‘The Good Fight’ offers a familiar face to CBS
“The Good Fight,” a spinoff of “The Good Wife” and soon to become a main attraction of the streaming service CBS All Access, finds Christine Baranski’s Diane Lockhart picking up the pieces of her life.
It opens with Diane her on her last case, defending Cook County against a police brutality case. They’ll be facing off against Adrian Boseman (Delroy Lindo) from another of Chicago’s preeminent law firms.
In about 30 minutes, however, Diane’s dreams are in flames as Maia’s father and Diane’s old friend Henry (Paul Guilfoyle) is charged in a massive Ponzi scheme. Not only has Diane lost all her money, but she had been steering clients to Henry’s investment firm, which makes her suddenly unpopular.
Her own firm won’t take her back and like Juliana Margulies’ Alicia Florrick on “The Good Wife,” she suddenly has to start over after a scandal. She is even forced to finalize her divorce with her estranged husband (Gary Cole).
Maia, too, has been ostracized and targeted in public though she didn’t know about her parents’ financial dealings. Ironically, Boseman is the only one offering Diane a job. He sees her as an asset for his predominately black firm, joking she is a “minority hire.” Having seen the potential of Maia, Diane brings her along.
The first episode of “The Good Fight” will be shown on CBS, but subsequent episodes will be on CBS All Access pay streaming app. Obviously, the network is banking on the longtime popularity of “The Good Wife” to bring in viewers.
How does “The Good Wife” compare?
“The Good Fight” has put in a few twists to put a stamp on the new series. “The Good Wife” was overwhelmingly in a white, wellheeled world — good intentioned and liberal as most of the characters may have been. Diane’s new law firm offers a different perspective. As Adrian tells Diane, he isn’t sympathetic to her plight. She lost her money in a exclusive investment company where blacks weren’t invited.
Baranski, like Lindo, is a plus on any show, but you get the feeling that Diane’s story is just part of where the series is going. Instead of heading a firm, she will be in a junior position; so that will make for different dynamics. The character Maia looks like someone to root for, openly gay and suspicious of her parents, and the actress Leslie, who managed to stand out in the busy first season of “Downton Abbey,” does so here.
The lively presence of Cush Jumbo is back as Lucca Quinn — the character had an arc on the final season of “The Good Wife” and now finds herself working with Diane. Another holdover from the old show is the spunky Marissa (Sarah Steele), who becomes Diane’s assistant.
None of this screams new or different, just the familiar dressed differently, but everybody has their own comfort food and this may do for some.