“The Good Fight,” entering its final season later this year, has never strayed away from tackling current events. Season 5 was no exception, and included a plot line about the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol in 2021. In conversation with Variety editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton, creators Robert King and Michelle King, as well as stars Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald discussed the show’s unique process for the Variety Streaming Room presented by CBS studios and Paramount+.

“Christine was here on the first episode of ‘Good Fight’ where it was supposed to be Hillary had won and then she leaves the firm because the last glass ceiling was broken,” Robert King said. “I think shooting the eighth day or ninth day of the pilot, Trump won like a block away from where we were shooting. Then Michelle and I went back to the drawing board about how to start the year, because it felt like, OK, as bad as that might be for the world, it was really good for the show and what Christine’s character would be feeling at the beginning of the show.”

Michelle King added, “That is what it’s been throughout, a writer’s room responding to yet another disaster in the news and filtering it through these characters who, fortunately, are very politically aware and interested. Otherwise, you don’t tell these stories. It’s only because the characters care deeply about what’s going on, that the writers are allowed to [do that].”

Baranski and McDonald also discussed their experiences working on the TV series in comparison to their many previous theater roles. McDonald, a six-time Tony winner, said she sees them as separate challenges.

“The endurance is different in television,” McDonald said. “You have to be able to endure long days that start at four or five o’clock in the morning and you have to sit for hours, and then all of a sudden be ready to go and then do it over and over again from 75 different angles, and then sit for another three hours and then do it again. Whereas the endurance with theater is doing the same thing night after night, and having to be 100% every single time … There’s a different sort of endurance that’s involved.”

Watch the full conversation in the video above.