When The Good Fight premiered in 2017, it embraced the fact that it was entering a seriously chaotic political climate. While the show is largely centered on Reddick, Boseman & Lockhart, a prominent and diverse law firm in Chicago, the first two seasons of the political legal drama tackled themes so fresh from the day’s news that it was sometimes hard to believe that the show is a fiction.
With Season 3 upon us (The Good Fight is now streaming exclusively on CBS All Access), the show is poised to tackle a whole host of recent scandals. Based on the trailer, it seems that we can look forward to more exploration of what it means to practice law at a time when facts themselves are under siege. At the end of Season 2, Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) was accused of conspiring against the president while the rest of the firm struggled to balance their personal political views and the professional reputation of the firm. Now, in Season 3, we see Diane joining the resistance as a means of surviving in a topsy turvy administration without losing herself.
As fearless as The Good Fight has been in taking on present-day controversies, it’s anyone’s guess where the show will go next. One thing we know for sure, however, is that we can't wait to watch and #JoinTheFight this season. Here are a few current topics we can look forward to in Season 3 of this groundbreaking show.
1. The "Post-Factual" World We Find Ourselves In
The Good Fight has always been strengthened by its ability to break the fourth wall and acknowledge the topsy-turvy political world it was born into. In Season 3, The Good Fight embraces the absurdity of the legal and political strategy du jour: up is down, left is right, and the truth belongs to whoever can spin the best story to support it. This can’t be easy for a show that's so clearly enamored of the awesome power of the law, but it creates a great opportunity for viewers to retreat back into a world where justice, sound arguments, and evidence-based claims reign supreme.
2. Machiavellian Power Players
Season 3 looks like it will open with a bang, with powerhouse Michael Sheen joining the cast as Roland Blum, a corrupt attorney who will do anything to win. Not unlike Season 1's Mike Kresteva (Matthew Perry), Blum believes in winning at all costs — facts be damned. This makes him a formidable opponent for a legal team guided by core principles of justice and fairness. While Blum-like power brokers are having a major resurgence in political circles these days, one might hope that The Good Fight team will teach him a lesson and send him packing. But, as we learned last season, when the rules break down, even straight-shooters can begin to lose their way.
3. The Return Of Retrograde Sexism
The aforementioned Roland Blum indulges in the kind of misogyny that women like Diane Lockhart have fought against their whole career. As we see in the trailer for Season 3, Blum makes himself comfortable in Lockhart’s office, commandeering her desk and treating her like his employee. In another scene, Blum directs a sexist comment at Maia Rindell (Rose Leslie), a queer woman, suggesting that sex with him would change her sexual orientation. Blum is clearly messing with the wrong women; both Lockhart and Rindell have suffered enough adversity in the past two seasons to make even Blum’s awful comments seem like minor irritants. Here’s hoping that the two of them find ways to make him regret his words.
4. The Motivation To #JoinTheFight
Every protagonist on The Good Fight has had to confront our new political reality in their own way, but Diane Lockhart may be having the hardest time adjusting. Provoked by the shocking 2016 election, Lockhart has sought just about anything to make her feel in control. In Season 3, Lockhart will be approached by a group of women whose mission is to take the fight to the country's executive branch. Were it not for Lockhart’s previous threats, we could assume the endeavor to #JoinTheFight concerns a legal strategy, but I have a feeling that Lockhart might be emboldened enough by now to explore some extralegal measures.
5. The New Meaning Of Diversity
In the first season of the show, the firm of Reddick, Boseman & Lockhart was at a crossroads. Prior to 2016, being a black-owned and majority-black law firm gave them certain advantages. (At the very least, it gave them greater access to competitive contracts.) But post-2016, such a distinction put a target on the firm's back (at times literally). In Season 3, the meaning of the firm’s diversity seems to be shifting again, this time via popular culture. With the runaway success of afro-centric superhero movies and a broad pop-cultural embrace of black culture, the long-standing and fairly traditional firm is suddenly trendy. Adrian Boseman (Delroy Lindo), the head of the firm, seems to see this as a great new opportunity to market the firm, but I wonder how the other partners will feel about capitalizing on this “trend”?
6. Life As A Single Working Mom
Raising a child as a single person should never be a “hot topic,” but the perennial challenges faced by working women who make this choice are always making headlines. In Season 3, Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo), an associate at the firm, will begin to deal with the ramifications of her decision to raise her child as a single mother. From the more quotidian challenge of pumping breast milk while at the office, to the more insidious challenge of being identified as your biracial child’s nanny rather than his mother, it looks like Quinn will find that maternal life presents more challenges than she might have anticipated. The show doesn’t seem to shy away from the many hot-button issues that mothers face, instead holding them side by side, and with equal gravity, as issues of national politics. And brava for that!
With this many issues packed into a three-minute trailer for the new season, I can’t imagine the kind of drama we’re in for, but I for one am ready to #JoinTheFight. Season 3 of The Good Fight is now streaming exclusively on CBS All Access.
This article is sponsored by The Good Fight, a CBS All Access Original Series.
