The Good Fight, CBS All Access’ gloriously subversive follow-up to The Good Wife, has set itself apart from its long-running predecessor by leaning hard into contemporary politics, and into the everyday insanity of life in Trump’s America. The show’s pilot used the 2016 election as incident that incites a new chapter for Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), and has regularly referenced the administration in its storylines since, with the season-two finale wrapping up on a video in which Trump ominously warns that “a storm is coming.â€
Given the extraordinary pace of political news, and the unavoidable lag time between production and air dates, keeping the show timely is no small feat. Fortunately, Good Fight showrunners Robert and Michelle King have a rewrite plan in place for their upcoming third season, which could end up coinciding with the long-awaited release of Robert Mueller’s final report on the special counsel’s Russia investigation.
“We have a few backup plans if the world runs ahead of us, including two or three pivotal scenes we would have to reshoot,†Robert King said during the show’s Television Critics Association press day on Wednesday in Pasadena. Michelle King added that if the Mueller report were to be released in March, as has been rumored, “everyone will cheerfully rewrite†the necessary scenes.
Regardless of real-world developments, the Kings say the new season is about “understanding how the guard rails are coming off our institutions, and what do you do in those circumstances? What does a resistance look like given those circumstances?†Complicating the resistance within the show is the introduction of Michael Sheen’s Roland Blum, a gleefully amoral lawyer whom the Kings likened to Trump mentor Roy Cohn and indicted Trump loyalist Roger Stone. “He’s very much into [the idea that] liberal or conservative doesn’t matter. What matters is winning,†Robert King said. “He’s the devil within our law firm, trying to encourage people to embrace their id.â€