‘The Good Fight’ Review: Christine Baranski-Led ‘Good Wife’ Spinoff Is Very Good
It’s been more than nine months since The Good Wife came to an end after seven award-winning seasons on CBS. But fear not fans, the drought is over and The Good Fight is almost here. Debuting its pilot February 19 on both CBS and CBS All Access before making permanent port on the streaming service, the Christine Baranski-led spinoff is good TV.
The strategic move by the House of Moonves aims to bring exclusivity, more than a little prestige, and new subscribers to its two-year-old streaming service. Which means that one of the best shows CBS has isn’t actually going to be on CBS beyond its pilot. And as I say in my video review above, with the two-episode online TGF premiere Sunday followed by new shows every week, that is good business.
A little rougher and rawer than its broadcast-based predecessor, the very watchable and more-than-a-little addictive, TGF gets in the ring with a flurry of punches as Baranski’s Diane Lockhart is hit by financial ruin and a rare professional misstep that forces the powerhouse lawyer to start all over again, so to speak. To center on a very good lead in the show that picks up a year after the events of the original series, the excellent Baranski easily shoulders the good weight of fronting her own series after being an often strong and sardonic pillar on The Good Wife.
Also on board with the Emmy and Tony winner – and in good form themselves – are Game Of Thrones and Downton Abby alum Rose Leslie as Lockhart’s now disgraced goddaughter and a new lawyer, and the poised Cush Jumbo reprising her role from the last season of The Good Wife. Add Delroy Lindo, plus dynamics and topics torn from the headlines of Donald Trump’s America and, well, to quote from the pilot of the Robert King and Michelle King-created new series, “It’s not over yet.”
You can see more of what I think of The Good Fight by clicking on my video review above. But if you weren’t a regular viewer of The Good Wife, count yourself lucky to have been given a second chance to get into the legal drama’s now-expanding universe.
This review was originally posted on Feb. 15.
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