The first season of ''

The Good Wife ''The Good Wife'' is an American legal and political drama television series that aired on CBS from September 22, 2009, to May 8, 2016. It focuses on Alicia Florrick, the wife of the Cook County State's Attorney, who returns to her career in l ...

'' first began airing on September 22, 2009 and finished on May 25, 2010. It consisted of 23 episodes.

Premise

The series focuses on Alicia Florrick (Margulies), whose husband Peter (Noth), the former

Cook County, Illinois Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 2 ...

State's Attorney, has been jailed following a notorious political corruption and sex scandal. After having spent the previous thirteen years as a stay-at-home mother, Alicia returns to the workforce as a litigator to provide for her two children.

Cast

Main

Julianna Margulies Julianna Margulies (; born June 8, 1966) is an American actress. After several small television roles, Margulies achieved wide recognition for her starring role as Carol Hathaway on NBC's long-running medical drama series '' ER'' (1994–2009) ...

as Alicia Florrick *

Matt Czuchry Matthew Charles Czuchry (; born May 20, 1977) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Logan Huntzberger on The WB television series ''Gilmore Girls'' (2005–2007) and Cary Agos on the CBS television drama ''The Good Wife'' (2009–2 ...

as Cary Agos *

Archie Panjabi Archana Panjabi (born 31 May 1972) is a British actress. She has had various roles in both UK and US television including as Maya Roy in ''Life on Mars'' (2006–07), Nas Kamal in NBC crime drama '' Blindspot'' (2016–17, 2020), Kendra Malle ...

Kalinda Sharma Kalinda Sharma (born c.1984) is a character on the CBS television series ''The Good Wife'', portrayed by Archie Panjabi for the first six seasons of the show's run. For her performance, Panjabi received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, win ...

* Graham Phillips as Zach Florrick *

Makenzie Vega Makenzie Jade Vega Norfolk (born February 10, 1994), known professionally as Makenzie Vega, is an American actress. She is known for her role as Grace Florrick on ''The Good Wife'' and as the 11-year-old counterpart of Nancy Callahan in ''Sin Ci ...

as Grace Florrick * Josh Charles as Will Gardner * Christine Baranski as Diane Lockhart

Recurring

Chris Noth Christopher David Noth ( ; born November 13, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for his television roles as NYPD Detective Mike Logan on '' Law & Order'' (1990–95), Big on ''Sex and the City'' (1998–2004), and Peter Florrick on ''The ...

as Peter Florrick *

Mary Beth Peil Mary Beth Peil (born June 25, 1940) is an American actress and soprano. She began her career as an opera singer in 1962 with the Goldovsky Opera Theater. In 1964 she won two major singing competitions, the Young Concert Artists International Au ...

as Jackie Florrick *

Titus Welliver Titus B. Welliver (born March 12, 1962) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayals of the Man in Black in ''Lost'', Silas Adams in '' Deadwood'', Jimmy O’Phelan in ''Sons of Anarchy'', and the title role in the television seri ...

as Glenn Childs *

Joe Morton Joseph Thomas Morton Jr. (born October 18, 1947) is an American stage, television and film actor. He has worked with film director John Sayles in ''The Brother from Another Planet'' (1984), '' City of Hope'' (1991) and '' Lone Star'' (1996). Oth ...

as Daniel Golden *

Martha Plimpton Martha Plimpton (born November 16, 1970) is an American actress. Her feature-film debut was in '' Rollover'' (1981); she subsequently rose to prominence in the Richard Donner film ''The Goonies'' (1985). She has also appeared in '' The Mosquito ...

as Patti Nyholm *

Jill Flint Jill Flint is an American television and film actress, best known for her role of Jill Casey in the USA Network TV series '' Royal Pains'', and as the popular character Lana Delaney on CBS' award-winning series ''The Good Wife''. She also plays ...

as Lana Delaney *

Emily Bergl Anne Emily Bergl''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 25 April 1975) is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Rachel Lang in the supernatural horror film '' The Rage: Carrie ...

as Bree * Chris Butler as Matan Brody *

David Paymer David Emmanuel Paymer (born August 30, 1954) is an American actor, comedian, and television director. He has been in films such as '' Mr. Saturday Night'', ''Quiz Show'', ''Searching for Bobby Fischer'', '' City Slickers'', ''Crazy People'', '' ...

as Judge Richard Cuesta * Alan Cumming as Eli Gold *

Michael Boatman Michael Patrick Boatman (born October 25, 1964) is an American actor and writer. He is known for his roles as New York City mayoral aide Carter Heywood in the ABC sitcom ''Spin City'', as U.S. Army Specialist Samuel Beckett in the ABC drama s ...

as Julius Cain *

Dylan Baker Dylan Baker (born October 7, 1959) is an American actor. He gained recognition for his roles in the films such as '' Planes, Trains and Automobiles'' (1987), ''Happiness'' (1998), '' Thirteen Days'' (2000), '' Road to Perdition'' (2002), '' Spide ...

as Colin Sweeney *

Sonequa Martin-Green Sonequa Chaunté Martin-Green (; Martin; born March 21, 1985) is an American actress. She is best known for her television roles as Michael Burnham, the main character in the streaming television series '' Star Trek: Discovery'', and as Sasha W ...

as Courtney Wells *

Renée Elise Goldsberry Renée Elise Goldsberry (born January 2, 1971) is an American actress and singer known for originating the role of Angelica Schuyler in the Broadway musical ''Hamilton'', for which she won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musica ...

as Geneva Pine *

Dreama Walker Dreama Elyse Walker (born June 20, 1986) is an American actress. She is known for her supporting role in the series ''Gossip Girl'', her lead role in the film '' Compliance'' (2012), and her lead roles in two short-lived television series, the c ...

as Becca *

Gary Cole Gary Michael Cole (born September 20, 1956) is an American television, film and voice actor. Cole began his professional acting career on stage at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1985. On television, he has had starring roles in the ...

as Kurt McVeigh * Kevin Conway as Jonas Stern *

Carrie Preston Carrie Preston (born June 21, 1967) is an American actress known for her work on the television series ''True Blood'', ''Person of Interest (TV series), Person of Interest'', ''Crowded (TV series), Crowded'', ''The Good Wife'', ''The Good Fight ...

as Elsbeth Tascioni *

Zach Grenier Zach Grenier is an American character actor of film, television and stage. He is best known for his roles in films such as '' Fight Club'', ''Tommy Boy'', and '' Twister'' and for his roles in television such as David Lee in '' The Good Wife'' a ...

as David Lee

Guest

Mamie Gummer Mary Willa "Mamie" Gummer (born August 3, 1983) is an American actress. She starred in the title role of The CW series ''Emily Owens, M.D.'' (2012–2013), and played the recurring role of Nancy Crozier on '' The Good Wife'' (2010–2015) and its ...

as Nancy Crozier *

Ana Gasteyer Ana Kristina Gasteyer (born May 4, 1967) is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1996 to 2002. She has since starred in such sitcoms as ABC's '' Suburgatory,'' TBS's ''People of Earth'', NBC's ...

as Patrice Lessner *

Mike Colter Mike Randal Colter (born August 26, 1976) is an American actor best known for his role as Luke Cage in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in the streaming television series ''Luke Cage'' (2016–2018), '' The Defenders'' (2017), and ''Jess ...

as Lemond Bishop *

Felix Solis Felix Angel Solis (born September 17, 1971) is an American actor, film director, and film producer. Born on the Upper West Side and raised in Chelsea/Greenwich Village area of New York City, to parents that were both born in Puerto Rico, Felix co ...

as Kevin Rodriguez *

Nitya Vidyasagar Nitya Vidyasagar (born 1983) is an American actress best known for her role as "Leela" on ''Sesame Street'' from 2008 to 2015. Early life and education Vidyasagar was born in Muscat, Oman to Indian Telugu parents and grew up in India at Kolka ...

as Frida Verma

Episodes

Reception

The first season of ''The Good Wife'' received critical acclaim. The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reports an 85% certified fresh rating based on 27 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Along with Julianna Margulies and a fine cast, the gripping drama ''The Good Wife'', boasts hook-heavy plotlines torn from the headlines." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the first season of the show currently sits at a 75 out of 100, based on 26 reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews.

Awards and nominations

Primetime Emmy Awards *Nominated for Outstanding Drama Series *Nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (

) (for the episode "Threesome") *Nominated for

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. In early Primetime Emmy Award ceremonies, the supporting categories were not always genre-, or even gender-, specific. Begin ...

( Christine Baranski) (for the episode "Bang") *Won for

(

) (for the episode "Hi") *Nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (

) (for the episode "Bad") *Nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series ( Alan Cumming) (for the episode "Fleas") *Nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (Michelle King & Robert King for "Pilot") *Nomination for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series (Mark Saks)

Ratings

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Good Wife (season 1) 2009 American television seasons 2010 American television seasons 1