The Good Wife is arguably one of the queerest shows on television with it’s regular and recurring bisexual and gay characters, its regular and recurring out actors and a revolving door of Broadway musical stars, some of whom are also out actors. On top of all that, CBS’s critical darling that stars Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick, a high-powered attorney often torn between career and her lingering love for her once-upon-a-time philandering politician husband, also delivers thoughtful LGBT storylines. And this week Alicia and company took on DOMA.
The case of the week that Alicia and her firm, Lockhart and Gardner’s partner Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) were defending was a fairly dry case that had to do with defrauding the government but out of that came wire taps and the issue of “spousal shield” that applied to one man being prosecuted who was heterosexual and one for whom “spousal shield” did not apply because the federal government won’t recognize same-sex marriage under the Defense of Marriage Act.
As the story went, a big-time lawyer renowned for his dedication to LGBT rights and for arguing before the Supreme Court, argued to join Alicia and Diane to take on the case. But that’s where it got tricky. While the Lockhart and Gardner attorneys argued to win the battle to keep their client from doing hard time the big-time attorney was there to lose the battle and take the case to the Supreme Court to try to overturn DOMA.
Throughout the episode inequality under DOMA was highlighted and spelled out, not by Alicia or Diane, but by the prosecuting attorney -- played by the great Brian Dennehy – making for a compelling mini history lesson for all of those viewers who might not otherwise understand why the hateful legislation is such a big deal to same-sex couples and the people who love them.
If the story weren’t enough to tune into The Good Wife, did I mention that Tony winner Bebe Neuwirth played the judge while Dallas Roberts appeared as Alicia’s gay brother and another Tony winner, Stockard Channing, appeared for the first time as Alicia’s mom? This is seriously amazing television.
Here’s a clip from the episode "A Defense of Marriage" below, but if you’d like to watch the full episode, here it is on CBS.com.
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