The Good Wife Bosses Talk Shocking Status Change, Alicia and Kalinda's Friendship and More Season 6 Scoop

Robert and Michelle King preview what's ahead for the hit CBS drama after the big season premiere

By Chris Harnick Sep 22, 2014 5:05 AMTags
The Good WifeCBS

Have you picked your jaws up from the floor yet, The Good Wife fans? Season six kicked things off with quite a bang. Read on at your own risk.

The season six premiere picked up with Alicia (Julianna Margulies) answering Eli's (Alan Cumming) State's Attorney proposition…or did she really give her final question? Then we saw Alicia and Diane (Christine Baranski) deal with the fallout of Cary's (Matt Czuchry) arrest. Yes, Cary's in the slammer! Plus, Law & Order: SVU's Kelli Giddish returned as Sophia and distracted Kalinda (Archie Panjabi).

You have questions, we know. We have answers from co-creators Robert and Michelle King. Warning, spoilers ahead!

When did you decide to send Cary to jail?
Robert
: We knew this year was going to focus a little more on Matt Czuchry because we did feel in the spine of each season, Matt's been kind of sometimes tangential to it. He's kind of been brought in to the center of it some years, but really not the driving force. We wanted something that kind of made him a little bit more of the center. Pretty much after all the fighting Alicia and Cary did last year, we were a little worried. We wanted to start the year where there was some crisis for them to carrel around, that they could to be on each other's side around. We always thought Cary was this character who was this deceptively white suburban boy, when in fact many of the hardships he's put through, he's stunned he has to be put through…part of the comedy of his character is he's this kind of white suburban boy who's surprised he's in all these travails.

Michelle: What is also appetizing about this story was is how much it impacts Alicia. Because obviously the education of Alicia Florrick is the center of the series and this brings up a lot of very difficult issues for her. I mean, the loyalty she feels towards Cary is at odds with what might be best for her, both as first lady of Illinois and as someone who might consider running for State's Attorney. Plus, it puts her law practice in jeopardy. It's all kind of great stuff.

CBS

How does this shape the season? Will he be in jail for an arc?
Robert
: You will see him in jail longer, it is kind of a "to be continued" at the end of the episode. The good thing for us is you're always looking for explosions that can happen in the world that doesn't just impact one or two characters, but all of them. Michelle pointed it out, while it does impact Alicia, it also impacts Diane joining the firm with Taye Diggs. How are they going to be absorbed into something that is already fraught? The other thing is if Alicia chooses to run, it really does impact her campaign. It's that kind of pivot point that we had last season with Alicia leaving the firm in episode five and Will's death in episode 15.

Going back to the Alicia/State's Attorney storyline: It seems like she gives a firm answer, but then we have all this news coming out that Steven Pasquale may play her campaign manager. Is it safe to say this isn't a done deal of a topic?
Robert
: Correct, it's not a done deal. I think Alicia is someone who doesn't think of herself as someone who could ever run for office, probably because I think Alicia has kind of a tense attitude towards power. She in her heart of hearts desires it, but she's embarrassed that she desires it. Part of it is getting psychologically over the hump of, "I'm someone who would never run," and just physically, practically, she's always someone who needs a plan. So, how does that even work? That does not mean she's running. We're certainly leaving that question open, but I don't think anybody thinks the no now is firm.

Did you have any hesitation in jumping in to another election storyline after season 4?
Robert: Oh yeah. Completely. The only thing we felt is that each year—because our interest in politics is equal to our interest in the law— each year we thought is there another way to explore. I do think with Hillary [Clinton] probably running—sorry—that's probably as well-kept a secret as whether Jules runs on our show—that it offers a lot more possibilities in seeing how a power couple, a power couple where the husband is caring for the wife but also loves politics and loves getting elbow-deep into politics. How does that kind of relationship work? The only reason to go into it is because it's about the education of Alicia and it's part of her education.

CBS

A colleague of mine just binge-watched all five seasons and she was really curious as to how this will be different and I got a few questions about it, so it's definitely on peoples' minds.
Michelle: Oh for sure.
Robert: I think they'll see pretty quickly that it's very different from any of the others. The one we probably pushed was the governor year, which may have been not different enough from the second season election.

You mentioned Taye Diggs and we know he's coming on along with David Hyde Pierce. What do they bring to the show?
Robert
: What Taye Diggs brings is someone who is real sympathetic and an earpiece to Diane. They're very similar, the two of them, at least on the show. They are meticulous people who don't like the mess of Murphy's Law, which makes it very difficult as they're going to be moving to this old t-shirt factory that's now been turned into a law firm as Florrick/Agos. Part of it is they bring the comedy there. With David Hyde Pierce, we just started shooting his episodes this week. What he brings is kind of an understated comedy that kind of bubbles up in unexpected ways. We've been really trying to figure out how to write towards him, how to kind of let him have the stage with the characters. He plays a Jeffrey Toobin-like commentator on CNN, a legal commentator and he is so disgusted by the murder of rate in Chicago, he starts thinking of running for State's Attorney.

CBS

Another question that came up very, very frequently is the state of Alicia and Kalinda. I don't know if you saw, but BuzzFeed had this story that they haven't had a scene together in 30 episodes. People really want to know: Will they ever have one again? Will we see them come together besides on the phone?
Robert: I think so. I mean, here's the bottom line. We're trying to follow the reality now that she slept with Peter, which kind of comes back into their lives because one thing when someone's running for office, scandal tends to follow. There is a possibility. I saw that piece too. First of all, I was surprised people are keeping track. Second of all, part of that has been intentional, which is to try and show this relationship, which was a friendship so strong, is now so worse.

With kind of putting Alicia and Kalinda on the backburner, you've been able to explore more Alicia and Diane together, which I have enjoyed and I know other viewers have too. Will we see more?
Robert: Oh yes.
Michelle: It's so interesting to us.
Robert: We're also doing a lot of Diane and Kalinda too, so yes.
Michelle: With all these characters you get to see slightly different connections. We're going to see more Eli and Alicia this season too. All of that's fun for us.

Lemond Bishop has a huge role in the premiere. Is it safe to say we'll see more of Mike Colter?
Michelle: Yes, we think he's so spectacular in the role of Lemond Bishop and the actor could not be further in temperament, so it's really a testament to his acting.
Robert: We've shot six episodes so far and he's in four of them. We're kind of getting into the Mike Colter business in a big way.

Going back to Cary, I know we'll see him in jail, but will it just be people visiting him or will we see him interacting with the other inmates and what not?
Robert: Some, some. The thing is, unfortunately, sometimes when you're in prison, you're on this little island. It doesn't spill over enough into the other stories. What we love is having stories that intersect, so you'll see some of that, but you may not see much…Orange Is the New Black.

NBC

Do you ever bring on celebrity fans of the show on? I was tweeting with Retta from Parks and Recreation and I think she would be amazing.
Michelle: She would be amazing and we'd love it. I think she's in Los Angeles…
Robert: We tried to cast her, we went to her agent—as far as her agent—but we couldn't get her out from LA to New York. There's this thing in episode four, we had to go to another actress. Where—you'll see, I don't want to give it away, but it was supposed to be her playing herself.

Is there anything you want to add about season 6? Do you have any other trick up your sleeves to shock viewers?
Robert: I don't think people can ever expect the Will kind of death again, we don't want to be playing tricks with the audience like it's a three-card monte or something. It's really meant to try and follow what the reality would be if these people lived in reality. What we loved is the idea that the law gets you very close to people who are villainous or apparently villainous, like Bishop. And that in fact you can get burned when you do that. So I think that's the guiding thing here. And what we love to do is go forwards by going backwards in the series. So in Matt's story we went back to the first season in episode 15, an episode called "Fleas," the first show that Bishop is introduced in. Someone says, "You lie down with dogs you wake up with fleas." I think now with this season, you're starting to see those fleas come home.

Michelle, do you want to add anything?
Michelle: No, only that the premiere is really about contrast. You get to see the difficulties that Cary is experiencing, the harshness of prison and it's right up against the gorgeousness of the law firm and Diane in her beautiful suits. We want to see that in the look of the show and the storytelling.

The Good Wife airs Sundays, 9 p.m. on CBS.