‘The Good Fight’ Has a ‘Backup Plan’ for Season 3 if Trump Gets Impeached
Reid Nakamura
“Good Fight” duo Robert and Michelle King were able to keep some of the “nasty things” from the CBS All Access series when editing down the first season for its run on the broadcast network this summer.“CBS was sympathetic because the point was the controversial language, you know? It wasn’t secondary, it was really the point,” Robert King told Vulture. King was specifically talking about the sixth episode of the season, which deals with online hate speech. “We were surprised that we were able to get some language that is intended to be offensive.”In terms of editing out the curse words, the Kings said it was simple audio drop-out, like they do on “Survivor.” But keeping some of the specific terms — “porch monkey” and “kike” for example — was done so it wouldn’t dilute the entire message of the episode, which is being critical of that kind of language and the ill-effects it causes. “You need the power of all those nasty things being said,” Robert King said. Added Michelle King: “In order to talk about these things, you actually have to talk about these things.”Also Read: CBS to Re-Air First Season of CBS All Access Drama 'The Good Fight' This SummerThe other challenge was cutting down the running time to a broadcast-window friendly 42 minutes; most of the season 1 episodes ran over 50 minutes. For this, the Kings said they went back to their “Good Wife” days.“When we did ‘The Good Wife,’ the language came very fast, almost in that kind of ‘His Girl Friday’ Howard Hawks thing where lines are overlapping and people are almost talking past each other because they’re talking so fast,” said Robert King. “So, really, it was returning to that kind of cutting style. Some of the scenes were exactly the same, but we took out the air between the lines.”CBS will air the first four episodes of the CBS All Access series over two Sundays on June 16 and June 23 from 9-11 p.m., putting them within the Emmy voting period to give the show additional exposure. Beginning June 30, “The Good Fight” will move to 10 p.m., airing behind the new season of “Instinct.”“The Good Fight” just completed its third season on All Access and was renewed for a fourth. The spinoff of “The Good Wife” starring Christine Baranski’s character debuted in February 2017 on CBS, before moving to All Access (CBS used the same strategy for “Star Trek: Discovery”).You can read the full interview in Vulture here.Read original story ‘The Good Fight’ Creators on What ‘Nasty Things’ CBS Let Them Keep for the Broadcast Version of Season 1 At TheWrap
Ever since the creators of “The Good Fight” were forced to rewrite their pilot following Donald Trump’s electoral victory, the CBS All Access drama has made a name for itself as the show that best reflects the current political environment.
Now, heading into Season 3, executive producers Robert and Michelle King have taken precautions to maintain the show’s prescience, even if there should be a major shake-up in Washington D.C.
“I think everyone will cheerfully rewrite if we’re in a different world [by the premiere],” Michelle told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour on Wednesday in response to a question about the potential outcomes of the ongoing special counsel investigation into the 2016 election.
With “The Good Fight” set to return on March 14, the Kings said the show’s writers have a few contingency plans in place should the political situation change significantly, up to and including impeachment of the president, who is frequently referenced on the show.
“We have a few backup plans if the world runs ahead of us, involving two or three scenes we would have to reshoot,” Robert King said. “What you try to do is stay as close to the zeitgeist as possible, but it’s very difficult if you’re writing that far ahead. I think what we’re trying to do is use certain scenes to help update the audience to where we are right now.”
On Season 3, Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) tries to figure out whether you can resist a crazy administration without going crazy yourself, while Adrian Boseman (Delroy Lindo) and Liz Reddick-Lawrence (Audra McDonald) struggle with a new post-factual world where the lawyer who tells the best story triumphs over the lawyer with the best facts, per the official All Access description. Meanwhile, Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo) balances a new baby with a new love, and Maia Rindell (Rose Leslie) finds a new Mephistopheles in Roland Blum (Michael Sheen), a lawyer who is corruption incarnate.
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