From creatorsRobert & Michelle King, the sixth and final season ofThe Good Fightsees Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) feeling a bit adrift and turning to an alternative form of therapy to help her find balance. With new blood at Reddick & Associates in the form of Ri’Chard Lane (Andre Braugher), Liz Reddick’s (Audra McDonald) authority on uncertain ground, and the feeling that the country has rolled back its last 50 years of progress with the overturning of Roe v. Wade and voting rights in jeopardy, Diane is trying to recalibrate and figure out what comes next.
During this interview with Collider, the Kings talked about the experience oftelling a story for 13 years, how they decided that now was the right time to end the series, the emotions they went through during the final season, what the addition of Braugher adds in Season 6, bringing back favorite characters, and how Ginni Thomas became part of the story.
Collider: You’re at the finish line withThe Good Fight. What’s it like, as storytellers, as showrunners, and as creators of television, to have gotten to tell a story that started 13 years ago? Did you have any idea how much life all of this would have, when you wrote the pilot forThe Good Wife?
MICHELLE KING: Thirteen years? No. We were wondering if it could go 13 episodes, so to go 13 years is more than we could have ever hoped. I would say that there is an ambivalence. On the one hand, I’m sad to say goodbye to these characters and the chance to tell these very topical stories. But on the other hand, I’m aware of how many shows are canceled without the creators having an opportunity to bring the stories to the conclusion they want. The fact that we’ve had that opportunity has been everything.
You guys have said that ending the series was your decision. How long did you think about and contemplate that before making the decision? Had you thought about it before this season?
ROBERT KING: No, not at all. This is all very recent. This was at the beginning of this year. UnlikeThe Good Wife, where we had to plan ahead,The Good Fightis not a plan ahead show because it’s reactive to the politics of the moment. I do think that we felt, after Trump was out of office, we started to lose our passion. It was reignited by January 6th, but then, after that, it felt like, “Okay, if you’re reacting to the politics, the politics might start getting repetitive, and then the characters could start getting repetitive.” The goal this year is to deal with the idea of a possible coming Civil War, but you probably can’t go out bigger than that. What would you be reacting to? Are we gonna do a season about taxes? Who wants to watch that? What would be the metaphor of that year? How would you even deal with taxes for a year onThe Good Fight?
I’ve talked to showrunners who have told me that they knew, from day one, the way their show would end and that they even pitched that ending when they pitched the show to networks. When did you know how this show would end? Did you have any sort of final moment in mind?
MICHELLE: Not really, no. We’re editing it, so it’s still in the future.
ROBERT: Because it is reactive, we didn’t know what we were about until we went into this year. The show is trying to find out, is there peace? It may not be peace in the world, but is there inner peace to be found? That was our drive for the season. A lot of our writers and us are dealing with that every day. How do you ignore the news? How does the news not overwhelm you and take you over and eat at your stomachs so that you’re getting ulcers? What is our way around that? That felt like a very human goal for this season, that we could all understand.
Would you say it was more emotional to finish writing the series, or to finish filming the series?
ROBERT: Good question.
MICHELLE: It depends on who. For the writers, it was when the room ended. For the actors, it was when their final scenes wrapped. For the producers, we’re still at it.
ROBERT: What was sad for me is that all these actors were finishing at different moments, over the last two and a half weeks that we were shooting it. Gary Cole was finished in the first five days of the shoot, and he’d been with us for 13 seasons. It was very emotional, the speech he gave, which we filmed. And then, Sarah Steele finished near the end. I think Audra [McDonald] was two days away from the end. Everybody was just falling away. It’s not like everybody went to school and finished on the exact same day, and then could have this reunion about it. Everybody was falling away at different times, and that made it emotional.
Diane and Liz are fantastic characters and watching just the two of them would be enough. But then, in this last season, you bring in the character of Ri’Chard and Andre Braugher, who is just so brilliant. How did that come about?
MICHELLE: We liked the idea of a bigger-than-life presence coming into the firm. And then, we felt so lucky to get Andre Braugher. I’ve never seen him do anything like it, and he is so funny and marvelous as Ri’Chard. And then, of course, Dan Lawson’s wardrobe just takes it over the top.
ROBERT: We felt it was funny, the idea of a character who thought of his life and his work as a brand, which seemed to be the opposite of what Liz thinks, which is about the good work. For him, it isn’t about the good work. It’s about how he can fulfill what he considers his destiny, as this bigger than life person. That just felt like fun for a character to play and a good sparking point for Liz. Who is working best for their people? Somebody who’s larger than life, or someone who’s like, “Let me get my work done”? That’s the split. And Andre just grabbed it and ran with it. With his work on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and also Men of a Certain Age, he’s just so amazing.
On top of that, you also brought back Eli and Elsbeth, who are a couple of the best characters that have been on the show. What is the joy of getting to bring characters like that back for the last season?
ROBERT: Even when you mention their names, you make Michelle and I smile. The thought of that is just so pleasurable.
MICHELLE: It was wonderful. You see that the other characters respond, when they come into their world, with the same kind of delight that we felt.
ROBERT: I think it was very important to see these characters that have been there. Alan Cumming was with the show from the very first season. He came in halfway through the first season. And when I said the first season, I mean ofThe Good Wife. So, to see him come back and to see the changes in his life, given the Trump years, for someone who’s a mechanic within the Democratic Party, it seemed important to catch up on what’s happening with Alicia, a little bit. All of that seemed very worthy for a show that has gone on for more than a decade.
How did the whole Ginni Thomas thing happen? It’s insane, but this show can pull it off and make it work.
MICHELLE: It is a bit insane, and we had an awful lot of fun with it.
ROBERT: It came about because of the events with Ginni Thomas, where she seemed to put herself into the politics. But also, I think someone mentioned it in the room, or maybe we saw it online, that Ginni Thomas truly did phone Anita Hill, 10 years ago, and said, “I really want an apology.” So, it was like, “Okay, it would be cool, if she is doing the same thing to Liz.” And yet, what is funny about it is that they bond over Below Deck. I was just starting to watch Below Deck, and it seems to bring together people of very different opinions and of different political opinions. So, that just seemed like a fun way to address what was going on.
MICHELLE: Basically, the message is that what’s gonna save us is frivolousness.
