5. The Story
This may sound like a obvious choice, but you'd be honestly surprised how many shows on TV just coast along on the half-baked attempts to ride off the coattails of better shows' storylines - fortunately
Good Wife has more than enough intelligent, original stories to fill out the shows. In case you're unaware, the premise of the show revolved around former lawyer Alicia Florrick who at the beginning of the show, is the wife of state governor Peter (
Sex and the City's Mr Big, Chris Noth) who is has been caught in a political and legal scandal after being found to be corrupt and cheating on his wife. With Peter in prison, Alicia takes up her old job as a litigator and finds her cosy life disrupted and changed forever. The storylines are slow-burners, coupled with the usual case-of-the-week stories. Both types of story are brilliantly involving and immensably watchable - from unlawful death suits, high-powered divorces and saving innocents (and not-so-innocents) from prosecution, the weekly cases are always well-scripted and smart enough to keep you guessing. Best of all are the character-based storylines that pull and twist our heroes across multiple episodes or even seasons - from Alicia's fledging, will-they-won't-they romance with old college friend and now boss Will Gardner (Josh Charles), to the inner workings of Lockhart & Gardner, the law firm helmed by Will and liberal senior partner Diane Lockhart (the always excellent Christine Baranski), to the various backstabbings, betrayals, loves, losses, secrets and lies that surround the cast, the stories are interesting, even if they're not always perfectly executed. At the heart of it all is Alicia's continuing discovery of who she really is as she tries to juggle being the mother she wants to be, the wife she's supposed to be, and the lawyer she was born to be...