This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Fans of "The Good Wife" are approaching Sunday's series finale with mixed emotions.
We're dying to see how it ends. Once it does, we'll just be dying.
The CBS series has captivated fans for seven seasons. In an era when the popular perception is that all the best dramas are on cable, "The Good Wife" proved that simply isn't true.
And this series has produced 22 or 23 episodes per season, while the cable shows produced maybe 13 tops. "It's an insane number of episodes," said creator/executive producer Robert King, who, along with his wife, Michelle, shepherded "The Good Wife" from beginning to end.
Sunday's finale (8 p.m., CBS/Ch. 2) will be the 156th episode. And now seems the right time to end it.
"This is not a show that is ending because anybody hates each other," said Robert King, "We're ending the show because … the characters should not be pushed from year to year and made to go through some paces because someone has to make money."
The Kings had long since announced that this would be their last season with the show, uncertain if CBS would end it until an on-air announcement during the Super Bowl.
"We felt very fortunate and flattered that we're being allowed to end the show … the way we would hope it would end," said Michelle King.
And provide closure for Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), who has been among the best characters in TV history.
When we met Alicia, she was the stunned wife of Chicago politician Peter Florrick (Chris Noth), standing by his side at a news conference just before he was sent off to prison on charges of using public money to pay for prostitutes.
Suddenly, the mother of two teenagers had to go back to work as an attorney at a cutthroat law firm, finding strength no one suspected she had. She also found romance with her boss, Will Gardner (Josh Charles), and struggled with how to deal with Peter's release from prison.
(He was cleared on corruption charges, but he did sleep with the prostitutes.)
"What we enjoyed writing is how much Julianna's character has changed," said Robert King. The changes have been gradual, "but if you go back to the first season and put things up side by side, the writing is very different. And, also, Julianna's acting is very different."
"The Good Wife" became an amazing mix of family drama, courtroom drama, workplace drama and political drama. (Both Peter and Alicia were candidates for elected office.)
That's a lot of drama — but "The Good Wife" has also been laugh-out-loud funny. A lot.
And it wasn't just the character of Alicia that made "The Good Wife" so unforgettable. The supporting characters and the actors who played them have been amazing — including Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), Cary Agos (Matt Czuchry), Kalinda Sharma (Archie Panjabi), Eli Gold (Alan Cumming), David Lee (Zach Grenier), Howard Lyman (Jerry Adler) and Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo).
Just to name a few.
And the recurring characters could have carried shows. From rival lawyer Louis Canning (Michael J. Fox) to drug lord/client Lemond Bishop (Mike Colter), wacky/brilliant lawyer Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) to probable killer Colin Sweeney (Dylan Baker).
Just to name a few.
For all its changes — for all the plot it has burned through — "The Good Wife" is ending pretty much where it started. In the final episode, we'll see if Peter is found guilty of political corruption — and, presumably, if Alicia will divorce him.
The Kings didn't provide any spoilers. Robert King even declined to talk about what the overall theme of the series has been.
"One of the things we want for the show is to sort of redefine itself when it ends so that you're [not] really aware of theme until the very last episode," he said, adding that their hope is that "the theme you're aware of at the very end helps you re-evaluate all the years before."
A lot of "Good Wife" episodes have made you think about issues, both personal and legal. So the plan for the finale seems to fit right in.
Twitter: @ScottDPierce