Torn from too many headlines, “The Good Wife” (9 p.m., CBS) stars Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick, the once-doting wife of Peter (Chris Noth), a once-rising prosecutor seen delivering a painful press conference in the show’s opening sequence. Like too many political spouses, she stands by her man as he offers a tortured and nuanced explanation of his actions, which include charges of bribery and intimate moments with prostitutes.

Then, in a moment that will win instant fans for the series, she slaps him across the face.

It would be only half true to say it’s all downhill from there. With her husband facing prison, Alicia becomes the breadwinner, joins a posh law firm, and lets her chilly mother-in-law help raise the kids.

The case against her husband and the controversy surrounding her quickly become a backdrop to her story as intrepid lawyer, rule-bending truth-finder and feisty single mother. Of all of these roles, Margulies is most believable as the latter. She shares a natural relationship with her two teenagers, a bond made stronger by their mutual antipathy to her husband’s mother and the shared indignity of being reminded of Peter’s indiscretion by friends, colleagues, the TV news and YouTube.

“The Good Wife” is at least the second CBS series to revive the career of a popular performer who abandoned a hit series to appear in less-than-stellar projects. David Caruso (“NYPD Blue”) has thrived on the over-the-top “CSI Miami.” Perhaps as “The Good Wife,” Nurse Hathaway of “ER” can come in from the cold.

• Truly a master of many media, Jerry Bruckheimer has dominated movies (the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, among many) while engulfing and devouring prime-time television (three “CSI” shows and counting, “Cold Case,” “The Amazing Race,” etc).

But with “The Forgotten” (9 p.m. ABC), his winning streak may be over.

So morbid it’s ridiculous, each show is narrated by a dead body and kicks off with shots of Chicago engulfed by fog. The Windy City hasn’t looked so pretentiously gloomy since “Flatliners.”

And the voice-over stars aren’t just cadavers, they are unclaimed corpses, morgue-bound victims of violent crimes. After a month, when the cops turn their attention to fresher incidents, these back-of-the-fridge leftovers become the focus of a super-dedicated band of volunteer crime-solvers under the leadership of the humorless and mysterious Alex Donovan (Christian Slater), an ex-cop, harboring some deep, dark secret wound.

Tonight’s other highlights

• Ziva is missed on the seventh-season opener of “NCIS” (7 p.m., CBS), followed by its spin-off “NCIS: Los Angeles” (8 p.m., CBS).

• Evidence of an illegal auction emerges on the season finale of “Warehouse 13” (8 p.m., SyFy).

• The apocalyptic “Survivor” clone “The Colony” (9 p.m., Discovery) concludes.

• A city girl discovers some regal roots on the “POV” (9 p.m., PBS, check local listings) documentary “Bronx Princess.”

• “Epitafios” (9 p.m., HBO2), a cult crime drama from Argentina, returns for a second season.

• The mayor faces criticism from a middle-class district on the documentary series “Brick City” (9 p.m., Sundance).

Cult choice

Get ready for Ken Burns’ National Parks series with the sexiest shootout ever staged on Mount Rushmore in the 1959 thriller “North by Northwest” (7 p.m., TCM).