The Good Wife Season 2 Review: Slow Start, Exciting End

A few days ago I posted my review of The Good Wife Season 1 and I’m ashamed to say that I’ve already completed Season 2. Yes that was another 23 episodes in two days, but it’s the holidays, don’t judge me! My initial plan to only watch this series whilst at the gym (thus encouraging me to workout) has gone out the window and flown far, far away. Good riddance.

For those of you that don’t know anything about The Good Wife, it is a US legal drama centred around junior associate Alicia Florrick. At the beginning of season 1, her husband, the State Attorney, was sentenced to prison and she was forced to find work. She juggles her new career with being a mother and is an all round bad-ass woman.

In the second season of The Good Wife, the focus at home is Peter Florrick’s campaign to be re-elected as State Attorney after he is released from prison. At work, much is the same. New cases, new disputes, with the added addition of lots of internal warring between lawyers and partners. In terms of how the series is structured, it is very similar to Season one. Each episode brings with it a new case and a new problem but there are also some exciting story arcs that run from episode one all the way to episode twenty-three.

I feel like the focus shifted slightly in this season to focus less on Alicia and more on certain other key supporting characters. In some cases, this worked, in others it really didn’t. We find out a lot more about the mysterious Kalinda Sharma, Lockhart & Gardner’s chief investigator and Alicia’s best friend. There is a huge plot twist here, which I didn’t see coming at all, and I found these parts to be highly interesting.

Eli Gold, Peter’s campaign manager, becomes a much more prominent figure in both Alicia’s personal and professional life and it looks like he’ll be sticking around for a while. And let’s not forget about Cary, the other junior associate who lost the battle for a permanent position against Alicia in season 1, and is still around in season 2. Except he now bats for the other team – the State Attorney’s office. And so the battle between Cary and Alicia rages on…

These story arcs all got more and more exciting and there were many twists and turns through the season. On the other hand there were a few battles for power between the three partners at Lockhart & Gardner and I have to admit I didn’t find these parts all that exciting and in the end I thought there was a lot of bluster all for nothing. I think they tried to make too many supporting characters main characters but only succeeded with a select few, which is a shame.

There was a lot more romance across the board for a lot of prominent characters but I was pleased to note that this really did take a back seat compared to the legal cases and did not become the crux of the drama. These scenes were sometimes serious, sometimes funny, always dramatic. There is a humorous undertone to numerous scenes in The Good Wife, which helps balance out the seriousness of the cases at hand, making it a much better watch.

Alicia’s character has definitely hardened over the past two seasons, especially in season two. She’s been through a lot so who can blame her? She is no longer the bottom of the pack at Lockhart & Gardner and has really come into her own as a lawyer. At home, she always has the final say, no ifs, no buts. When she doesn’t like something, it is obvious and she isn’t afraid to tell people exactly what she thinks. I’m a fan of the new Alicia, it’s nice to see some serious girl-power on screen. I only hope that she doesn’t take it too far and become a complete bitch. (But a little bit of bitchiness never hurt anyone! 😂)

If you’ve read my review of the first season (click here to read it), you’ll know that I absolutely loved it. It was fast-paced, each episode brought something new and exciting and all I wanted was more, more, more. However, the end of the first season was a bit of a let down after such a great debut. Funnily enough, Season 2 seems to do the exact opposite in that it gets off to a rather slow start but then finishes with a bang. It’s definitely worth sticking around through more of the same to get to the really juicy stuff at the end as there are some plot twists that will no doubt greatly impact events in season three.

In conclusion, the second season of The Good Wife wasn’t quite as good as the first (it never is), but it was by no means a let down. It is still full of highly exciting legal cases of a wide variety and we delve much further into the personal lives of many characters. This season ended with a really juicy moment and I’ve already got season three loaded on my computer and I’m raring to go. This series seems to be going from strength to strength so bring on the next five! 😉

Watch The Good Wife Season 2 online now

If you liked this post, check out these:
The Good Wife Season 1 Review
The Good Wife Season 3 Review 
The Good Wife Season 5 Review
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Laura

Editor of What’s Hot?

Laura is an award-winning travel and book blogger based in the UK. She studied French literature at Oxford University and is now an IP lawyer at a top law firm in London. She was named UK Book Blogger of the Year in 2019 and loves to combine her passion for books and travel with literary travel.