ANTI-TRUMP TV
“The Good Fight” is putting up a very distinct kind of fight this year.
“The Good Wife” spinoff, on the CBS All Access streaming service, wraps up a charged and intense second season with Sunday’s finale. This year featured funerals, an unexpected pregnancy and a shooting in the offices of law firm Reddick, Boseman and Lockhart. Oh, and the firm competed for the chance to help impeach President Trump.
The legal drama always has been political: Last year’s première opened with Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) reacting to Trump’s inaugural address. And later episodes incorporated fake tweets and fake actions of the president into its storyline. But Season 2’s dance with the divisive political climate became more explicit and wild, as the firm competes to represent the Democratic National Committee’s bid to impeach Trump, while discovering that a notorious tape is real.
We spoke to “Fight” creators Robert and Michelle King about how the series got so political, what’s coming in Season 3 and whether they’re worried about real tweets from the president.
Question: Did you come into this year knowing it was going to be so specifically tied to Trump’s real-life narrative?
Robert: No. Originally we thought the year would be about optimism and trying to find a way out of the thicket of politics. But when we all discussed it, we realized that wouldn’t be true to Diane’s character. Diane, a diehard liberal, would be going crazy this year. So we decided to make this season not so much about Trump as Diane’s reaction to Trump.
Q: How did the impeachment storyline come about?
Robert: Originally, when we were looking for a story to take us through the whole season, we thought it could be Diane’s firm being hired to prepare the Democratic committee for a potential impeachment trial of the president. But we became worried that there wouldn’t be enough turns in the plot, and it would become earnest; that’s how we hit on the “Kill All lawyers” plot line (in which several Chicago lawyers were murdered by unhappy clients).
We did think the impeachment story would make a good episode. We were only worried that the story would come across like preaching to the choir. That’s when (we) hit on the idea that the firm, in pursuing all the avenues toward impeachment, became more and more like the worst aspects of the president they wanted to throw out of office.
Q: What about the episode concerning a tape from the infamous dossier?
Robert: That is a subject the two of us thought was funny — the dream pursuit of a Golden Shower tape to take down the president. It becomes this Indiana Jones-like search. It’s this precious object to the left — this silver bullet — and we had no greater goal than to make fun of that.
Q: Are you ever worried that Trump is going to see the show and tweet about it? You guys are streaming, so he can’t come at you for your ratings.
Michelle: I worry about Trump doing any number of things. Tweeting about “The Good Fight” is not among them.
Q: Is Season 3 going to be as political as the first two seasons?
Michelle: Season 3 will not be as political as the first two seasons — assuming that politics stop being crazier than any time in recent memory. But if politics keep heading in the same direction, then, yeah probably Season 3 will have as much to say about it as Seasons 1 and 2.