The Good Fight‘s final season is a worthy, timely sendoff
The Paramount Plus series comes to a close, finding hope in all the absurdity
TV Reviews The Good Fight
A warning for fans of The Good Fight: The sixth and final season feels different. The Paramount+ original returns after its stellar fifth season—which included COVID hallucinations and Hal Wackner’s copy-house court—with a more muted, realistic vibe. There are no Epstein-scale conspiracies or fictionalized political figures popping up in scenes, and even Jonathan Coulton’s beloved Schoolhouse Rock-style explainers are missing. It’s very much The Good Fight stripped down to its basic, surrealist trademarks, as the show wraps up with an examination of our present, more pessimistic cultural climate.
Part of season six’s muting comes from Diane (Christine Baranski), who takes more of a back seat this time around. After her white-feminist ideals were challenged throughout season five, which finished with her agreeing to step down as partner, the intrepid attorney returns from vacation to a new office on the associates’ floor. The regression of progress, both in her career and our world after the end of Roe v. Wade, has Diane feeling that she’s stuck in a loop of deja vu. So she turns to Dr. Lyle Bettencourt (John Slattery) and a somehow-legal prescription hallucinogen called PT108. While the chemistry between Baranski and Slattery is obvious, the extended time with High Diane is this subplot’s strong point, with callbacks to previous seasons where she took the edge off through micro-dosing and weed gummies.
Meanwhile, the struggle over control of the firm falls on Liz (Audra McDonald) and the new name partner, Ri’Chard Lane (Andre Braugher). Lane operates through ostentatiousness and prayer, shaking up the office from the moment he walks out of the elevator and commands the biggest office on the partners’ floor, gathering associates and moving artwork while Liz is out at court. The duo’s conflict continues the partner power struggles that have been a common go-to throughout both The Good Fight and its predecessor The Good Wife. And while it feels like a rehash at the start, luckily any hint of a rut melts away as Liz (and the audience) begins to see through the brash show Ri’Chard wears as armor.
Amid the lawyers’ day-to-days, there’s a war going on. Season six has the two series’ most meta (and maybe their most ambitious) arc, with constant protests that become more sinister (flash bombs, tear gas) and unambiguous episode by episode.
Each of the Reddick/Boseman/Lockhart/Ri’Chard (it barely matters whose name is on the marquee at this point) lawyers have different responses to this omnipresent tension. Carmen keeps moving forward, taking on more criminal clients and immersing herself in a danger she can control. In a callback to season three’s Melania Trump storyline, Liz tries to find common, apolitical ground with a prominent conservative. Meanwhile, Marissa and Jay slowly switch their focus from court battles to the streets, with different reactions to the violence. There’s always been a hint of existential doom floating through The Good Fight, but now the threat of death gets right into the characters’ faces.
This final season is a love letter to both The Good Wife and The Good Fight, delighting in several throwback nods even before fan-favorite characters like Eli Gold (Alan Cumming) and Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) pop up. Such tributes can sometimes make a series’ final season feel like an assignment for diehard fans, but these, especially Eli and Marissa’s multi-episode father-daughter plot, keep the show exciting, as does the addition of Braugher. Whether it’s through an appearance or a mention, several major characters get their moment, with more to hopefully come in the back half of the season—and, yes, that includes Alicia Florrick. (We watched five episodes for this review.)
Within the weekly cases and the familiar faces and dynamics, The Good Fight seems to be ending in a way that honors six seasons of excellent TV and also acknowledges that constantly fighting the good fight can be exhausting. As always, it encapsulates the national mood, which currently includes a good amount of burnout and dejection. It’s comfortable with being bleak, though, because joy still shines through, letting us laugh at the absurdity from time to time. And that awareness of the beauty within the bullshit is why this final season, like the ones that came before it, is a must-watch.
14 Comments
I watched the first episode and it seemed kind of mild; is it worth watching through? I never watched The Good Wife either although I did find the idea somewhat appealing.
Go watch Evil if you haven’t, and then you’ll probably want to watch everything this wonderful couple has ever produced.
if you have progressive politics, imo The Good Fight was the only show that captured the slow, gnawing insanity of how it felt to live in Trump’s America. legal procedural trappings got it greenlit so it could reveal itself as a wonderful exercise in experimental prestige television absurdism, particularly season 3.
The Good Wife is also fantastic…mostly. a great legal procedural, but also a really good look at the sheer thoroughness of systemic fuckery that no other show’s really bothered with since The Wire. all that said, stop after season five
The Good Wife is superior to The Good Fight, plus it will give you some backstory for Christine’s character.One of my favorite shows ever. Take that as you will.
The Good Wife is more episodic- remember that it started on CBS in 2009, and had to appeal to viewers who got mad when Alicia wasn’t literally a good wife- and The Good Fight more serialized, though there are still cases of the week (created to launch CBS All Access in 2017). I personally think TGW S5 is the franchise peak, but all of it is pretty great.The creators have a real knack for creating instantly memorable guest or recurring characters, which is probably aided by their ability to cast Broadway standouts like 20 times a season.
the good wife title is really unappealing. i never thought i’d even check it out. it did take me a few episodes into it. the cases are interesting because they’re morally grey.
i think you could easily watch the good fight without having watched the good wife but you’d be missing out on a lot of fun as a lot of favorite characters guest star.
if you weren’t into the first episode, then you shouldn’t force yourself..
CBS is really bad with advertising their prestige dramas—-I never would have watched Person of Interest based on their advertising, and indeed I didn’t until after it was already off the air.The Good Wife was advertised in a way that made it seem like a empty headed procedural.
was that marissa and carmen hooking up?? the kings continuation of having sapphic private investigators. thank you.man it hurt when cush jumbo left. i was so sad watching marissa and lucca say they’re last goodbyes to each other and it was over video ahhh. it filled the hole of the alicia/kalinda friendship that died after tgw s2.i love this show and i’m looking forward to the last season.
Marissa became one of the greatest additions to the show.
I think Sarah Steele is great as Marissa, but the character has always been extremely irritating to me. I just watched the first episode of Season 6, and everything I hate about the character was on full display. I was totally with Carmen in their last scene together.
Didn’t think I’d miss Rose Leslie as much as I would either, even though her character was getting really marginalized.
I am SO GLAD the Wackner story ended. The whole vigilante courts notion drove me goddam crazy.
For those who can’t recall the Season 6 ending, I created a recap (but youtube flagged it for copyright so you need this link)