How the ‘Bachelor in Paradise’ scandal inspired an episode of ‘The Good Fight’
THE latest episode of ‘ The Good Fight’, the spin- off of ‘ The Good Wife’ that is available on CBS All Access, features a story line about a drunken hookup on a reality dating show. A couple strips down and jumps in a hot tub; later, a producer shuts down filming after fearing that the woman was too drunk to consent. Both cast members are forced to leave the show.
Sound familiar? ‘ The Good Fight’ creators and executive producers, Robert and Michelle King, confirm that last summer’s ‘Bachelor in Paradise’ scandal - in which contestants Corinne Olympios and DeMario Jackson were involved in a similar situation - inspired the episode, which started streaming on Sunday.
The Kings frequently rip real life stories from the headlines for their legal dramas, and this one seemed especially timely in the # MeToo and #Time’sUp era.
“What interested us is the swirling debate around consent, both in colleges and also in a lot of areas of the world,” Robert King said. “It was the idea of these kind of grey areas where it’s unclear where the line lies . . . especially if the woman didn’t remember what happened.”
Plus, in the unusual case of a reality TV series, Michelle King said, there’s video footage - not to mention producers. “It’s a completely artificial situation, unlike life,” she said. “There are other hands manipulating it, which makes it interesting when trying to figure who’s to blame.”
The husband-wife producing team makes it clear that this episode is simply inspired by the ABC’s ‘Bachelor in Paradise’, and it takes a lot of liberties. In this version, the show is called ‘Chicago Penthouse’. While Olympios did not take legal action after Warner Bros. concluded that no misconduct took place on ‘Paradise’ and her own team completed an investigation, in ‘ The Good Fight’ world, the female contestant, Melanie ( Isabella Farrell), sues the network for millions.
“Your show put us in that penthouse, it gave us alcohol, and it told us that ratings were dependent on us pushing the sexual content forward,” Melanie says during a deposition at the law firm, where she’s being represented by Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) and Adrian Boseman ( Delroy Lindo). “Then your cameraman kept filming while I was violated. Your show was more interested in making good TV than protecting me.”
“The only reason you know you were violated was because one of our producers stopped the shooting,” responds the network’s lawyer, Andrea (Christine Lahti). “So why aren’t you suing Blake for US$ 4.5 million? He was the cast member who violated you, right?”
“I think Blake was a victim, just like me,” Melanie says, echoing the ‘ Paradise’ incident; Olympios has said she doesn’t blame Jackson.
The back and forth leads into a legal fight over whether the network should have released footage of what happened that night on ‘ Chicago Penthouse’, particularly because Melanie signed a contract that stated the network wasn’t responsible for “emotional or bodily harm” from sexual behaviour between contestants.
As a show that often delves into dynamics between the powerful and the powerless, “we liked the idea of ( portraying) these reality TV shows protecting their contracts,” Robert King said. He called such documents “really awful”: “They really give the entertainer no rights.”
True to life scenes
The ‘Chicago Penthouse’situation takes more disturbing turns, as the Kings wanted to explore how far reality TV producers might go to manipulate cast members. The episode also showcases a producer who allegedly had an issue that the hot tub encounter was between a black man and a white woman. In interviews about ‘ Bachelor in Paradise’, Jackson, who is black, said he believed race played a part in the controversy; other cast members agreed.
“Given how frequently we deal with the issues of race on our show, it was a good chance to continue that thematically,” Michelle King said of the series, which takes place in a majorityblack law firm.
On ‘ The Good Fight’, there’s humour between serious moments, such as when investigator Jay ( Nyambi Nyambi) makes fun of fellow investigator Marissa ( Sarah Steele) for being an avid ‘Chicago Penthouse’ fan. In another scene, the judge ( played by Rob Reiner) initially mocks the show. By the end of the case, he’s demanding information about contestants Veronica and Simon: “I mean, they were getting so close during the season, and then nothing!”
Robert King admitted those scenes are true to life, joking that he feels like a hypocrite because he has seen every season of ‘Survivor’ yet judges people who watch ‘ The Bachelor’. Despite the morally questionable content on any reality show, they get people hooked.
“There’s a reason why these shows are successful,” Michelle King said. “The stories are begging to be followed.” — WPBloomberg