Round Two and Take Three: The Good Fight

The Good Fight: Season 1, Episodes 3 and 4 “The Schtup List” and “Henceforth Known as Property” (B-)

It’s hard when I’m just about a week behind on TV and there are new series left and right not to miss something, and I’ll admit that I forgot about this show’s third episode, which actually premiered two full weeks ago now, on February 26th, until I realized that I needed to watch the fourth installment while wading through all the new Sunday shows that started on March 5th. Watching two episodes of this show back-to-back for the second time makes me think that I really don’t need to be keeping up on it, and that, much as I’d love to keep up on the Chicago law mythology, I think I’m not going to be able to. There are a number of elements and themes from the show that spun this one off that are still found here, like the fast-paced banter between characters, technology with a mind of its own, and the ridiculous judges who do things like walk into the gallery to collect beeping watches. There are even characters who come back, like the exaggerated lying politician Mike Kresteva, played by a not-so-great Matthew Perry, whose plotline never went very far on the original series and now is getting a second shot to be relevant here. But what’s different is that the characters aren’t great, this whole Rindell scandal is weighing things down, and there’s a connection to reality, namely to Donald Trump, that feels out of place and also not nearly as interesting as it could be. If Trump is really president in this show’s universe, which we did see in the opening scene of the pilot, a whole lot would be more important than just finding one person who voted for him at a huge law firm. I’m also not taken with Justin Bartha’s burger-sharing AUSA and Lucca’s newfound relationship with him, and I find Marissa Gold to be much less enticing here. The investigator doesn’t hold a candle to Kalinda, Robin, or Jason, and while I’m not meaning to compare endlessly, this show doesn’t have the same hook or appeal. I found the bot plotline to be frustrating but mildly amusing when Maia got to take her revenge, but that’s not enough to save this show. Unless I catch up quickly, I don’t think I’ll be tuning in for episode five.