Why The Good Fight and Evil are standout examples of sparkling ensemble chemistry

There are so many things TV dramas do now that would have been unthinkable 25 years ago. Just look at last year's Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the nominees for Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series. The Handmaid's Tale, The Morning Show, Squid Game, Yellowstone, and eventual winner Succession: That's a couple of dystopias, two vast family epics, a host of legacy movie stars, an international subtitled sensation, and all manner of sexy-violent-vulgarity that barely existed in the small-screen '90s. Back then, the same prize was up for grabs between ER, NYPD Blue, The Practice, and Law & Order: Doctor-cop-lawyer workplaces, hospitals and precincts and courtrooms. The exception that proved the rule was X-Files, a supernatural-tinged paranoid fantasy poured into the recognizable shape of an investigative weekly.

The Network Procedural is no longer a prestigious TV artistic phenomenon: Old news from last decade. But a couple shows in 2022 kept the flame burning for case-of-the-week entertainment — and offered two master classes in the magic of co-worker chemistry. With the winter awards season upon us (we're mostly looking at you, Screen Actors Guild), I hope the voting members find room in their hearts for The Good Fight and Evil, a matched set of pandemonium procedurals, both co-created and showrun by Michelle and Robert King for Paramount+.

One reason for hope: The last inarguable procedural to get a Drama Ensemble nomination from SAG was the Kings' own The Good Wife, which spent a few years in the Boston Legal lawyer-show slot before Netflix crowded that slot into extinction. Fight spun off from Wife and spent six sensational years exploding the violent absurdities of post-2016 America with provocative eccentricity. Season 6 put spotlights on old and new characters, pitting befuddled Liz (Audra McDonald) against braggadocious new partner Ri'chard (Andre Braugher), while Diane (Christine Baranski) sought refuge from national chaos in the oh-so-handsome medical treatments of Dr. Lyle Bettencourt (John Slattery).

The Good Fight could split its characters up into stratospheres of surrealism, and season 6 gave some memorable material to Sarah Steele's Marissa (who reunited with her high-intensity dad) and Nyambi Nyambi's Jay (who joined an underground organization working to counter white supremacy). But the season also offered one textbook portrait of what it looks like when a great ensemble works great together, throwing the whole cast together for a very dramatic Saturday requiring multiple lawsuits and investigations into one race-against-the-clock organ donation. That episode serves as a reminder of how entertaining episodic storytelling can be, packing multiple twists and character turns into a sub-40-minute runtime. (Fight just received a Critic's Choice nomination for Best Drama along with noms for Baranski, Braugher, and McDonald; critics are always right.)

Meanwhile, Evil keeps expanding its own character dynamics. The central trio is still rock-solid. Aasif Mandvi's Ben gives great skeptic; Mike Colter's David is an endearingly troubled true believer; Katja Herbers's Kristen exists somewhere in the protean center, as a psychologist who finds some of their mysteries hysterically funny even as unfathomable forces circle her family. Any scene with those three sparkles with wit and warmth — you haven't lived till you've seen them sing the chorus from "So Happy Together" on a haunted highway!

But season 3 also expanded the show's focus on its supporting cast. Sister Andrea (scene-stealing Andrea Martin) got more of a showcase, as Evil made it clear that the seemingly all-knowing nun is a key player in its larger mythology — and a brutally overlooked hero in the Church's backward hierarchy. Leland (Michael Emerson) and Sheryl (Christine Lahti) became much freakier and much funnier antagonists, deviously capturing Kristen's dopey husband. Evil is the kind of show where even a minor character like Kurt (Kurt Fuller) can embark on a Faustian bargain with netherworld entities, and it's also the kind of show that finds room for all four (four!) of Kristen's precocious daughters.

The Good Fight and Evil are both plot shows, introducing clear act-one stakes that will climax by episode's end. But the high quality of performance in both ensembles elevates even the most expository scenes into feats of modest character building: Think of the special way Diane witheringly glares through her glasses at a lying client, or the can-you-believe-this-ridiculousness eye contact Evil's assessors often make when they're hearing about murderous stock tips or demonic memes. There's a subtlety in their insanity, a shared cockeyed grin about how ludicrous their cases are getting. Both casts are stacked with talent from stage and screen; hell, both shows guest-starred Wallace Shawn! Take another look at the Kingverse, voters — it's worth every penny of that Paramount+ subscription.

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• In praise of a random, wonderful episode of The Good Fight
• The Good Fight review: This is how you (begin to) end a TV show
• Evil stars share their scariest on-set moments
• Evil season 3 promises to be as unsettling as ever