Josh Charles' turn as lawyer Will Gardner on "The Good Wife" came to an end last spring. The character was killed off in the 15th episode of the fifth season. "We've all experienced the sudden death of a loved one in our lives," the showrunners said in an explanatory letter.
As the protagonist of the series, it would make sense for Alicia Florrick to be the most skilled lawyer of them all. But that's what's unique about The Good Wife: it's not a legal drama that's all about the courtroom.
Robert and Michelle King witnessed Will’s death firsthand. The Good Wife‘s L.A.-based co-creators flew to New York in mid-January to be present for the taping of Josh Charles’ swan song as the ill-fated attorney.
‘The Good Wife’ is a show about human behavior and emotion, and death, as sad and unfair as it can be, is a part of the human experience that we want to share.” In the end, the two conclude, “Life does go on.”
The Good Wife creators Robert and Michelle King weigh in on the ending that even star Julianna Margulies said would be very divisive. The Good Wife is a holdover from an earlier age of network—or really any—TV drama.
The character was written off because Charles himself decided not to renew his contract after doing some soul-searching about his future. As sad as fans were to see Charles go, it didn't take away from the impact that his portrayal of Will Gardner had on the show.
The relationship ended when Alicia's daughter Grace had gone missing. Alicia blamed herself for being irresponsible and decided that she needed to focus on her children. She goes to Will's office and says she is sorry and breaks down in tears.
A reminder from The Good Wife Will died in a Chicago courtroom shootout in episode 15 of season five. In fact, his own very disturbed client, Jeffrey Grant — played by Weeds alumnus Hunter Parrish — killed him. Jeffrey was accused of murder, and Diane and Kalinda doubted his innocence.
She eventually had to leave town to escape the wrath of Bishop and his team. Considering her well-documented disdain for politics, it was a little — ok, very — disconcerting to see Alicia abandon the firm she and Cary had built from the ground up to step into the spotlight and run for office.
After reports of voter fraud surface, Landau reveals to Alicia that he rigged the voting machines in order to preserve the Democratic supermajority in the Illinois state legislature. However, in order to maintain the façade of a fair election, Landau forces Alicia to resign.
“My time with you as your friend was the best I ever had and I'm sorry,” Kalinda told Alicia in a rare emotional moment for the normally stoic investigator.
At the end of season two, after Peter won the election for State's Attorney, Alicia discovered he had slept with her friend and co-worker Kalinda Sharma before the scandal.
Instead of all of Ashbaugh's estate going to his wife, this second will bequeathed $12 million to a charity, and another $12 million to Alicia.
Unlike her husband, Alicia is not getting slapped for sleeping with prostitutes. Rather, Diane slaps her because Alicia (during cross-examination at Peter's trial) undermined Diane's husband, making him look unreliable and not credible, in hopes of saving Peter from going to jail.
Once her plan is discovered, she is forced to surrender drug dealer Lemond Bishop to the state's attorney's office so that Diane Lockhart doesn't face any punishment. For her own safety, Kalinda leaves Chicago behind.
Alicia Gets Slapped She turns around to see her partner at her law firm, Diane Lockhart, walking toward her. For a moment it seems this might be symbolic: Alicia was never supposed to end up with a man but concentrate on building her all-female law film.
This episode felt minor, but its final beat revealed Kalinda betraying Will for a chance to save Alicia, just as Diane has re-stated her implicit trust in Will. And in that you have the arc, with assured heartbreak all around, that will carry us through to the end of the season.
Unlike her husband, Alicia is not getting slapped for sleeping with prostitutes. Rather, Diane slaps her because Alicia (during cross-examination at Peter's trial) undermined Diane's husband, making him look unreliable and not credible, in hopes of saving Peter from going to jail.
The Last Call (Season 5, Episode 16) The aftermath of Will Gardner's death. After being gunned down by his client midtrial, Will's death becomes the before and after in Alicia's life. Despite having ended their brief love affair, Will and Alicia were magnets that kept gravitating to one another.
Shortly after Will's death, she left Lockhart/Gardner along with several other department heads and joined Alicia and Cary's new law firm, Florrick/Agos, leaving LG to David Lee and Louis Canning .
Of course, Cary is soon proved wrong when Diane proposes making Alicia a name partner. Both David and Cary oppose, but when Diane offers David more money, he decides to leave Cary in the dust. So, Alicia is made name partner on The Good Wife , but, to her surprise, Cary quits the firm.
The actor, whose character Will Gardner was killed off Sunday on the legal drama, tried to clear things up during a visit to the "Late Show with David Letterman" on Monday.
Charles and the rest of the cast members had to keep their lips sealed about his pending departure for about a year. Charles, though, said he told a couple of family members he "knew could keep a secret.".
Josh Charles as Will Gardner on 'The Good Wife'. Image Credit: CBS. Last season, Josh Charles’ Will Gardner joined the inestimable Dead TV Characters Society. CBS legal drama The Good Wife got a shot in the arm in its fifth season, fired up by the decision of Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) to break free from Lockhart/Gardner, ...
Pushing much of the tension forward was renegade lawyer Will, played by Charles ( Dead Poets Society, Sports Night ), and his anger at what he deemed a betrayal committed by his former flame. Desks were manhandled, clients were fought over.
This season was also notable because we saw Alicia stepping in as public defender in the chaos of bond court.
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He clocks in ahead of his co-founder Diane because of his ability to balance a great legal argument with real human connection. He's the best of Alicia and the best of Diane, combined. NEXT: The 5 Best & 5 Worst Movie Lawyers Of All Time. Next My Hero Academia: 8 Unpopular Opinions About The Anime According To Reddit.
But that's what's unique about The Good Wife: it's not a legal drama that's all about the courtroom. Alicia excels outside the courtroom—in depositions and settlements and closed-door meetings—where her ability to empathize with people can really shine.
Peter Florrick, portrayed by Chris North ( Law & Order, Sex and the City ), begins the series as Cook County State's Attorney. He resigns in disgrace, gets re-elected, rides the wave of public opinion all the way to the Illinois Governor's mansion, and then ends the series the same way he started by resigning in disgrace all over again. Not surprising from a man who can't keep it in his pants.
Diane is the heavy hitter that other lawyers call when they're in trouble, even her co-founder and other name partner Will Gardner. She's also one of the most dynamic characters on the show. Her romance with Kurt McVeigh, a conservative Republican, gives The Good Wife room to explore the clash of political views and the nuance of trying to reach understandings between polar viewpoints.
Star of The Resident, Matt Czuchry, started his career in season one as a first-year associate alongside Alicia Florrick. Throughout the series, he is sometimes friend and sometimes foe, but what never changes is the fact that he's a formidable opponent in the office and in the courtroom. At the end of season one, he defects to the State's Attorney's office, and, from there, he takes a meandering path to success.
Equity partner and head of Family Law at Lockhart Gardner, David Lee appears in both the original CBS series and the CBS All Access spinoff The Good Fight. He may not be the most likable man, but, when it comes to handling Alicia's (almost) divorce from Peter, he gets the job done.
The final moments of The Good Wife are memorable in part because of the controversy they stirred up among fans who were left unsatisfied, but the ending also built up to something bigger. Later, show creators Robert and Michelle King defended the climactic moment between Diane and Alicia as the appropriate ending for their series, as we'll get into.
In Alicia's case, the slap comes after she attempts to undermine Diane's husband Kurt (Gary Cole) in the course of Peter's trial. She reveals that Kurt had an affair and attempts to make him look unreliable in order to help Peter's case. At that moment, Alicia decides to put her own interests above Diane's, and she ultimately causes her former mentor a lot of pain as a result.
The pilot follows Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) as she dealt with the news that her husband Peter (Chris Noth), who was then working as a State's Attorney, had a series of affairs. She puts on a brave face at a press conference but appears to be slowly unraveling as her husband comes under questioning from reporters. As soon as the two of them are alone together, she slaps him across the face.
After Alicia gets hit, she wipes away a tear and quickly moves forward. She straightens out her suit, sets her face in a defiant glare, and prepares for whatever's coming next.
The Good Wife creators Robert and Michelle King weigh in on the ending that even star Julianna Margulies said would be very divisive. The Good Wife is a holdover from an earlier age of network—or really any—TV drama. While Alicia took her final bow in an era when the ice zombies on Game of Thrones and the sweaty zombies on The Walking Dead rule ...
As Breaking Bad famously tracked the evolution of Walter White “from Mr. Chips to Scarface,” The Good Wife followed Alicia as she evolved into Peter. The Kings claim the show was “moving in the direction where there wasn't much difference between who Alicia was and who her husband was.”.
As many predicted, Alicia ended the series by deciding to become a “bad“ wife, but that looked a little different than they might have expected. Alicia still stood by Peter’s side and helped him evade conviction, but according to the Kings, she was motivated by selfish interest.
As Alicia’s vision of Will points out in the finale, their romance was the most appealing to her when it was the road less traveled. The narrative of Will and Alicia that we accepted for so long was that Alicia stuffed her needs and wants down for much of the series in order to be the “good” wife to Peter. But Will was always her fantasy, her “what ...
The most charitable interpretation we can come up with is that at least Alicia was partially thinking of Grace as she did it. Still the scene where Diane slaps Alicia is a perfect mirror for the premiere where Alicia slapped Peter.
That point was made all the clearer by the surprise return of Josh Charles as the deceased Will Gardner in Sunday’s finale titled “End.”. As the series wrapped up, Peter was back on trial, Alicia was in a bind, and, once again, ...
The Good Wife. Creators Think That Finale Was a Tragedy. The show’s incredible finale belongs to an earlier age of television. Save this story for later. Courtesy of Jeff Neumann/CBS. Save this story for later. It’s been clear for several episodes know that The Good Wife was aiming to come full circle with its season finale.
Your last time with the loved one will always remain your last time. ‘The Good Wife’ is a show about human behavior and emotion, and death, as sad and unfair as it can be, is a part of the human experience that we want to share.”.
Josh Charles' turn as lawyer Will Gardner on "The Good Wife" came to an end last spring. The character was killed off in the 15th episode of the fifth season . "We've all experienced the sudden death of a loved one in our lives," the showrunners said in an explanatory letter.
The death of the wise doctor, Hershel, during "The Walking Dead's" fourth season broke some hearts. Photos: Shocking character deaths. PHOTO: Fox. On a 2013 episode of Seth MacFarlane's long-running "Family Guy," fans were stunned to watch one of the animated comedy's central characters bite the dust.
Photos: Shocking character deaths. PHOTO: Dreamworks/Everett Collection. The death of Kevin Spacey's character, Lester Burnham, in the 1999 movie "American Beauty" is accompanied by poignant words at the end of the film. Photos: Shocking character deaths.
Michael Cordero, played by Brett Dier , was killed off in season three of "Jane the Virgin.". The character had survived being shot in the season two finale, but succumbed to complications from that shooting. Photos: Shocking character deaths. PHOTO: Fox Broadcasting.