David M. Russell/CBSGood news! One of TV's most thoughtfully crafted dramas, Julianna Margulies' The Good Wife, returns to CBS tonight at 10. If you haven't seen it yet, give it a shot—there's more to this legal series than mundane courtroom arguments—but if you're already a fan, you'll be excited to learn that this season ups the stakes substantially.
The series reveals more about all our favorite characters, plus delivers some serious development on a certain love triangle. Here's what we just learned about season two from show runners Robert and Michelle King:
You Alicia and Will (Josh Charles) fans do get some satisfaction in the first act of the season premiere. We don't want to give away the twist, but it reminds us of big moments in everything from Tess of the d'Urbervilles to The Notebook.
But, of course, the course of true love never did run smooth. For one thing, says Robert King, "We loved the idea that [this story] would imitiate life, where [romance] doesn't press on you everyday, but it pops up at strange times when you didn't think it would be there. You may not know that this is the episode where Peter [Chris Noth] finds out something about the relationship between Will and Alicia. It'll be coming out of left field, and sometimes coming out of the case. I think we're finding better ways this year to integrate the case that Alicia is working on with the romance that pops up between these characters."
King always says that deciding on love "always turns out not to be binary, it turns into a three or four-choice possibility." One of those additional choices this season comes in the form of Twilight's Elizabeth Reaser. King reveals, "She plays a love interest for Will, our Josh Charles character." Scandal!
Meanwhile, professionally, King says, the big change for Alicia is that, "The firm merges with a boutique firm from Washington, D.C., which is run by a man named Eric Bond, and he's played by the actor Michael Ealy. Bond brings in an energy that's unclear whether he's trying to take over the firm for himself or if he's just a go-along guy, so there's a little bit of suspicion there." Dun-dun-dun.
Bond also brings a new hottie to the mix—Friday Night Lights' Jason Street himself, aka Scott Porter, is the boutique firm's investigator and he faces off with Kalinda (Archie Panjabi). As King says, "This becomes Kalinda's major threat. It's unclear if he wants to take her job. And he seems to know secrets about her past." And even more about Kalinda is unveiled with the sweeps-month introduction of Lili Taylor's character, Donna, who is, says King, "Someone from Kalinda's past who reveals more of who Kalinda was before she joined this firm." And just so you know, somewhere along the line, all of these changes—plus the usual pressures of life and work—get to poor Kalinda. King tells us, "Kalinda goes ballastic and gets violent, which is cool, and it's fun to see Archie try to do it."
Speaking of sweeps, the first episode in November brings Michael J. Fox to the show. King says, "He plays a character named Simon Canning who is running against us and uses his disability to win in court. He represents an evil pharmaceutical company, and he tries to make the pharmaceutical company seem more sympathetic by using his disability."
Michelle King adds, "He is just spectacular. You see all the wit you are used to see from him, wrapped in a dramatic role." Also guesting during sweeps is Nickelodeon cutie Miranda Cosgrove, who "plays a pop star named Sloan who gets a DUI. You get a sense her handlers are trying to make her seem more chancy and dangerous, so that she'll grab more of an adult audience."
Are you guys excited for more of The Good Wife? And who's your favorite character amongst the show's lineup of superb actors?
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