The Good Fight Review: The Gang Deals With Alternate Reality (Season 4 Episode 1)
What a time to begin reviewing The Good Fight. What a time to escape to an alternate reality in which the name Donald Trump only evokes thoughts of a businessman turned TV star.
Yet, that’s exactly where Diane is on The Good Fight Season 4 Episode 1, “The Gang Deals With Alternate Reality,” and it’s not as joyous as it may seem because she also knows the truth. It’s too powerful to be ignored whether it’s good or bad.
Today, this alternate reality is challenging, riveting, and painful to watch, but it’s also necessary.
Diane’s fantasy works because she’s grounded by what she knows to be true. So much has happened in 3.5 years and every action has consequences. No reality exists that’s all pink butterflies, rainbows, and unicorns.
We all know this, but the more uncertain our reality, the more difficult Diane’s dream is to watch.
Under Madam President Clinton, women’s voices are suppressed more than ever before by judges as much as our own instinct for survival.
We have everything to lose, so women in Hollywood are still suffering the abuse of Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer because it’s still too unsafe to risk losing everything, including credibility.
Diane sees this first hand when she represents Weinstein in his efforts to silence women trying to make his behavior known to the public. She wins without even trying because she’s downright hoping to lose.
But the complexity of the issue is clearest when you consider the scene when Zoe Redgrave asks Diane to stop trying to make #MeToo happen at public events.
Zoe: You’re trying to suggest women get angry about abuse, right?…That’s not the message that helps us in 2020. Hillary only gets re-elected if men don’t feel like woman are leading with their anger.
Diane: But women are angry.
Zoe: No they’re not. Women are making advancements now. And they’re doing it through competance, not through grivence.
When Diane asks Zoe if she expects abuse victims to “just shut up,” Zoe says,
“No, I’m asking them to get a woman reelected to the highest office in the land.”
The episode is asking viewers if having one female in power doing good is worth suppressing the voices of many other women being abused by many different powerful men.
It’s baffling to agree with Diane at the end of the episode that her fantasy is not worth its price, especially since that price includes Kurt’s life.
Kurt and Diane are good for each other and any alternate reality where he’s dead is less interesting.
The Good Fight is wonderful at mirroring reality in fiction down to the doppelgangers of public figures, like Weinstein, it uses instead of creating fictional characters who go down fictional paths.
That raw truth, even inside of Diane’s dream, is the closest thing TV creatives can achieve to real political activism within the confines of a fictional teleplay.
Even when it’s downright painful to watch, some of us need a show like The Good Fight marching beside us, holding our hands while it reveals hard truths, as Kurt holds Diane’s in the dream to essentially force her awake in reality.
March on as you can, folks. This isn’t a dream and there is work to do. Diane is about to brush off another fabulous pantsuit and get back to it.
What did you think of this episode of The Good Fight? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Good Fight airs Thursdays on CBS All Access.
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Esme Mazzeo
Esme Mazzeo is a lifestyle and entertainment journalist from Long Island. When she's not writing for work, she's writing for fun, or searching for something to satisfy her sweet tooth. She thinks rainy days are the best kind of days. Certified night owl.