The End of the Fight

Yes, it's ultimately all the new Star Trek shows that make me subscribe to the Paramount+ streaming service. But if I'm being honest, I was often enjoying even more watching The Good Fight. CBS ran The Good Wife for seven fun seasons of character-driven legal drama, and I loved every moment. At that show's end, the creators (Robert and Michelle King) were no more ready to let go of all its characters than I was, and from that was born a six season spin-off starring Christine Baranski -- which itself just released its series finale this week.

Though conceived as a show about a career woman on the brink of retirement suddenly forced to continue working, The Good Fight arrived just as Hillary Clinton lost the presidency that everyone (certainly the Kings) assumed she would win. So right out of the gate, the show transformed into the far more political version of The Good Wife. (Which, let it be said, was pretty political itself; the title referred to the wife of a philandering politician who must "stand by her man.") The Good Fight became more openly critical, sarcastic, even outright angry, and was often ready to meet me at exactly the mood I was feeling at the time.

The spin-off distinguished itself from its predecessor by placing Baranski's lead character in the midst of a predominately black law firm. The show continually added new and more central black characters throughout its run. As the Black Lives Matter movement ascended in the real world, the show more fully embraced these characters and this setting to tell stories quite different from the average (lily white) TV law show.

The emotions and the challenges depicted on The Good Fight were always grounded in reality, even as later seasons grew more and more fantastical. Mandy Patinkin came for a full season to portray the judge at a "civilian" court run out of the back of a copy shop. Andre Braugher arrived in the final season to play a larger-than-life personality more suited to the zany world of Ally McBeal than a serious legal drama. But it was easy to forgive any flights of fancy the show took; the acting was always outstanding, the underlying messages always clear and strong. And the show was always capable of setting all the wildness aside when it wanted to. (A final season episode about trying to save the life of a terminally ill child was one of the strongest of the entire series.)

The series began by bringing just two characters from The Good Wife over. But as it grew more self-assured, all sorts of major and minor characters from the original came to visit the spin-off in delightful ways. Robert and Michelle King (and their writing team) sure knew how to write a memorable character -- and cast the role with an actor who would really make it pop. Guest appearances over the six season included Gary Cole, Paul Guilfoyle, Jane Lynch, Andrea Martin, John Cameron Mitchell, Matthew Perry, Bernadette Peters, Cary Preston, Fisher Stevens, Alan Alda, Margo Martindale, Tim Matheson, Wayne Brady, Wanda Sykes, Alan Cumming, and Phylicia Rashad. (Those were all just the recurring actors; a list of notable one-offs would be even longer.)

And don't let that deep bench distract you from the people who were in the main cast at one time or another over the years: Rose Leslie, Delroy Lindo, Cush Jumbo, Sarah Steele, Justin Bartha, Nyambi Nyambi, Audra McDonald, Michael Sheen, Charmaine Bingwa, John Larroquette, John Slattery, and the aforementioned Mandy Patinkin and Andre Baugher.

The Good Fight was, quite simply, one of my favorite shows of the last few years. It had a few downs, sure, but a lot more ups, and I'd rate it an A- overall. Whether you watched The Good Wife before it or not, I thoroughly recommend it. If you're not willing to subscribe to Paramount just for the Star Trek shows, maybe let this put a thumb on the scales.