selection

GOOD
NEWS
CHRISTINE BARANSKI
could have walked away from her beloved
THE GOOD WIFE character after the show’s
series finale last year. Instead she’s
found Diane Lockhart a new firm—and a new
show, THE GOOD FIGHT—on the streaming
service CBS All Access.
By LYNETTE RICE @Lynetterice

AFTER
CBS ANNOUNCED DURING LAST YEAR’S SUPER BOWL THAT
The Good Wife was coming to an end, star Christine Baranski was presented
with two very attractive prospects: to star in a planned spin-off
of The Blacklist on NBC or stick around CBS while it figured out a way
to keep her playing attorney Diane Lockhart in another drama.
“There was nothing definitive in the works,” recalls the 64-year-old
actress, who received six Emmy nominations for playing the grande dame
of Chicago’s legal community. “Once I got a serious offer to do something
else, it sort of forced the hand of everybody to say, ‘Let’s see if we can make
this work.’ And let’s face it, while there are roles out there for older women,
there are very few Diane Lockharts, with that kind of stature, that kind of
dignity. Keeping that was as good as gold to me.”
And that’s how a couple of conversations about wanting to keep court in
session led to the creation of The Good Fight (debuting Feb. 19), the first
drama designed specifically for the CBS All Access streaming service.
Masterminded by Good Wife creators Robert and Michelle King, the sequel
revolves around a newly retired Diane, who was last seen slapping Alicia
Florrick (Julianna Margulies) in the May 8 finale on CBS. (In case you missed
the conclusion, Alicia threw her longtime friend and colleague under the bus
in an attempt to keep her husband, Peter, out of prison.) Now Diane is the
one who takes it on the chin: After a financial scandal
ruins her reputation and leaves her penniless, she
finds a job at a previously all-African-American
law firm named Reddick, Boseman & Kolstad—
the only one in Chicago that’s willing to hire her.
( Above )
Cush Jumbo
and Rose Leslie
“She’s upended emotionally,” explains
Baranski. “Diane has a great reputation. But
it’s decimated because of a Ponzi scheme.
She encouraged a lot of women’s organizations
to invest in this fund. So her reputation
is tainted as well. Even her own law firm that
she created won’t take her back. Her foundation
is rocked to the core.” (Diane’s new
office—half the size of her Lockhart/Gardner
digs—does still bear a few vestiges of her former
life: a photo of herself with Hillary Clinton
rests on a windowsill, and a pair of Manolo
Blahniks sits underneath her desk.)
She is joined at the firm by goddaughter Maia
(Game of Thrones’ Rose Leslie), a lesbian and
recent law-school grad whose father concocted
the scheme that took Diane down. “I felt like I
was showered with gold dust after reading the
pilot,” says Leslie, who was a big fan of The Good
Wife while living in the U.K. “There are so many
different layers to explore. Working at an African-
American law firm really piqued my interest.
I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Not everything about the new drama will
seem unfamiliar. Though it features plenty of
new players, like Delroy Lindo as law partner
Adrian Boseman and Justin Bartha as very eligible
state’s attorney Colin Morrello, the sequel
is chock-full of Good Wife alums. Among them:
Cush Jumbo as attorney Lucca Quinn, Gary
Cole as Diane’s estranged husband Kurt, and
Zach Grenier as Diane’s former law partner
David Lee. Alicia won’t be back—Margulies was
(PREVIOUS SPREAD AND THIS PAGE) PATRICK HARBRON/CBS (2)
30 EW.COM FEBRUARY 17, 2017

firm in her decision that her character’s story ended
Delroy Lindo
with the May finale, the Kings admit—but Sarah Steele
will reprise her breakout role as Marissa, the wisecracking
daughter of Eli Gold (Alan Cumming). “I was
sad at the wrap party because I thought it was going to be my last time seeing
all of these people,” recalls Steele, who will serve as Diane’s assistant.
“Then the Kings came up to me and said, ‘Can we steal you for the spin-off
in the fall?’ I was never a series regular on The Good Wife, so I thought it was
going to be more of the same thing—being a super-peripheral character.
Then a couple months later they called and were like, ‘Can we pitch you
what we want to do?’ It was so sweet. When does that happen to actors?”
When a streaming service is eager for original content that still feels familiar
to its target audience, it would seem. After two-plus years in existence,
CBS All Access has managed to attract one million subscribers at $5.99 a
month, but repeats of Wings and Touched by an Angel aren’t enough to help it
achieve a goal of 4 million by 2020. “The idea is to differentiate it from other
services and give people another reason to subscribe,” said CBS Interactive
chief Marc DeBevoise. Launching the latest chapter in the Star Trek franchise
could have done that, but numerous creative and production issues pushed
back Star Trek: Discovery to later this year, if not 2018.
Enter The Good Fight, which got a major boost last fall when the Kings
agreed to write all 10 episodes of the series after completing BrainDead,
their second outing for CBS, which aired over the summer. “It felt wonderful
to get back to these characters, because we love them,” says Michelle
King, though her husband frets about having to condense so much story in
fewer episodes. “I have much more sympathy for the cable people now,” he
admits about having less than half the episodes per season he was given on
The Good Wife. And while that won’t leave much time for some of their signature
satirical bits like Darkness at Noon—the show within the show that
Alicia used to watch with her daughter, Grace—they will continue to draw
from our crazy culture to help spin contemporary tales.
Which naturally brings us to Donald Trump. “I think we’re going to have
pretty rich raw material with a Trump presidency,” says Baranski, who had to
reshoot a scene for the pilot because the Kings thought Clinton would win.
(Now the episode opens with a stunned Diane watching his inauguration.)
“The Kings never proselytize,” the actress says. “They are not out to write a
left-wing liberal show, but they incorporate what’s going on in the culture.”
That said, there is one moment in the pilot that may resonate with, say,
65.8 million voters. “Diane’s second scene will be her in the south of France
looking for real estate, presumably as many liberals and Democrats are
threatening, ‘I’m getting out of here!’” Baranski says, adding, “It’s kind of
funny. I think it will play out as like a wish fulfillment for a lot of people.”
BACK ON
THE CASE
The Good Fight boasts a deep
bench of familiar guest stars. Here’s who
we’re most excited to see again.
GARY COLE
Kurt McVeigh
Diane’s right-wing
ballistics-expert husband,
whom Alicia Florrick
exposed as an adulterer
in the Good Wife finale
MICHAEL BOATMAN
Julius Cain
An equity partner in
Diane’s former firm who
moved from Chicago
to its New York office
ZACH GRENIER
David Lee
Diane’s longtime law
partner and resident
curmudgeon
CARRIE PRESTON
Elsbeth Tascioni
The shrewd yet astonishingly
scatterbrained lawyer
who routinely came to
Alicia’s aid
JERRY ADLER
Howard Lyman
A former equity partner at
Lockhart/Gardner known for
napping with his pants off
JOHN BENJAMIN HICKEY
Neil Gross
The smug and extremely
wealthy founder of
Chumhum, the drama’s
fictional version of Google
MATTHEW PERRY
Mike Kresteva
An attorney and spouter
of alternative facts who
ran against Peter Florrick
for governor
DENIS O’HARE
Judge Abernathy
A liberal-leaning magistrate
who’s been an acquaintance
of Diane’s for years
LINDO: PATRICK HARBRON/CBS; COLE: JEFF NEUMANN/CBS/GETTY IMAGES; BOATMAN, PRESTON, PERRY: DAVID M. RUSSELL/CBS (3); GRIENER: JUSTIN STEPHENS/CBS; ADLER: MYLES ARONOWITZ/CBS; HICKEY: DAVID GIESBRECHT/CBS; O’HARE: DAVID M. RUSSELL/CBS/GETTY IMAGES
32 EW.COM FEBRUARY 17, 2017