‘The Good Wife’ series finale: Julianna Margulies anticipates split reaction

The series finale of “The Good Wife” is going to be coming your way on CBS Sunday, May 8, but in preparation for that the show’s main star is speaking out about how she expects the reaction from the fanbase to be somewhat mixed. In many ways, we do understand that sentiment; most series finales are contentious, with groups of fans either loving them or hating them. Few get a chance to go out in one of the few super-beloved finales, and even one like “Breaking Bad” has its detractors.

For “The Good Wife,” they should really just strive for not having the uproar that either “Dexter” or “How I Met Your Mother” did.

Writing per Entertainment Weekly, here’s what Julianna Margulies had to say about creating this last episode, and her reaction to reading the script from creators Robert and Michelle King for the first time:

“Christine [Baranski] and I were filming the scene late on Friday night, and I looked at her and I said, ‘The fans are either going to love this or they’re going to hate this, but there’s not going to be an in-between.’ Usually I write to the Kings right away after I read the script. I know how hard they worked on the last script, but I couldn’t write to them right away. I had to read it again. My husband said, ‘Well, how is it?’ And I said, ‘I need to read it again.’ Then I read it a third time and discussed it with my husband … I knew I loved it and I knew it was brilliant, but emotionally, I felt shaky after reading it.”

Given that this show and its lead Alicia Florrick have always been complicated, we expect the ending to reflect that. It would be a true shocker in the event that this story actually tied together the majority of the loose ends, and did not leave us in some sort of situation where we felt like we wanted more answers and the endgame of our own choosing. We’ve got a few weeks to go until this finale airs, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.