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Dead Tree Alert: Uncommon Law Wife

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CBS

I’ve been writing a lot in this space lately about the disappointing fall broadcast lineup, and how the networks have all but given up launching challenging shows (particularly dramas), turning that job over to cable. (It’s worth noting, by the way, that however badly Lone Star flamed out, even the most successful of the network’s unambitious new shows, like Hawaii Five-0, have done modestly in the ratings at best, and most have done pretty badly. So boringness is no guarantee of success either.)

In the print TIME this week, I look at the flip side of that: is it possible, within the audience constraints of network TV, to make a drama that’s morally complex, adult and successful? It is, and Exhibit A is CBS’s The Good Wife. The Julianna Margulies drama has evolved from a ripped-from-the-headlines drama about a wronged political spouse into a legal-political-family drama in which no one is entirely ethically pure. But it pulls in a regular and sizeable (if a bit old, ad-demo wise) audience, in part by being a terrifically written case-of-the-week legal show as well.

The piece is not online yet, but it’s at your newsstands, so I shouldn’t give away the store here. Go buy a print TIME magazine! And other fine paper products! Paper towels really are more absorbent than your computer screen!