The loss of Cush Jumbo is big but The Good Fight easily survives without Lucca, Series 5 focusing on a battle royale between Diane and Liz
“Let’s split the firm down the middle”
The Good Fight really does feel like some of the smartest writing on US TV at the moment, able to co-opt the most contemporary of references but still fold them into the fabric of the show so they never feel extraneous. After a COVID-truncated fourth season, Series 5 carries on in that same vein and is a delight to watch.
A brilliantly conceived series opener takes the form of a series of recaps which allows the show to eloquently cover the pandemic, the George Floyd protests and Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s passing, as well as bidding Lucca goodbye and introducing two new junior lawyers to the firm, one of whom just happens to be a fast-tracked Marissa.
And from then on, we hit big topic after big topic – the January 6th insurrection, Diane’s presence as a white name partner at a historically black firm, cancel culture and most interestingly of all, the notion of people’s justice. Mandy Patinkin is a series-long guest star as a copy shop owner who sets up his own court which soon snowballs into something really quite thought-provoking.
It’s a canny move as it allows for Sarah Steele’s Marissa to go through the motions of pseudo-legal training whilst the ‘real’ lawyers get on with legit cases. And as the story evolves, you can’t help but buy into the credibility of this popular movement, even as it steps out of its bounds in some amusing and indeed horrifying ways.
With the departure of Delroy Lindo’s Adrian, the scene is set for Audra McDonald and Christine Baranski to go head to head in some cracking scenes which counterpoint the former’s desire for a black firm with the latter’s for an all-female, exploring the difficulties in having to choose between such massive things as race and gender. The ending was a little surprising and I’m glad a sixth series has been confirmed, it’s just so good!
