Shows Like The Good Wife
If you loved The Good Wife's Drama storytelling, these series deliver a similar experience — chosen for tone, narrative quality, and viewer satisfaction. Each includes where to stream it now.
★ Top Picks
Judging Amy
Judging Amy is an American television drama that was telecast from September 19, 1999, through May 3, 2005, on CBS-TV. This TV series starred Amy Brenneman and Tyne Daly. Its main character is a judge who serves in a family court, and in addition to the family-related cases that she adjudicates, many episodes of the show focus on her own experiences as a divorced mother, and on the experiences of her mother, a social worker who works in the field of child welfare. This series was based on the life experiences of Brenneman's mother.
Matlock
Matlock is an American television legal drama, starring Andy Griffith in the title role of criminal defense attorney Ben Matlock. The show, produced by The Fred Silverman Company, Dean Hargrove Productions, Viacom Productions and Paramount Television originally aired from September 23, 1986 to May 8, 1992 on NBC; and from November 5, 1992 until May 7, 1995 on ABC. The show's format is similar to that of CBS's Perry Mason, with Matlock identifying the perpetrators and then confronting them in dramatic courtroom scenes. One difference, however, was that whereas Mason usually exculpated his clients at a pretrial hearing, Matlock usually secured an acquittal at trial, from the jury.
Family Law
Lawyer and recovering alcoholic Abigail Bianchi is struggling to put her career and family back together after hitting rock bottom. As a condition of her probation, Abby is forced to work at her estranged father’s firm, Svensson and Associates, and practice in family law for the first time while forging new relationships with the half-brother and half-sister whom she’s never met. The result is a dysfunctional family law firm operating to help other families with their own dysfunctions.
For the People
Brand new lawyers work for both the defense and the prosecution as they handle the most high profile and high stakes cases in the country – all as their personal lives intersect.
Everwood
After the death of his wife, world-class neurosurgeon Dr. Andrew Brown leaves Manhattan and moves his family to the small town of Everwood, Colorado. There he becomes a small-town doctor and learns parenting on the fly as he raises his talented but resentful 15-year-old son Ephram and his 9-year-old daughter Delia.
Proven Innocent
Madeline Scott, a fierce and uncompromising lawyer with a hunger for justice, runs an underdog criminal defense firm. There is no one who understands the power of setting an innocent person free more than Madeline. At age 18, she was wrongfully convicted, along with her brother, in a sensational murder case. Madeline defends others as she fights to maintain her innocence and searches for the real killer in her own case.
Mom
Aan irreverent and outrageous take on true family love‐and dysfunction. Newly sober single mom Christy struggles to raise two children in a world full of temptations and pitfalls. Testing her sobriety is her formerly estranged mother, now back in Christy's life and eager to share passive-aggressive insights into her daughter's many mistakes.
Janet King
Senior Prosecutor Janet King returns from maternity leave to confront a high-profile murder, and a conspiracy which will have shocking ramifications throughout the judicial system.
More Shows Like The Good Wife
All Rise
A look at the personal and professional lives of the judges, lawyers, clerks, bailiffs and cops who work at an L.A. County courthouse.
Silk
Silk is a British television drama series produced by the BBC and first shown in 2011. Written by Peter Moffat, the series follows a set of barristers, and what they do to attain the rank of Queen's Counsel, known as 'taking silk'. Passionate defence barrister Martha Costello faces challenging cases and surprising clients, which test her faith in the criminal justice system. Gifted colleague Clive Reader is called to the bar with her. They work hard with pupils, Nick Slade and Niamh Cranitch, but ultimately only one can eventually be taken on as a member of chambers.
The Curse
An alleged curse disturbs the relationship of a newly married couple as they try to conceive a child while co-starring on their problematic new HGTV show.
Fairly Legal
Kate Reed is a firm believer that justice can always be found – even if it's not always in the courtroom. Once a lawyer at her family's esteemed San Francisco firm, Kate's frustration with the legal system led her to a new career as a mediator. Thanks to her innate understanding of human nature, thorough legal knowledge, and wry sense of humor, Kate is a natural when it comes to dispute resolution. Except, it seems, when it comes to conflicts in her own life.
Betrayal
A chance meeting between photographer Sara Hadley and Attorney Jack McAllister leads to an instant and undeniable attraction. Just as Sara and Jack's affair is starting, the lovers find themselves in an impossible situation—on opposite sides of a murder investigation.
Sister Wives
Husband Kody Brown, along with his four wives (only one of which is legally married to Kody) and their combined 18 children, attempts to navigate life as a "normal" family in a society that shuns their lifestyle.
Parenthood
The trials and tribulations of the very large, colorful and imperfect Braverman family.
Tyler Perry's The Oval
A seemingly perfect interracial first family becomes the White House's newest residents. But behind closed doors they unleash a torrent of lies, cheating and corruption.
Jane the Virgin
A comedy-drama following a chaste young woman who is accidentally impregnated via artificial insemination as she struggles to inform her devoutly religious family and make the right choices concerning the child. Based on the telenovela "Juana la virgen."
8 Simple Rules
Paul and Cate are raising their three children -- Bridget, Kerry and Rory -- which is no easy task. Oldest daughter Bridget is traversing the dating scene. Kerry is cute and smart, but she has a hard time getting in touch with her true feelings because of her lack of self-confidence. The youngest of the three children, and only boy, Rory is beginning to discover one of life's greatest mysteries -- girls.
Family Ties
Former 1960s flower children Steven and Elyse Keaton raise their conservative son Alex, daughters Mallory and Jennifer, and later, youngest child Andrew.
Why These Shows Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with The Good Wife (2009): Drama themes, similar pacing, and comparable production quality. NoBadPicks uses TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface series most likely to resonate with fans of The Good Wife.
See full details for The Good Wife (2009)