TV Review: The Good Fight Series 3

Michael Sheen does his best to destabilise Series 3 of The Good Fight but Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald just about pull it back

“Don’t get in the way of someone kicking ass”

For a season that contains the wonder that is Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald casually duetting on ‘Raspberry Beret’, Series 3 of The Good Fight ends up being something of a challenge. The presence of Michael Sheen’s Mephistophelian Roland Blum was clearly meant to shake things up but that chaotic energy ends up being destabilising.

Which is a shame, as so much of what makes The Good Fight click so well is present here. Topics ripped from up-to-the-minute headlines, including voter suppression, racial profiling, Karens calling the polices, troll farms, historic sexual harassment cases, Kim and Kanye… And they’re all treated sensitively but still daringly in some bold storytelling.

Baranski shines as ever as the luminous Diane Lockhart, and it is great to see Audra McDonald’s Liz Reddick get more of the limelight as a proper lead. Cush Jumbo also continues to give a constantly interesting performance but of those original leads, Rose Leslie gets the short straw as the writing does her dirty, pushing her out of the firm and into the arms of Blum.

No matter how deliberately awful Blum is meant to be, Sheen’s performance is jarring in the extreme and I came to hate his every moment onscreen, finger hovering over the fast-forward button. Let’s hope that his departure in the final episode marks a proper closing of that door and the focus can return to Reddick, Boseman & Lockhart and that cliffhanger.

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