Tonight, on The Good Wife, Peter Florrick is going to literally cross the line.

Since the debut of this CBS drama last fall — a classic 10 p.m., show that gives us everything we crave at that hour: women in thigh-high boots, adultery, sly humor and idiosyncratic judges — Peter Florrick has crossed all kinds of metaphorical lines. The former state’s attorney’s many transgressions are the linchpin of this series, as the ripple effects from the many bad decisions he made (all of which occurred before we the viewers arrived on the scene) are the basis for everyone else’s actions. It is complicated and complex and perfectly woven like a Mexican blanket. It almost never feels cumbersome or confusing, like, oh, I don’t know, Lost.

Technically, one might think that the quote-unquote Good Wife of the title is the eye of this hurricane, and on the surface that is true. Alicia Florrick, Peter’s long-suffering wife, has stood by her man at the press conference and in the jail cell and now while under house arrest, but really, she would not be doing any of what she is doing had it not been for her husband’s ethical and moral mistakes. She was living the good life as the good wife, in the big house with the nice clothes and the perfect kids. By all the clues we’ve been given, she ignored every sign of trouble, and there were plenty.

He cheated on her. That’s a fact. What’s not so clear is how nefarious he was in his official life. Those who hate him are busy painting him as a crook, but as his Nancy Drew/Hardy Boy children are discovering, a lot of that is made up. And those who hate him — those who are supposedly on the side of Right, are clearly just as bad as those on the side of Wrong (Peter).

Peter is perfectly played by Chris Noth, who does nice-on-the-surface-and-troubled-underneath better than anybody  (Mr. Big, Det. Mike Logan). Alicia is perfectly played by Julianna Margulies, who has mastered the art of buttoned-up. You literally never know what Alicia really thinks or feels, which is key to the character. If you live a lie for many years, it’s hard to break out of that habit.

And Alicia is somewhat tormented by all of that. On the one hand she is angry and repulsed, but on the other, when Peter shows his true colors in her favor, she is literally turned on by it. She loved it when he threatened his mistress and made her go away early on in the season, but she was so angered when he did it in last week’s episode to the former “friend” who is now his biggest threat that she walked out on him and the marriage.

Which leads us to the next round of complications, which is everyone else in Alicia’s life. She is attracted to Will, the partner in the law firm with whom she once had feelings for. And don’t tell me that Will gave her the job out of the goodness of his heart. They’ve come close, and last week, when she was so angry at Peter, she called Will and made that dinner date they’ve been endlessly talking about.

On top of all the continuing drama revolving the Florrick family (and there’s loads we haven’t touched on here, ranging from Grandma to son Zach and his likely unprotected sex to daughter Grace’s insecurities), there’s the Case of the Week to follow, which is usually quite good, and all the law firm drama as well. There’s the Cary vs. Alicia race for a permanent position (I love that kid, Matt Czuchry, who balances between complete sleaze and good guy), there’s the breakout star performance by Archie Panjabi as the mysterious office investigator Kalinda (talk about crossing lines!) and of course, Alicia’s buttoned-up role model, Diane Lockhart, gorgeously played by my beloved Christine Baranski.

So, it’s like we get three shows in one every week, all done just about perfectly: the Florrick family drama, the courtroom drama, and the law firm drama. Magnificently cast, beautifully written, perfectly acted. If you don’t watch The Good Wife, you are really missing something.