The Good Fight: A Superb Must-See Spinoff

The Good Fight, currently airing its 2nd season on the streaming service CBS All Access, is a spinoff of the CBS show The Good Wife, a biting legal drama that ended its 7-season run in 2016.  What the hell is CBS All Access, you ask?  Well, it's CBS's attempt to cash in on the streaming television phenomenon that has made other services like Netflix and Hulu huge successes over the past few years.  CBS All Access charges a rather steep $9.99 per month for its no-commercials option ($5.99 per month for limited commercials), so I was skeptical about paying just to watch this show.  The service offers very little other original programming, after all: the new Star Trek or 24-hour footage of the Big Brother house, anyone?  But this problem is solved by getting a week or month free trial of the service.  Yay for skirting the system!

While The Good Wife centered on lawyer and shady politician's wife Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) and her work at several different law firms, The Good Fight is more of an ensemble show, featuring a healthy mix of veteran characters from the original and fresh faces.  Season 1 focused mostly on young lawyer Maia Rindell (Rose Leslie, Game of Thrones veteran and Jon Snow's real-life main squeeze) and a Bernie Madoff-esque scandal involving her father swindling people out of their retirement savings.  One of Rindell's victims was Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), who had planned on retiring to France but instead was forced to take a job at prominent African-American led firm Reddick, Boseman, and Kolstad (now Reddick, Boseman, and Lockhart).  The show has smartly (mostly) moved on from the Madoff story and given Diane a prominent role this season, since Baranski is such a commanding and electric force onscreen.  New this season is Liz Reddick (Audra McDonald), replacing her deceased father and joining other managing partner Adrian Boseman (Delroy Lindo).  Both actors are also very strong, with Lindo especially getting some really juicy dramatic scenes this season.  Rounding out the main cast are Cush Jumbo as Lucca Quinn, another Good Wife transplant who this season is dealing with an unplanned pregnancy and her on-again/off-again relationship with a prosecutor, Sarah Steele as secretary turned investigator Marissa Gold, and Nyambi Nyambi as investigator Jay Dispersia.  Of these actors, Steele is the standout, adding a much-needed dose of humor and sassiness to the sometimes serious tone of the show. 

Along with the actors, the show itself is nearly perfect, starting with the mesmerizing and haunting opening sequence/theme song, in which various pieces of office equipment explode onscreen (my secret dream).  Much has been said of the show's often strong political point of view: Diane, along with most of the characters, are liberal Democrats and staunchly anti-Trump.  The only real conservative voice is lawyer Julius Cain (Michael Boatman), although he doesn't get very much screen time.  Some may say that the show has gone too far with its politics this season, with plots about a Democratic party strategy to impeach Trump and the representation of one of the escorts who supposedly peed on Trump in Russia (the firm even gets hold of and watches the "PP Tape", as its called).  I don't actually have an issue with these storylines, but I do find Diane's random drug-induced hallucinations rather odd and pointless.  She imagines fake news stories involving Trump, such as him keeping a pig in the White House, and she envisions random people in Trump masks all around her, in one instance having sex in a building across the street.  Diane's obsession with the president just makes her seem crazy rather than politically involved.

Along with the political commentary, the show has delivered some impressive standout episodes this season, mostly involving a plot involving the targeting of Chicago lawyers for overcharging.  In one thrilling sequence, Maia and Marissa were assisted by a hazmat team when Marissa opened a letter containing a powdery substance believed to be Ricin.  I was on the edge of my seat as the office was evacuated and the women were forced to remain completely still while being decontaminated.  Another shocking moment came in episode 10 when, completely out of nowhere, a character (SPOILER ALERT) was shot.  The scene will go down for me as one of the most shocking in tv history. 

If you watched The Good Wife, then I would definitely encourage you to seek out The Good Fight.  It's definitely worth the price of one month of the streaming service, if you aren't able to get a free trial.  And even if you didn't watch the original, it's rather easy to enter the world of these characters, since not many plots are actually ongoing from one series to another.

Check out below one of the funniest scenes of season 2, featuring guest star Jane Lynch. 

Best Streaming Crime Documentaries

One of my favorite things to do on the weekend is to browse through Netflix, Hulu, or HBO and find random things to watch.  Usually I end up watching a crime documentary, the weirder and crazier the better.  Here are some of my favorites.  These can be either stand-alone documentary movies or multi-episode documentary tv shows. 

1.  There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (HBO): A suburban mother drives the wrong way on an upstate New York highway for miles, then crashes into an SUV, killing herself and seven others, including several children.  Was she drunk or high, or both?  Did she suffer some other sort of medical emergency, which caused her to lose her mind?  The filmmakers interview family members and others, getting conflicting opinions on what possibly could have caused the accident.  The story takes several fascinating turns, and I was hooked throughout.

There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane trailer

2.  Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About his Father (Netflix): Young Andrew Bagby was murdered by an unhinged woman after he ended their relationship.  Afterwards she revealed that she was pregnant with his child.  The filmmaker was a close friend of Andrew, and he aimed to make the film as a way for Bagby's son to learn about the father that he would never know, by interviewing friends and relatives about the deceased man.  But as the film is being made another murder takes place, and the story takes a much darker and shocking turn.  It's particularly fascinating to watch Bagby's parents have to spend visitations with the woman who killed their son, so that they can remain in their grandson's life (she somehow retained custody of the child).

Dear Zachary trailer

3.  Evil Genius (Netflix):  In 2003 a man with a bomb locked around his neck robbed a local bank in Erie, PA, then he died when the bomb exploded on live tv as the cops had him in custody.  He was a pizza delivery man that was seemingly forced to commit the robbery, but was he really in on the plot too?  Over 4 episodes the series examines an oddball group of characters who planned the heist and later all gave conflicting stories about what had actually happened.  A body in a freezer and other murders are perhaps related to the robbery as well, and the film finds the connections between these odd events.  The group's leader is crazy woman Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, who had murdered others in the past and who is interviewed extensively for the series.  She is truly a fascinating character, and the extent of her power to manipulate others is mind-blowing.   

Evil Genius trailer

4.  Beware the Slenderman (HBO): This film follows the case of two young girls who brutally stabbed their friend at a local park, in attempt to appease the fictional monster Slenderman.  In examining the case, viewers also learn about the Slenderman urban legend and the recent trend of other such urban legends being discussed on internet message boards like CreepyPasta.  Were the girls just naïve and easily manipulated, or were they diabolical young women just using the Slenderman as an excuse for their crime? 

Beware the Slenderman trailer

5.  Making a Murderer (Netflix): Perhaps the most well-known documentary series in recent years, Making a Murder follows the case of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man who was wrongly convicted of attempted murder and sexual assault and was released after spending 18 years in prison.  While filing suit against the local police for his wrongful conviction, he was arrested for another murder along with his nephew Brendan Dassey.  Did they really commit the crime, or did the police frame him to end the lawsuit and cover up their own crimes?  The story takes several shocking turns over the course of 10 episodes, and at the end I was still torn about what had actually happened.

Making a Murderer trailer

6.  The Keepers (Netflix): In the 1960s a young nun named Sister Cathy, a teacher at a Catholic high school, mysteriously went missing.  It turns out that a priest at the school was sexually abusing students.  Did Sister Cathy find out about the abuse, and was she silenced by the priest or someone close to him before the crimes could be reported?  This series and case were of particular interest to me, since I live right down the street from the school where the abuse allegedly took place (now closed), and many of the former students and faculty that were interviewed live in my own neighborhood.  But this series would be fascinating and frightening even if I wasn't close to it.

The Keepers trailer

7.  Mommy Dead and Dearest (HBO): This film tells the fascinating tale of Gypsy Rose Blancharde, a young girl who was manipulated by her mother Dee Dee for years into pretending that she suffered from a number of physical ailments.  A case of Munchausen by Proxy syndrome, Dee Dee thrived on the attention and money she received to help her supposedly sick daughter.  One day Gypsy Rose, tired of pretending and seeking independence as a young adult, snapped and murdered her mom with the help of a boyfriend that she had met online.  The film offers a fascinating portrait of a truly deranged woman who manipulated her daughter to the point where she simply couldn't take it anymore. 

Mommy Dead and Dearest trailer

Dream Emmy Ballot: Lead Actress, Drama

The Primetime Emmy awards aren't until September, but I thought that I would start periodically sharing my picks for the awards, whether I think that they actually have a chance or not.  I will only be sharing picks from shows that I've actually seen, so even though shows like Westworld and The Walking Dead are uber popular, you won't be seeing any picks from those shows since I stopped watching both a while ago (don't judge).

First up, leading actress in a drama series:

1.  Claire Foy (The Crown):  Portraying an actual famous figure who is still alive is difficult, but when this person is Queen Elizabeth II, it becomes an almost impossible task.  The public views her as a fussy and stodgy monarch who is mostly out-of-touch with the public.  Foy portrays the queen as all of these things, but she also makes her sympathetic, a simple woman thrown into a role that she didn't ask for, and who is suffering under the weight of a mostly unhappy marriage that she can't escape.  The role will be taken over by a different actress next season; here's hoping that she can convey the same quiet strength and dignity as Foy.

2.  Ellen Barkin (Animal Kingdom):  As Smurf, the matriarch of a crime family and the only female member of it, Barkin is electric onscreen.  She exudes such power and control that it makes perfect sense why grown, muscular men, her own sons, would be afraid of a petite older woman.  In season 2, her sons began to discover that their mom had betrayed them and they began to break away from the fold.  Barkin showed a softer side, desperation and despair over losing her family, who she loves above all else. 

3.  Constance Zimmer (Unreal): As Quinn, the executive producer of fictional Bachelor-style dating show Everlasting, Zimmer is the queen bitch in charge.  She manipulates the show's contestants and her own staff to shocking extremes in order to boost ratings and further her own career.  Somehow Zimmer makes you root for Quinn though, despite her nastiness.  In season 3 viewers Zimmer began to show a different, damaged side of Quinn, as we were clued into the extent of her alcoholism and loneliness.

4.  Lena Headey (Game of Thrones): Cersei Lannister is perhaps the most evil character on television.  She stops at nothing to keep her spot on the Iron Throne, and she aims to take down fan favorite Daenerys and Jon Snow for threatening her power.  I have the rather unpopular opinion that I want Cersei to remain on the throne when the series ends next season, simply because I love watching Headey so much and want her to have as much screen time as possible.  Cersei will never show anyone any sort of softer side, but Headey still conveys her character's inner grief over the loss of all 3 of her children.

5.  Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale): Moss's best moments on this show are when she's completely silent, as her character Offred (aka June) quietly grapples with the harsh realities of her world, in which she's repeatedly raped by her military commander master and physically abused by him and others.  In the most recent episode, the first glimmers of hope appeared on her Moss's face when she made a daring escape attempt, but her blistering pain and agony soon reappeared when she was caught. 

6.  Mandy Moore (This is Us): Many people would disagree with this choice.  Moore is just a pop singer and wannabe actress, right?  Wrong.  I may be biased (I have a huge crush on her), but Moore is the heart of this time-jumping weepy family drama.  In the much-hyped post-Super Bowl episode this year, Moore gave a quietly affecting performance, as her character Rebecca found out that her perfect husband Jack had died after a house fire.  She's even believable in old-age makeup in the present day, as an older woman to thirty-something kids. 

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The Death of Jack Pearson

Reality Show Roundup

3 of my favorite reality competition shows are nearing the end of their current cycles, with only a handful of contestants left.  Now is a good time to assess their seasons and declare my favorite (and least favorite) contestants remaining on each show.  As always there are spoilers below, so I would suggest not reading yet if you're not caught up.

1. Survivor Ghost Island: This season has been a bit hit-and-miss for me.  Some aspects of it have been truly compelling, with players making bold moves or entertainingly screwing up their own games (i.e. the epic downfall of Desiree, the sheer cluelessness of Chris, and the powerhouse duo of Domenick and Wendell).  But many other times the show has been all too predictable, with the dominant Naviti tribe mostly just rolling over the Malolo tribe, especially once they gained an advantage in the numbers.  The premise of the season, with new players finding and using idols and advantages from past seasons (with accompanying flashbacks) has been fun to watch, however it would be more fun if there weren't quite so many idols and if the players used them in smarter ways.  Currently Domenick and Wendell are poised to easily slide into the finale (each has an idol), while Laurel and Donathan (as the last remaining Malolo members) have an uphill battle ahead of them if they hope to make it to the end.  I would really like to see the other players find a way to take out the dominant duo before the finale.  That would really make for some great tv. 

2. RuPaul's Drag Race: Season 10 of the craziest competition on tv has been a real treat.  The challenges are crazier (a fake trashy talk show, infomercials for fake dating apps), and there has been lots of drama between the contestants.  The Vixen has picked fights with pretty much all of the other contestants, making the backstage aftershow really fun to watch (even if you feel a little sleazy while doing so).  This week's episode, the classic Snatch Game, a takeoff of the classic game show Match Game where the queens impersonate celebrities, was probably the most entertaining so far.  Monet Exchange as Maya Angelou and Aquaria as Melania Trump were laugh-out-loud funny, while Asia O'Hara as Beyoncé and The Vixen as her daughter Blue Ivy was an epic trainwreck.  Overall my top picks to win right now are definitely Eureka (her fat-girl image and loud humor are always funny) and Miz Cracker (she's so quirky and unique).   My least favorites are The Vixen and Kameron Michaels, who has been somehow sliding through the challenges so far.  Since The Vixen and Monet are both weak in many of the challenges but really good at the lip syncs, which determine which of the bottom two contestants goes home each week, they have perhaps lasted longer than they should.  But the show is always entertaining no matter who gets eliminated.  One moment this week, when the queens, dressed in elaborate mermaid costumes, were wheeled backstage on carts by the crew to retrieve the cocktails waiting for them, was so bizarre that I laughed out loud alone in front of my tv.

3.  MasterChef Junior:  Most people would not believe me if I told them that this is the most compelling cooking competition show on tv.  But it totally is.  These 8-13-year-old kids have more talent than most adults 3 times their age, and their positive attitudes and support for each other is truly refreshing in the backstabbing world of reality tv.  That's not to say that the judges can't be a little too mean sometimes, especially Gordon Ramsey and Joe Bastianich.  But they are also supportive and helpful when the contestants get overwhelmed at times (they are just kids, after all).  While most reality show cycles tend to drag on a bit too long, with too many contestants and only one elimination per week, I would suggest that this show has the opposite problem.  With 2 kids going home at the end of each episode, it's unfortunate that one not-so-stellar dish has sent some of them home.  Heading into the finale, there are currently only 3 contestants remaining: Beni, Quani, and Avery.  Beni the tomboy (or perhaps transgender girl, I'm not quite sure) can do no wrong with the judges, so I'd kind of like to see them be a little more critical of some of her dishes to knock her down a peg (yes, I realize that I'm criticizing a kid).  Quani has mostly sailed under the radar throughout the season, but he has stepped up his game massively in the last few episodes.  But 8-year-old Avery, who possesses the confidence and level head of a much older girl, and who is now the youngest contestant ever to cook in the finale, is my pick to win (I would have picked little Italian Mikey, but sadly he is now out of the running 😢).

Best TV Scenes of the Week

So I've done posts about my favorite current shows, series finales, and shocking tv moments, but now I thought that I'd share my favorite tv scenes of this past week.  These were the moments that had me glued to the screen, cheering at the screen, yelling, or just in shock.  Here we go...

1.  Eve finally meets Villanelle (Killing Eve): British intelligence agent Eve Polastri has been chasing the elusive hit woman Villanelle for several weeks now.  At the end of this week's episode, the women finally came face to face.  As the episode ended, Villanelle fired a shot directly at her enemy.  I can't wait to see what happens next week.  I couldn't find a clip of the actual scene, but here's the preview for next week.

Eve meets Villanelle

2.  Emily kills a former Gilead leader's wife (The Handmaid's Tale):  Banished to the bleak Colonies to do hard manual labor, Emily aka Ofglen meets a woman (played by Marisa Tomei!) who was married to a commander, until she was caught cheating and forced into exile.  Emily befriends her and passes on some antibiotics, but it turns out that the pills were really meant to poison her.  Emily can't forgive the woman for her part in helping her husband rape women.

Emily poisons the Commander's wife

3.  Chaos after Bobby Kennedy is shot (Bobby Kennedy for President): The new Netflix documentary documents the last few years of Robert Kennedy's life, as he helped his brother win the presidency and later ran for the office himself.  The end of episode 3 shows in graphic detail the shooting of Bobby at a hotel after winning the California primary, and the chaotic aftermath.  I could not believe that so much of the event was caught on video.  This video comes from a different documentary about the assassination, but it has the same effect.

Bobby Kennedy is shot