Good Wife Series Review: An entertaining legal drama that deserves more breathing room

Good Wife Series Review: In the first scene of the final episode of Good Wife, an unfaithful Gunaseelan (Sampath Raj) feels no hesitation in questioning his wife Tarunika’s (Priyamani) loyalty to him, despite the fact that it’s his own betrayal that has thrown their lives into disarray. Tarunika does push back, rightfully asserting he has no ground to question her fidelity. Yet, the scene reinforces an all-too-familiar verdict: no matter how unjust life or the people around them may be, women are still held to an impossible standard. This is one of many important scenes in Good Wife—helmed by Revathy and written by Halitha Shameem—that strikes a balance between entertainment and commentary, even if it occasionally falters in narrative cohesion.

When Additional Advocate General Gunaseelan’s sex scandal, suggesting his involvement in a bigger drug racket, is exposed, his homemaker wife Tarunika’s life is pretty much upended. Having left her career for nearly 16 years, she is forced to return to the field of law to support her family in her husband’s absence. Her comeback, however, is fraught with judgment, professional scepticism, and the emotional fallout of her children grappling with their father’s disgrace.

The female gaze is neither subtle nor sidelined in Good Wife; it’s front and centre, and rightfully so. In the first episode, fellow lawyer Lavanya (Mekha Rajan) casually criticises Tarunika for choosing family over career, underscoring a less acknowledged truth: sometimes, the harshest judgements come from other women. The cases Tarunika takes on, too, are laced with relevance—from the illegal harvesting of minor girls’ ova in fertility clinics to a pregnant woman’s battle to secure insurance coverage for a life-saving surgery. The show’s case files are carefully chosen, clearly prioritising a woman-centric legal lens.

But if there's one objection to be sustained, it's the series’ six-episode limit. Spanning a nine-month timeline, the show attempts to cover a staggering breadth of issues, including Tarunika’s career, the toll the scandal has taken on her children, the cases argued by her firm, her past and present relationship with Hari Deepak (Aari Arjunan) and Gunaseelan, and more. Packed with layers of storylines, Good Wife slacks towards the end, as every issue is covered in glimpses. No arc is given enough time to build through and blossom towards redemption, thereby making it a series that covers a number of aspects in fleeting moments.

With that said, Priyamani shines as Tarunika Gunaseelan, as she boldly dons the lawyer’s coat in court and orates rebuttals and arguments like a pro. She is also powerful as the mother who balances her work and life while establishing her boundaries as a single mother to her mother-in-law. The overwhelming nature of the narrative underutilises her ability to feel and pass through emotions, like when her daughter is said to have attempted suicide, or when her husband questions her loyalty. The ensemble cast of the series also contributes to the flourishes of the series, making it a quick binge-watch with stuff.

In its final episodes, Good Wife places Tarunika at a familiar crossroads—choosing between personal fulfilment and her children’s well-being—a decision many women are still unfairly expected to make, even in supposedly progressive times. For the unversed, Good Wife is adapted from the American series The Good Wife, which was later made as Trial: Pyaar, Kanoon, Dokha, in Hindi. Whether or not this Tamil version upholds the precedent set by its predecessors is debatable, but as a standalone series, it offers promise and purpose, flaws and all. The series ends with a cliffhanger, with hopes for a more detailed season 2 with ample breathing space for the characters and their dynamics and layers to progress fully. Until then, Good Wife stands as a series that holds weight at its best and holds attention at its worst.