A critique of Trump-era politics
creators of The Good Fight try to stay as close as possible to the shifting political landscape and atypical presidency in the united states.
WHEN Donald Trump won the 2016 American presidential race, Robert and Michelle King - creators of legal and political drama The Good Fight hastily rewrote their February 2017 pilot episode, which presupposed a win by his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Her loss threw production into a tailspin as the Kings course-corrected so their protagonist, liberal lawyer Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), could react to the victory of the conservative Trump.
The husband-and-wife team say they would have happily rewritten their third and newest season had President Trump been impeached before it aired this month.
In a recent interview, Michelle says if Trump were impeached because of investigations into alleged election interference and “we were in a different world” politically, “I think everyone will cheerfully rewrite it”.
As it turns out, there was no impeachment before the March 15 premiere of The Good Fight’s third season. This season continues to follow the lives of Lockhart and the other brilliant attorneys at her Chicago firm.
Although partly a legal procedural, The Good Fight has won high praise for its astute commentary on Trump-era politics, especially the schism between liberals and conservatives.
But it is tricky hewing so closely to fast-changing developments on the political landscape and atypical Trump presidency. “We have a few back-up plans if the world runs ahead of us,” says Robert, 60.
“You try to stay as close to the zeitgeist as possible, but it’s very difficult if you’re writing that far ahead.”
It is also a challenge to do this when real politics constantly threatens to upstage the show.
Yet “these are the most interesting times of our life”, he adds. “Because it’s so wacko, it’s a great time to be making TV. Our writers’ room is like therapy for everybody – everyone wants to talk through the news they read this morning.”
This season, actor Michael Sheen joins the cast to play an unscrupulous lawyer who bends the truth to his purposes – a character inspired by the late attorney and Republican operative Roy Cohn, who is remembered for his dark deeds in the McCarthyist era of the 1950s and beyond.
Michelle, 61, says: “One of the themes is: ‘How much does truth matter?’ It doesn’t seem to matter politically. In a law firm, there’s this idea that ‘the best story wins’ and we wanted a character who really embodies that and that’s Michael Sheen’s character.”
Exploring such issues, and the main characters’ left-leaning politics, suggests the show has a liberal bent. But the writers are far more interested in skewering the left itself.
“Most of the shows I see that touch on Trump or the current times are preaching to the choir,” says Robert King. “And you could say that about our show, but it’s really a criticism of the left itself and how it’s losing its mind.”
This is why Season Two played with the notion that as politics grew stranger than fiction, liberals such as Diane could not quite cope. She began losing her grip on reality, dabbling in mind-altering drugs and hallucinating, which made for some surreal and darkly comical storylines.
Audra McDonald, 48, plays Liz, a partner in Diane’s law firm. She points out that several characters cannot be neatly pigeonholed for their politics. “What’s wonderful about this show is that no one is perfect – everybody is 500 million shades of grey,” she says. “We’ve got some members of our primarily African-American firm that are Republican and that is itself already an odd thing.”
This season will frequently feature conservative points of view as well, promises Sheen. “You’re going to get a big injection of Trump nation this season, which I will be delivering,” says the 50-year-old actor.
Baranski, 66, says “it’s a mistake to think this show is some liberal platform, even though you have a lead character who’s a liberal feminist and we push back against Trump”.
The star, who won an Emmy for her role in the sitcom Cybill (1995 to 1998), reminds viewers that The Good Fight is a piece of entertainment at the end of the day. “It is still a show. We’re not a political platform.” – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
The Good Fight airs every Friday at 7pm on FoxLife (Astro Ch 711/unifi TV Ch 455).