This interview consists of spoilers for the collection finale of “The Good Combat.”
“The Good Combat” adjourned for the ultimate time on Thursday, bringing to a detailed 13 years of the universe it shared with “The Good Spouse.”
That earlier collection, which aired on CBS from 2009 to 2016, was centered on the lawyer Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) and impressed by the stand-by-your-man intercourse scandals of its interval. On reflection, it was additionally the product of a extra optimistic time.
“Dramas had been extra human-sized then, weren’t they?” mentioned Robert King, who created the collection together with his spouse, Michelle. “Versus, ‘OK, let’s finish democracy so our president can keep in workplace ceaselessly.’”
“The Good Combat,” a streaming collection from its inception (on CBS All Entry, then Paramount+), was extra savvy. Set at a majority Black legislation agency, the present targeted on Alicia’s former colleague Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) and featured a number of held-over “Good Spouse” characters. It took a number of seasons for the writers to actually begin having fun with themselves — to embrace the liberty of streaming past the easy pleasures of cursing and nudity — and experiment with new tones and codecs. However as soon as they did, the present grew to become must-watch tv.
“We by no means thought when it comes to, ‘Let’s do one thing to alter the course of TV,’” Michelle King mentioned. “It’s simply stuff that amuses us, versus some bigger effort to be disruptive.”
“Combat” thrived on real-world disruption, although, drawing story strains from occasions each precise and anticipated. Viewers watched as Diane, a lifelong liberal, was broadsided by the 2016 election outcomes, which utterly modified the present’s focus. By the penultimate episode, the ninth of the sixth and ultimate season, Diane was contemplating taking the helm of the Democratic Nationwide Committee, and the constitutional proper to homosexual marriage was overturned.
“The ninth and tenth episodes had been terrifying to make,” Robert King mentioned of the season. “The ninth episode relied on the Democrats doing poorly within the midterm elections.” For the finale, he mentioned, they wager that Trump would announce one other presidential run after the midterms.
There was additionally mounting civil unrest, with violence within the streets constructing to a chaotic pitch. Within the finale, Diane’s agency confronted an assault by armed white supremacists, which left the workplace trying just like the present’s explosive opening credit. Giving up the battle, as she had been considering (together with giving up the legislation and the husband), was not an possibility.
Her creators, nonetheless, should cling up their hats, no less than on this explicit universe. On the cellphone final week, the Kings spoke about how they introduced their groundbreaking collection to an finish. These are edited excerpts from the dialog.
How did you resolve what you wanted to perform within the finale?
MICHELLE KING: Every little thing was up for grabs. What we had been attempting to honor was exhibiting that the world was not a contented place, however perhaps our characters may very well be.
ROBERT KING: The largest query was whether or not Diane ought to proceed utilizing the legislation to battle. And it was clear that Jay [Nyambi Nyambi] was changing into an increasing number of pissed off by the constraints of the legislation as a method to tackle problems with race and police brutality. Is there a method that Jay may discover one thing else, with the Collective?
The Collective bypasses the legal justice system. There is no such thing as a due course of. Isn’t that making a monster?
MICHELLE KING: I feel the Collective lives in an aspirational house the place individuals are so extremely competent that no errors are ever made.
ROBERT KING: If we’d executed yet one more season, you’d have seen this extrajudicial world that can presumably implode. Perhaps it was a little bit of a fantasy land, having violent white supremacists despatched to Antarctica, gazing white all day. Hopefully the viewers wonders, “OK, however what occurs subsequent?”
The across-the-aisle relationship between Diane and the conservative Kurt McVeigh [Gary Cole] dates again to Season 1 of “The Good Spouse,” and Diane nearly throws it away. What ought to we learn into that?
MICHELLE KING: It’s about greater than Kurt and Diane, however we don’t strategy it as being greater than Kurt and Diane. I used to be actually rooting for that marriage. It’s barely optimistic as a result of issues have simply gotten harder when it comes to what’s happening within the nation. He’s a very honorable individual, regardless that they don’t share the identical political standpoint. And there may be love there.
ROBERT KING: Numerous romantic comedies have faux dilemmas. One coughs, and the opposite doesn’t like coughing. This goes to the guts of what’s inflicting issues in our time: this political cut up that has appeared to overhaul faith as a very powerful factor in individuals’s lives. Christine Baranski created the road on the finish, the place Kurt asks, “What are we going to do?” and Diane solutions, “Numerous intercourse and pasta.” One of many methods throughout the divide is these animalistic pleasures in life, like meals and intercourse.
And tv? Earlier this season, Liz [Audra McDonald] bonded with somebody pretending to be Ginni Thomas over the fact collection “Under Deck.” Is that present the glue that retains you two collectively?
ROBERT KING: [Laughs.] I watch “Under Deck” loads. It’s type of like “The White Lotus.” The category satire may be very thick, however in an Errol Morris method. The TV present that’s holding us collectively now might be “The Nice British Baking Present.”
Felix [John Cameron Mitchell] presents an unethical method to knock out DeSantis, however it may allow Trump. These ethical dilemmas and trade-offs have been a theme all through “The Good Combat.”
ROBERT KING: It’s an obsession of the present. What’s the good battle? How Machiavellian are you able to be? How a lot do you skirt the legislation to get what you discover to be the higher justice? Don’t you then develop into the issue? All of that stuff was based mostly on what the Democrats had been doing this yr, placing their thumb on the size to assist the worst type of Republicans win the primaries, hoping they’d be simpler to defeat within the common election. Clearly, that creates a variety of issues. Do you help Felix Staples as a result of he’s going to take down DeSantis? Aren’t you left with Trump? Are you able to do a two-bank shot? After which the Democrats, with their lack of ability to hit a billiard ball, how a lot will they screw it up?
Do you see extra exhibits now being extra emboldened to tackle divisive up to date topics? Or will there be a vacuum left behind?
ROBERT KING: I feel there can be a vacuum. TV writers assume, “I’m writing for the centuries, so I gained’t make something too present.” There’s a sure cowardice or indifference with that. And it’s arduous to serve the wants of regardless of the model or firm desires. It’s somewhat unhappy as a result of I do like these exhibits that speak about what all people’s speaking about proper now. Not simply when it comes to easy methods to bake a taco, but in addition, What’s happening with this nation? Is there a dip towards fascism? Can we be taught something from Brazil?
MICHELLE KING: It seems like that stuff has been relegated to late-night comedians.
ROBERT KING: My drawback with late evening is that there’s a lot liberal entitlement, preaching to the choir. At a sure level, in all probability we had been, too. I don’t assume we had that many Trumpites watching.
MICHELLE KING: Though the hassle was all the time to be satirical towards the left as nicely.
ROBERT KING: And towards divisions throughout the left. With the episode this yr that was about Israel, and whether or not artists ought to carry out there, that’s a division on the left: What stage of criticism of Israel is antisemitism? However then the episode additionally identified: Why does China get a move? That’s our obsession with China, and the leisure enterprise tiptoeing round China. If there’s a billion {dollars} on the ground, any firm will go and choose it up, even when it means shutting up about human rights.
There was a fast point out earlier this season of Alicia and Peter Florrick [Chris Noth], of “The Good Spouse.” Was there ever a second the place you considered killing them off?
ROBERT KING: I feel we had been going to offer Peter a coronary heart assault in Season 4 of “The Good Spouse.” It was in all probability the higher determination to kill Will [Josh Charles], regardless that the choice was type of handed to us by contractual wants. However we didn’t have Pelotons again then.
Are you left with any regrets?
ROBERT KING: Episode 8 was going to finish with a 10-15 minute satire of an HBO behind-the-scenes phase, and it was going to be all musical. It was a humorous idea …
MICHELLE KING: … however we couldn’t make it work.
Have been you ever tempted to dream up a 3rd installment? There are requests on Twitter for a spinoff that includes Marissa Gold [Sarah Steele] and/or Eli Gold [Alan Cumming].
MICHELLE KING: That’s not one thing we’re pursuing at this level, however we’re in “by no means say by no means” territory.
ROBERT KING: We’re so flattered, and when Elon Musk costs us $20 a month for holding checks subsequent to our names, we’ll be much more flattered. There’s a lot nostalgia for these characters that you just type of go, “OK, let’s do 80 extra years. Let’s hand it off to our grandkids and have them do it.”