‘The Good Fight’ balls its fists against Trump
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 has always been political: Last year opened with central character (and avowed liberal) Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) reacting to Trump’s inaugural address. And later episodes incorporated fictional tweets and actions of the president into its storyline. But Season
2’s dance with the divisive political climate became more explicit as the firm competed to represent the Democratic National Committee’s bid to impeach Trump while discovering that a notorious tape was 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 King: No. Originally we thought the year would be about optimism and trying to find a way out of the thicket of politics. But 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. It’s probably our most first-person season, because you’re not sure if what you’re seeing is reality or Diane’s micro-dosing (drug use) reaction to reality.
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 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. That felt like a concept that could sustain a story.
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?
Michelle King: I worry about Trump doing any number of things. Tweeting about The Good Fight is not amongst 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.