Just like how we get American remakes of foreign shows all the time, there are plenty of remakes of American hits. Alicia’s Law, a new Mexican court drama on Netflix, is a remake of the 2009-16 hit series The Good Wife.
Opening Shot: At a reception at a well-appointed house, an elegantly-dressed woman walks through, adjusting flowers and table settings because “it’s all in the details.”
The Gist: Alicia Paniagua (Fernanda Castillo) is living an idyllic life as the wife of Justice Aurelio Paniagua (Juan Manuel Bernal) and the mother of two overachieving teenagers. But during the reception, a viral video of Aurelio having relations with a sex worker is released. The next day, after reluctantly standing behind him at a news conference where he apologizes, Aurelio is arrested on corruption charges. His assets are seized and accounts are frozen.
This means Alicia and her kids have to leave, and they move into the apartment Alicia and Aurelio used to live in when they were first married. And, even though she graduated law school 20 years ago, she pounds the pavement to every firm she can find in Mexico City to look for work. She gets rejected at every turn until she runs into David (Michel Brown), an old friend from law school. He offers her a probationary junior associate position at his firm. She’ll be in competition for the permanent position with a young go-getter named Alex (Darío Yazbek).
One of David’s partners at the firm, Diana (Karina Gidi), hands Alicia, now going by her maiden last name Flores, her first case: A celebrity accused of driving drunk and accidentally killing a bicyclist. It’s supposed to be a simple plea deal, but the celebrity insists she is innocent. Connecting with the client over their shared experience of a viral video ruining their lives, Alicia tries to prove her innocence, with the help of Katya (Yoshira Escárrega), the firm’s investigator.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? If you didn’t realize this already, Alicia’s Law is a remake of The Good Wife, the 2009-16 CBS hit from Michelle and Robert King and starring Juliana Margulies.
Our Take: Alicia’s Law borrows the basic structure of The Good Wife, even if the cases that Alicia and the firm she works for might be different. Alicia feels betrayed by Aurelio, and by finding the job with David’s firm, she starts to realize that she’s spent the last 20 years being someone she never aimed to be.
That is fully communicated via Fernanda Castillo’s performance as Alicia. She immediately puts the audience in her corner, and she would have been able to do it even if we didn’t already know what the general plot of the show was. Her version of Alicia is resourceful, and she quickly realizes that standing behind Aurelio is a non-starter, and as he tries to rope her in to his corruption case, she’s going to do her best to resist it.
Of course, the original Good Wife wasn’t just about Alicia, and we hope that characters in her new firm go beyond stock legal drama characters. The only caution we have there is that these characters aren’t going to receive the wit and keen character development that the Kings gave their characters on the original. If this show’s writers are up to the task, though, the world of Alicia’s Law should be as fun to watch as the world of The Good Wife.
Performance Worth Watching: Since we already mentioned Castillo, we’ll mention Yoshira Escárrega as Katya, who is as forthright an earthy as Archie Panjabi’s Kalinda was.
Sex And Skin: Some brief shots of the viral video with Aurelio and the sex worker.
Parting Shot: While Aurelio tries to call Alicia, another inmate sucker punches him and drags him away.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Even without the wit of the Kings coming from its characters, Alicia’s Law is a worthy Good Wife remake because of the lead performance of Fernanda Castillo.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
