The Good Fight review: Critics give their verdict on CBS' The Good Wife spin-off

The Good Fight features some old and many new faces from the original series, The Good Wife. Premiering on February 19 on CBS, the spin-off show will see Christine Baranski, Cush Jumbo, Rose Leslie, Delroy Lindo, Sarah Steele, Justin Bartha and Erica Tazel playing key roles in building the story.

Also read: Big Little Lies Review: Critics heap praise on cast of new HBO show

The official synopsis of the plot of the show reads:

The Good Fight picks up one year after the events of the final broadcast episode of The Good Wife. In the new series, an enormous financial scam has destroyed the reputation of a young lawyer, Maia Rindell, while simultaneously wiping out her mentor and godmother Diane Lockhart's savings. Forced out of Lockhart and Lee, they join Lucca Quinn at one of Chicago's pre-eminent law firms. The series, from "The Good Wife" creators Robert and Michelle King, stars Christine Baranski, Cush Jumbo, Rose Leslie, Delroy Lindo, Sarah Steele, Justin Bartha, Erica Tazel, Paul Guilfoyle and Bernadette Peters.

The power-packed premiere episode will clash with HBO's Big Little Lies over the weekend. While Big Little Lies has already received good reviews, will The Good Fight be as good as the original, The Good Wife? Find out in the critics review:

Variety's TV critic, Maureen Ryan reviewed the show and stated that The Good Fight has a slightly more jagged and splintered atmosphere than The Good Wife. "The Good Fight has three centers of gravity, and it remains to be seen whether the show can successfully balance the storylines of its core trio and weave those plots together in ways that result in deeply rewarding, character-driven drama," she wrote.

"What these women share is a determination to move on and make the best of the difficult new circumstances. But Alicia — and Obama — are like exes that cast a long shadow over the supposedly new lives of the people they left behind. Their absences leave large holes in the landscape. Diane's plight is thus personal but also metaphorical: She likens the collapse of every pillar of her supposedly solid and trustworthy world to a nightmare. It's a sentiment that many of this show's viewers will understand," Ryan adds.

Talking about the storyline, TV Guide's Michael Ausiellosaid that the script opens well and the story is set off on a good pace. "The premiere spends a fair amount of time laying pipe, so episode 2 provides a more accurate picture of what the series will look like moving forward. And it looks really good. Good Wife fans will also recognise the dramatic score and the Kings' signature breakneck pacing, as well as additional familiar faces, most notably the sublime Sarah Steele as Eli's no-nonsense daughter Marissa," he reviewed.

While calling Diane Lockhart "The Better Wife", .Mic's Kevin O'Keeffe shares one concern: "The second episode spends a lot of time on a case-of-the-week. It's a good one, with lots of time invested in building Maia and Lucca's relationship and a surprising ending. But The Good Fight will only have 10 episodes, which causes concern about economy of time," he wrote.

However, praising the series, he added, "The Good Fight is a marvel, one that almost makes The Good Wife feel like a first draft in retrospect. This is the Kings working at their peak, given the time and money to make something truly special. Like Diane, they've taken what they've learned and reset, coming up with something that seems familiar, but is far richer than before."

Can someone who has never watched the original version get tuned into the spinoff? Yes, says Deadline's Dominic Patten. Stating that the Christine Baranski-Led Good Wife spinoff is very good, he writes, "If you weren't a regular viewer of The Good Wife, count yourself lucky to have been given a second chance to get into the legal drama's now-expanding universe."

The first episode of The Good Fight is titled as Inauguration and airs on CBS on February 19 at 8 pm ET, but the subsequent nine will only stream on the network's digital service, CBS All Access. You can watch the trailer here: