Tuesday Night

"The Good Wife"
Network: CBS

Last season, “The Good Wife” surprised some people with its critical acclaim and overall success. It was nominated for several awards, and although the show came up empty, lead actress Julianna Marguiles took home Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Television Critics Association awards for Best Actress in a Drama Series. Even supporting actress Archie Panjabi was surprised at the Emmys, winning a Best Supporting Actress in a Drama award herself.

Now the show returns for its second season, riding the momentum from a big choice in its finale.

Alicia Florrick, the eponymous good wife protagonist of the story. Her husband, Peter, has been behaving badly, engaging in some activity with prostitutes outside of his Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. After serving time, the rest of the first season centered on Alicia’s uncertainty whether to stand by her husband or to leave him for an old flame (also her new boss).

Eventually Alicia chooses to stand by her husband in the finale, but that begs the question, where does the show go from here?

If she’s already made her decision to be “The Good Wife,” those plot devices really can’t be recycled. Fortunately the brain power behind this show has proven to be trustworthy in the past, and there’s no reason not to expect stellar acting just like the first season.

The show was smart enough to draw inspiration from Eliot Spitzer and other defamed politicians in its first season, so there’s potential that real life will give them another direction for season two.

"Sons of Anarchy"
Network: FX

Centered around a tight-knit motorcycle gang from the fictional town of Charming, North Carolina, the second season of “Sons” was truly the definition of anarchy.
At the beginning of last season, the Sons Of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original  is threatened by a rival bike group of white separatists (they insist they’re not supremacists) who are aiming to break up the group and take over the drug trade in the northern part of California.

The League Of American Nationalists  becomes the arch villain for last season, constantly undermining SAMCRO at every turn. It later reaches all-out war status when LOAN begins encouraging other groups to go after SAMCRO.
Jax’s relationships come and go and twist and turn over and over again, most notably his friendship with SAMCRO’s president Clay, who almost causes Jax to desert the group at one point.

Truly fascinating in the way the show deals with this insane biker hierarchy, the second season of “Sons” culminates in truly shocking fashion, quickly (but not hastily) tying up loose ends in the finale. The show has shown that it can be great on a truly epic level, but it is sometimes unpolished and blank. The upcoming third season will be a telling one for the program.