The Good Wife
Next time someone tells you that only cable can make smart, adult drama successfully, point them here. The Good Wife began with a timely premise: Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), the humiliated wife of a state's attorney caught in a scandal with a hooker, dusts off her law degree and goes to work. But going into its second season, it's become so much more: a political thriller, a family drama and a darn good case-of-the-week courtroom show. In each storyline, The Good Wife displays a moral complexity that most big-network dramas have given up on, asking what ethical trade-offs are justifiable for professional success, political gain and personal happiness. Even the heroine has become complicated, as Alicia learned to become a bare-knuckled legal brawler and pragmatically tried to reconcile with her former husband. Alicia is by no means perfect, and that's what makes The Good Wife good. (CBS)