As a broadcast network television show which is usually stigmatised compared to its cable competitors, it has received what is considered unusual critical acclaim: USA Today said that The Good Wife is "broadcast's best drama", while The Atlantic said that the show "is delivering the best drama on network television".[59][60] TIME referred to it as "the best thing on TV outside cable".[61] TV critic Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker compared Alicia Florrick, the show's protagonist, to Walter White of Breaking Bad.[62] Esquire called The Good Wife "The Best Show on Television Right Now (Both Network and Cable)," claiming that the season 5 episodes "Hitting The Fan" and "The Next Day" were possibly the best television episodes produced that year, noting, "It's a rare show that starts to come into its own in the middle of its fifth season, but somehow CBS's The Good Wife has managed to do it."[63] Chancellor Agard of The Daily Beast said, "'Hitting the Fan' is so momentous because of the degree to which it contrasts with last week's equally excellent episode, 'Outside the Bubble.'" [64] Don Kaplan of the New York Daily News said, "Now the drama's in its fifth season, a time when most shows either go on autopilot or start offering "very special" shark-jumping episodes. But the producers and cast of Wife somehow managed to kick over the chessboard where the show has been played for years, scattering the pieces to the wind and reinventing The Good Wife as one of the most gripping dramas on television. Period."[65] It was named the Favorite Current TV Show by the Harris Poll.[66] In 2013, TV Guide ranked the series #59 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time.[67]
