To be honest, I'm not sure I'd even call The Good Wife a postmodern "prestige drama"--it's pretty episodic, and it's on network television, both of which tend to speak against that label. I'm with you, though, in that it's the only other show currently on the air where I genuinely love the characters.

I don't know that this is even a flaw of other prestige dramas, because I don't think they're trying to make us love their characters. We're just supposed to think they're interesting enough to watch. But I certainly do prefer the viewing experience when I love the characters, and the emotional impact of the hard things that happen is much, much stronger when I'm viewing it from within a character's head rather than at arm's length, at an intellectual distance.

-J