Requiem for a stream.
That’s a legacy.
When the unhinged legal thriller debuted four years ago, it was a spin-off on a spin-off.
Credit: CBS
The sequel to the long-runningGood Wifewas the first scripted original on its parent broadcaster’s streaming service.
But the top deck sinks last.
CBS' upper-demographic weekly-procedural steadiness represented the precise opposite of everything “streaming” was.
Fuddy-duddy boardroom thinking doomed the digital outlet with that unforgivable name.
But what’s in a name?
Whoever thought a website for Internet Flicks would swallow the world?
CBS All Access ends today.
Viacom’s TV future is Paramount+.
It’s the same service, more or less, rebranded for the decade of re-conglomeration.
The Paramount+ Super Bowl commercials boldly climaxed with an 80-year-old man on a remote snowy mountain peak.
If you blinked then you missed Christine Baranski as Diane Lockhart, wry and exhausted and brilliant.
I love that silly advertising campaign just for her cameo.
Any attention forThe Good Fightis good attention.
The series will jump to Paramount+ for its upcoming fifth season.
Other refugees include variousStar Treks andNo Activity.
I recently learnedNo Activitywill pivot to animation for season 4.
I also recently learned about the existence of a show calledNo Activity.
I watched four episodes ofOne Dollar, and I do remember the dollar.Coyoteimagined what ifBreaking Badwere bad.
My mom swears byWhy Women Kill.
I recall hope for Josh Boone’sThe Stand, which certainly happened.
Stephen Colbert’sTooning Out the Newsis… a cartoon about news?
I’m being cruel to be kind here.
It was a tough era to not be Netflix.
Just ask Hulu, the pre-eminent not-Netflix.
The CBS All Access archive was extensive, and confounding for anyone who remembers when brands had identities.
The originalPerry Mason, sure.I Love Lucy, that tracks.
But also,Snooki & JWoww, all 48 episodes?
Is thatAnother Period??????
Was it an inevitable failure, wasting a head start while Disney+ and HBO Max scaled Netflix’s mountain?
For me, CBS All Access wasThe Good Fight.
SoGood Fightis classical legal drama and it isn’t.
The weekly procedural structure keeps the wheels of justice turning.
Also: the wheels of justice stop turning.
This kind ofiswhat would happen if you designed a show forWonder Showzenheads andNCISdevotees.
“The guard rails are gone, Diane,” Lindo’s Adrian says in the season 3 finale.
“I can’t see the road.”
He’s talking about a whole plot thing, some Trump-appointed judge who might be corrupt.
It’s a journey from old media to new media from CBS to all access.
The transformations have not ended.The Good Fightwill return.
Fine, Paramount+, take my money.
