David Bianculli: Bad News About ‘The Good Fight’
Column
The Good Fight, the excellent spinoff to the equally outstanding CBS legal drama The Good Wife, will be back for a second season in 2018. That’s the good news, because The Good Fight is the best new series CBS has presented all year.
The bad news is that—as with all but the first of Season 1’s 10 stellar episodes, which continued the legal and personal travails of Christine Baranski’s Diane Lockhart and Co.—The Good Fight on the CBS broadcast network isn’t a show. It’s a no-show. If you want to watch it (and you should), you have to pay.
When CBS unveiled The Good Fight, the premiere aired free on CBS. After that, viewers had to subscribe to the series’ exclusive new home online, CBS All Access. A stellar spinoff of an established and acclaimed CBS series, by the same creators, was pulled from the lineup, teasingly, the same way Lucy would yank away Charlie Brown’s football.
In September, CBS will pull that same bait-and-switch with a spinoff of an even more beloved franchise. Star Trek: Discovery will debut on September 24. That same night, eager fans can also watch Episode 2—but only on CBS All Access. Ditto for every episode thereafter. The service, which offers live streaming access to your local CBS station as well as to a library of selected shows, currently costs $5.99 per month. (Or $9.99, if you pay to avoid all commercials.)
It doesn’t bother me that CBS wants to get into the streaming game, especially with a quality product. But airing The Good Fight only on CBS All Access, and in effect taking it away from viewers of CBS, isn’t just robbing Peter to pay Paul. It’s robbing Peter, then making Paul pay extra for it. Imagine, NCIS fans, if CBS had shown the premiere episode of say, NCIS: Los Angeles and then made all subsequent episodes available only on a pay-per-month streaming site. You can understand the business model, but you don’t have to like it.
CBS has tried a pay-TV model before, launching CBS Cable in 1981. The idea was to offer high-class programming—symphonies, opera, theater, dance—but there was neither enough programming nor enough paying customers. CBS Cable lasted little more than a year. Using a new Star Trek series as catnip to lure viewers to CBS All Access may be the final frontier, if not the last straw.
What’s most upsetting, at least to me, isn’t that CBS is making us pay for the privilege of watching certain shows. It’s that, with The Good Fight, it’s making us pay for its best show rather than proudly sharing it with its national broadcast audience. If CBS All Access must claim first dibs to the likes of The Good Fight and Star Trek: Discovery, why can’t CBS give us second dibs a few months later?
David Bianculli is also a TV and film professor at Rowan University, New Jersey, and appears as a critic and guest host on NPR’s Fresh Air With Terry Gross.
Conversation12 Comments
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C
There are way to many shows to watch without paying more. I liked the show but will not fall into their trap. It will not be long and we will be paying more for every show we like.
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P
Somebody will figure out a way/if they haven't already to bootleg that stream. I hope someone does. If your better shows are available on their stream what does that say about their network programs. Only reason I pay for cable is to watch some great classics on a handful of sub channels.
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O
I refuse to pay CBS for streaming shows. I'm on a limited income and can't afford to pay extra for this service. It's greedy to do this to viewers.
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G
all of you entitled folks who can afford the various streaming,pay services and the Network channels...should remember about the millions upon millions of low income and senior people who have supported you for all the years that TV has been operating..
what happens to us? the Remember who made The Good Wife the success it was...
so now we are penalized because we can't afford streaming? doesn't seen fair
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G
No one is "entitled" -- stop using that word - just say what you mean -- you're poor and you cant afford it. Period. Nothing else needs to be said.
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O
To the writer, David: almost nobody these days gets CBS for free these days. To view CBS one has to pay for cable or satellite which it comes with. All Acess isn't a rip off, just think of it as another premium channel (all of which you must pay extra for to get).
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R
I, too, will never pay for CBS shows. I loved the episode they showed but was really disheartened by the fact that they want you to pay to see further episodes of that show and the new Star Trek. I am on a fixed income and am currently paying for Netflix streaming. That is well worth the money. Especially in the summer when good TV is not available on cable. CBS probably doesn't care about me as I am 80 years old and don't fit the demographics.
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P
They need to monetize streaming somehow and the only way to lure paying customers is to put desirable content people will pay for there. Fortunately, there is still a lot of good stuff on OTA television. It's not that I disagree with what the author is lamenting, only acknowledging that CBS needs to be a player in the streaming game, so the situation is unlikely to change. Further, without this strategy neither Good Fight nor Star Trek: Discovery may have been produced in the first place.
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C
David: Do you happen to know if season 1 of "The Good Fight" will be released on DVD? I was a loyal watcher of The Good Wife from the first episode til the last and at the end of every season, bought the series on DVD. I'm not paying for CBS all access, but based on having seen the first episode for free - I'd be willing to buy the season on DVD sight unseen and watch it that way.
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P
No way I will pay greedy CBS extra for ANY show. They should try putting a charge to everything they offer. See how long the network lasts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!They S U C K.
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G
Ill wait for streaming of DVDs on Netfix for Star Trek Discovery. I Already pay for CBS on DirecTV. You should have seen my face, when Apple TV has CBS in its lineup -- I thought oh great - if I miss a show, I can watch it for free and sit through commericals - no bigger -- should have seen my face AFTER I saw it was CBS All Access and they wanted to to pay for an episode I may miss....no thank you.
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O
I'll watch it on CBS network but not streaming! Steven Anderson is spot on!
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