THE GOOD WIFE “Pilot.” 22 September 2009. Julianna Margulies, Chris Noth, Christine Baranski, Archie Panjabi, Matt Czuchry. Guest Cast: Katie Walder. Created and written by Robert King) & Michelle King. Director: Charles McDougall.

   I remember when the series started and I thought it sounded interesting — but not interesting enough for it to last more than the usual three months or so that new shows are almost always gone by. Why invest any time in it, when it will history by Christmas?

   It was on for seven years.

   You were probably way ahead of me. You also probably know the premise of the show. Just in case not, however, it begins with a scene seen all too often in this country. A man, a former State’s Attorney in Illinois, has been forced to resign because of corruption and a sex scandal. His wife, Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) is forced to stand on the stage next to hm as he apologizes but promises to keep fighting the charges.

   Six months later, Alicia, forced to go out and work for a living, is the new lady hiree at a prestigious law firm. Her first case is a pro bono one: a young woman is accused of shooting and killing her ex-husband in a parking garage. She claims that it was done by someone in a drive-by pickup truck, but neither the security guard nor a surveillance camera saw or shows such a truck anywhere in the vicinity.

   An impossible crime, in a way, except that the ex-wife was there, and the police have no interest in pursuing their investigation any further.

   Truthfully I liked the mystery more than I did the background story, and apparently (from looking at the plot lines on Wikipedia) the background story goes on and on through the whole run, almost soap opera style, except that it was done with a lot more production values and style.

   Which is not to put down soap operas. The people who work on them do yeoman work, under tough conditions, lower budgets and awfully tight time constraints.

   As for The Good Wife, I’m enough intrigued that I’ll watch another episode or so, but I can’t imagine, now that I’m so far behind, that I’ll ever find the time to go the whole seven yards. How far I go, I think will depend on whether the next few episodes have completed stories or not, as well as the ongoing drama.