring them together. Shonda Rhimes wrote the book on disappointing fans, and I had to break up with all her shows too LOL.
Despite its many issues, i liked this show. It had interesting female leads and I liked the court cases.
I, unlike many did not care for Will’s character and had zero interest in the relationship btw him and Alicia.
I liked seeing an Indian woman on the show but didnt like how hypersexualized her character was. It seemed kind of one dimensional. And a lot of steamy sex scenes that sometime detracted from the story. Interestingly, since Archie left, there’s hardly been any steamy sex scenes. Makes me think they exoticized her.
I loved Eli and his daughter, Alicia’s bro and Mother.
I think I’m in full agreement with just about all that you said! 🙂
It was never must-see tv for me although I liked every character except for Alicia and Will. It was a show that I thought I *should* watch because the critics loved it? I got tired of it before Will left.
Thank gos. This sh*t show should’ve been put out of its misery years ago.
The show has changed and lost something since Will’s death but I didn’t hate the show after he left. I definitely miss what he brought character and story wise, but I have been enjoying it. So has my husband who is going to be CRUSHED when he learns there are only nine episodes left 🙁 lol
She seems like a massive c*** in real life and by the looks of the comments sections of lots of celeb blogs, everyone knows it. I hope she’s learned her lessons: (1) a show is better if it has a strong ensemble cast; (2) she’s a boring actress and needs an ensemble cast to help her out.
“Being a part of The Good Wife has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career”. Damn right she took home a bundle from that show , she better invest it well because no one will be willing to work with her after she totally trashed the show and hundreds of peoples livelihood with her divaness. I never really got the love for her in the first place she is always such a wet blanket, one note actress , annoyed the hell out of me in ER.
I really like watching the show minus Alicia, I think they should kill her off and start a new series that focuses on the law firm.