I really didn’t need to add any more television shows to my repetoire. But my friend Beth has a way of looping me into her world of lovely CBS television shows, chances for conference calls with TV stars and on-set visits (which of course I can’t do being 7 months pregnant) that get my dorky Midwest heart all-a-flutter. I just can’t say no to someone asking me to watch a new television show.
Especially when they’re good.
So last week I sat down to watch two new shows appearing on CBS’s lineup this fall – The Good Wife and Accidentally on Purpose. Starring Julianna Margulies and Jenna Elfman, respectively, these shows deal with the issues I write often about here: re-entry into the workforce after having kids. Of course, I have no experience about dealing with the issues of an unfaithful husband or getting accidentallky knocked up at age 37, but whatever, I’m always trying to be transparent about putting reviews about anything up here on this blog.
Because they’re good.
According to CBS press materials, The Good Wife is:
a drama starring Emmy Award winner Julianna Margulies as a wife and mother who boldly assumes full responsibility for her family and re-enters the workforce after her husband’s very public sex and political corruption scandal lands him in jail. Pushing aside the betrayal and crushing public humiliation caused by her husband Peter (Chris Noth), Alicia Florrick (Margulies) starts over by pursuing her original career as a defense attorney. As a junior associate at a prestigious Chicago law firm, she joins her longtime friend, former law school classmate and firm partner Will Gardner (Josh Charles), who is interested to see how Alicia will perform after 13 years out of the courtroom. Alicia is grateful the firm’s top litigator, Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), offers to mentor her but discovers the offer has conditions and realizes she’s going to need to succeed on her own merit.
Hello, you had me at Chris Noth. (Even if does play the biggest prick to cross the TV screen since Elliott Spitzer.) Margulies looks great and shows a depth of emotion in her character as a jilted wife. I’ll be back to see if she sticks by her husband’s side for much longer.
You can watch a clip here:
Accidentally on Purpose is a little lighter and a little, well, less realistic. But it’s still fun. According to CBS the show is:
is a comedy starring Golden Globe Award winner Jenna Elfman as Billie, a single woman who finds herself “accidentally” pregnant after a one-night stand with a much younger guy, and decides to keep the baby… and the guy. A newspaper film critic, Billie is barely surviving a humiliating breakup with her charming boss, James (Grant Show), who’s still trying to resume their relationship. Suddenly expecting a child with her “boy toy,” Zack (Jon Foster), Billie and Zack make an arrangement: to live together platonically. Billie’s party girl best friend Olivia (Ashley Jensen), and Abby (Lennon Parham), her conventional, younger married sister, eagerly look forward to the new addition and offer their own brands of advice and encouragement. But when Zack and his freeloading friends, including Davis (Nicolas Wright), start to turn her place into a frat house, Billie isn’t sure if she’s living with a boyfriend, a roommate, or if she just has another child to raise.
Hello, you had me at Grant Show. Like I said, not so realistic, but Jenna Elfman is way cuter and less annoying as she was as the wacky wife on Dharma and Greg, and the dad-to-be is rather adorable and endearing. Plus, you had me at Grant Show.
Watch a clip here:
Both shows air this fall.
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I’ll have to check them out. Did you watch “Glee” last night? Quirky and cute, but this is all coming from a former choral director, so of course I liked it.