The world has gone mad, sure.
But the senior partners at Reddick, Boseman, & Lockhart foretell a return to normalcy.
Ive had my fill of left-wing anger, explains Liz (Audra McDonald).
Patrick Harbron/CBS
Dont get too comfortable.
Allies are becoming enemies.
The incoming class of associates looks suspiciously Caucasian.
Someones handing out secret salary information.
Someone else is handing out fentanyl lollipops.
The glass walls of Reddick, Boseman, & Lockhart are shattering literally, shattering!
And then a stenographer comes forward withanotherallegation, and then why even use a word like allegation anymore?
The rain wont stop, all day, every day.
Is this global warming?
asks Marissa (Sarah Steele).
I think its just Chicago, answers Jay (Nyambi Nyambi).
Ah, butThe Good Fights Chicago is a fantasy battlescape, nexus central for politics and entertainment.
In this Chicago, Roy Cohns spiritual heir walks out of an office and Fake Taylor Swift walks in.
He could be a cartoon character.
When Blum starts singing Ill Be There by the Jackson 5, hes just fitting in with the crowd.
Everyones got a tune in their heart now.
Lucca (Cush Jumbo) lulls her ten-month-old to sleep with a rendition Buddy Hollys Everyday.
Ive seen the first four episodes of the season, and every one has a breakaway animated musical number.
These Good Fightshorts all have witty lyrics by Jonathan Coulton explaining concepts like NDAs and troll farms.
Coulton wrote last seasonsSchoolhouse Rock-aping number High Crimes and Misdemeanors.
That ditty earned the series its only Emmy nomination last year.
A travesty, but understandable.
CBS All Access is one more streaming service no one can keep track of.
But so, a new proclamation:The Good Fightreturns as the best show on TV.
Co-creators Michelle and Robert King arent just chasing topicality.
Theyre telling deep stories about rich characters struggling to make sense of this incoherent moment.
Every action has inadvertent, apocalyptic consequences.
Diane seeks a new output for her liberal rage and winds up conjuring an uncontrollable political movement.
In the Kings expanding vision, certain individuals receive even more of a spotlight this season.
Local Republican Julius (Michael Boatman) has political aspirations.
Liz withstands a couple tabloids worth of personal revelations, leading McDonald to heights of raw emotion.
Meanwhile, Jumbo finds thrilling new notes of daffy exasperation, juggling single-mom maternal instincts with undimmed professional ambition.
The subject matter must sound, to the outsider, like a polemic of political chatter and absurdist satire.
(Various Trumps continue to be barely-offscreen presences.)
It is, unequivocally, a fancy drama about fancy people.
One key subplot begins when someone overhears gossip at A Historical Law Society wine tasting.
These new episodes call for active engagement, and will confuse your allegiances.
But the Kings have also infusedThe Good Fightwith a bubbling comic spirit.
Everyone is a little ridiculous Dianes taken up axe-throwing!
but no one is a clown.
I love how two chic floors of law firm hallways have become a fast-talking Thunderdome for American ideas.
The writers meticulously capture the new feeling that every person stands for something whether they want to or not.
(Everyone onThe Good Fight, white or black, starts to worry that they might be racist.)
Baranski sells that scene in every direction.
Its funny, like Sideshow-Bob-stepping-on-rakes funny, and despondently cathartic, because shes just doing what were all feeling.
Theres an eerie rising tide in this season.
Noble protagonists look to villains for helpful strategy.
They create counter-opposition fake news, and betray trusted allies for The Greater Good.
But what else can you do when monsters and monstrousness rule the day?
Were starting over, Liz promises Adrian.
And for all the loopy humor and twisted rage, the Kings take that optimism seriously, too.
The rain keeps falling, the kind of storm you worry will become the proverbial Tempest.
The characters on this show are not waving, theyre drowning.
Next season, I predict, theyll be breathing underwater.
Ive seen stranger miracles; Ive seenThe Good Fight.A
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