After a couple weeks of end of year and beginning of year lists, my Top 10 Tuesday is returning to characters from shows with the Top 10 The Good Wife Characters!
Peter's mother was the mother-in-law from hell and played with delight by Mary Beth Peil. I always liked her subtle and passive-aggressive approach towards Alicia as it was one of the many ways the show would venture into comedy. Any episode she was on was sure to have a couple strong moments and enlivened the home life of Alcia, which was not always one of the strongest parts of the series.
9. PETER FLORRICK
It was tough to rank Peter Florrick in light of the recent news that his portrayer, Chris Noth, is a pretty bad guy. He may have slid down a couple notches on this list with the news so fresh but Peter Florrick was never one of my favorite characters on the show. He was always a side character and the story with him seemed to go round and round in circles. Perhaps he would have been a more effective character with even less appearances.
8. LOUIS CANNING
Louis Canning was a character that I feel like the show used the exact right amount compared to some other characters that were used too much. Michael J. Fox's character was a little bit of a one-joke pony (always manipulating our protagonists at the moment) but he did it so well and was used sparingly enough that it always worked. Fox brought his usual charm to the role and made him one of the most memorable occasional characters.
Another occasional nemesis who wasn't overused on the show, Patti Nyholm was a character used so early in the series that it was well before I started to roll my eyes at big names playing quirky lawyers or judges. Martha Plimpton's character was particularly funny when she used her pregnancy to gain sympathy whenever and wherever she could. Plimpton just owned the role and made it her own, making her larger than life personality actually work in a believable way.
6. CARY AGOS
Cary Agos was probably the most genuinely good guy on the show. Sure, he could occasionally be manipulative like the others but the show never really let him go to a place where it was questionable if he was redeemable or not. Although the series eventually ran out of things to do with his character (a problem that happened with another character still to come on this list), Matt Czuchry was so likable that it was nice to easily root for a character in the later seasons when so many others were not ones to root for.
The good wife herself, Alicia Florrick, finds herself at #5, which is pretty low for the lead of a show. I think it stems back to how I felt about the series as a whole. I would have probably ranked Alicia higher if I had made the list in the first half of the run. But seeing her carrying more of the show after the departure of Kalinda and Will made me realize she was not up to the task or that interesting of a character in her own right. She had some great moments but she's not the strongest.
4. DIANE LOCKHART
Diane Lockhart wasn't always given a ton to do on The Good Wife. She's been more of a prominent character on its spinoff, The Good Fight. But Christine Baranski is such a strong actress and such a regal presence that I always enjoyed her scenes on The Good Wife and always wanted to see more of her. She was dignified but also had a hint of sarcasm and playfulness that made her relatable enough as a character and not a stereotype.
In case you couldn't tell from my rankings and commentary so far, I thought the later years of The Good Wife were very messy and not nearly as strong. The only saving grace in the later years was Eli Gold, played to perfection by Alan Cumming. He became the most interesting character and the greatest source of comedy. Always looking for an angle, Eli Gold still managed to be a character you rooted for even when he was at his most annoying.
2. KALINDA SHARMA
Kalinda was such a fascinating character and the MVP of the early years of the show before actress Archie Panjabi had a falling out with Julianna Margulies and the two wouldn't share scenes together. It was really too bad because the relationship between Kalinda and Alicia was one of the best in the early days of the show. Kalinda was such an enigma. Her mystique and mystery made her a very interesting character because us viewers wanted to know more about her and the show always only lets us see tiny bits of her life.
The ranking of Will Gardner at #1 was guided mainly by the fact that the show fell off a cliff when Gardner's portrayer, Josh Charles, left the show partway through the fifth season. Will Gardner may not have always seemed like the most important character but he kept the series humming and made every character around him better. The law stories always worked very well when dealing with the office politics at the law firm and Will Gardner was at the center of that. His departure was a very memorable episode but the show was never the same after that.
Tomorrow: A One Season Wonder look at Homeroom!
Next Tuesday: Top 10 Laverne & Shirley Characters!
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