Ever since my missus started maternity leave, battle lines have been drawn. I’m not talking about mundane things like who does the ironing, cooking or vacuum-cleaning (me, me and me since you ask), but the rather serious matter of who gets control of the TV remote. My argument is that I sometimes need to watch TV to work which means at certain junctures I should dictate what we watch every now and again. Her argument is that I can blooming well shut up she’s looking after a baby all day and unless I want to sleep in the shed the remote stays with her and junior. This explains why I often write about food preparation and interior design shows.

Still, every once in a while she gets hold of a DVD box set after which I am lucky enough to be able to sit through fifteen hours of the same show in a two-day period. Her latest acquisition also happens to have just started on Finnish telly, which if nothing else gives me a good excuse to write about it. The Good Wife, shown on MTV3 Mondays 21:00 and available on DVD over the internet from the States, is the latest in a seemingly endless line of imported US shows mainly shown on MTV3 and Nelonen and their sister channels. Is it only me who has noticed that these channels would be completely screwed without American broadcasting networks?

Is there anything new about The Good Wife? Well, not really. It’s a show starring Julianna Margulies, a woman specialising in sympathetic stares, self-conscious wry smiles, and expressions of studied incomprehension, as Alicia Florrick, a junior litigator at a posh law firm. She’s married to a disgraced state attorney - played by Mr. Big from Sex and the City - who is now in prison for corruption. Having been the good wife of the title for many years, Florrick must now juggle life in the nether echelons of law practice with dealing with the fallout from her hubby’s transgressions and supporting her tween kiddies. Basically, it’s Ally McBeal with more John Grisham and without as many romantic subplots or a sense of humour. Even the names are similar: Alicia Florrick/Calista Flockhart* – see what they did there?

It’s been a while since there was a semi-decent law drama. In fact, I don’t remember the last one, and I’m always a bit partial to some courtroom derring-do. Within a few episodes Florrick has gained a reputation as a tenacious battler for the underdog, not afraid to go toe-to-toe against the state or a big firm of smarmy trial lawyers, aided and abetted by her sidekicks fellow junior Cary Agos (cheeky young whippersnapper) and in-house investigator Archie Panjabi (trying hard to be a female version of Dr. House), which alternately endears her to other characters or encourages them to make her life as difficult as possible.

Good things include the fact that the title credits only take about five seconds, plus there’s a second season being made now so MTV3 have got at least one show for their winter schedule sorted I guess. There’s nothing particularly wrong with The Good Wife, but in my opinion it’s all a bit ‘meh’ if you know what I mean. Still, if nothing else spotting C-list actors you’ve seen in other drama series will keep you occupied at least one night of the week not watching the football.

Nick Barlow

*Similarity may be purely coincidental