Justin Stephens/CBSTeam Will. Team Peter. Team Finn. Team Johnny. What about Team Alicia? The Good Wife has been divided into love triangle camps for years—pretty much from the start of the series. That's partially the fault of co-creators Robert and Michelle Kings—and they'll own up to that.
Once The Good Wife put the Will-Alicia-Peter triangle to bed—through the shocking murder of Will Gardner (Josh Charles) in season five, fans immediately shifter their focus onto Finn Polmar (Matthew Goode) and his spark with Alicia (Julianna Margulies). Enter Alicia's campaign manager Johnny Elfman (Steven Pasquale) and it was like everything old was new again with a line drawn down the middle with camps for who deserves Alicia. Are viewers putting too much stock into who is bedding the show's heroine?
"I personally do," Robert told us with a laugh when asked if he thinks viewers care too much about who Alicia may or may not be sleeping with. "We were at…Paley Center and that came to be the question on everybody's mind...I only think it's a little bit of a double standard because I don't think there would be that same sense if it was a man, like a hero. They never said that about Bryan Cranston's character in Breaking Bad. But on the other hand, we were probably encouraging it because for three to four years of this show there was a love triangle that kind of made everybody want to split down Team Peter and Team Will."
This year, Robert said the writers have been trying to move beyond that. Julianna Margulies told us she was hesitant to have her character dive into another love triangle again and credited the Kings with setting up misdirection with Finn-Alicia-Johnny. Still, Robert said the question of sex is tied into the show's questions about power.
"Even though she's in her mid-40s, Alicia's character is not any less of a sexual being. She's tempted constantly," he said. "She is not someone who has given up on the possibility there is love in her life, so that's a long way to say I do think the audience sometimes goes there, but I think sometimes we encourage it by our storytelling."
However, the fixation on whether or not Alicia Florrick will get some lovin' doesn't bother The Good Wife's other co-creator, Michelle King.
"Robert and I have a slightly different take," Michelle told us. "I think I kind of like that people are obsessed about it just because I like that people see Alicia as a multi-faceted character. She's not just a professional lawyer, she's not just a mom, she's also a physical, sexual being and the fact that people are interested in all of those facets is a nice thing."
The Good Wife's season six finale airs Sunday, May 10 at 9 p.m. on CBS.