In Cupertino, CBS’ new David vs. Goliath legal drama from Robert and Michelle King, attorney Michael Price (Mike Colter) finds himself pushed out of a fast-growing tech company and cheated out of his stock options. He teams up with fellow fired attorney Olivia Siffre (Rachel Keller) to launch a law firm representing everyday people caught in the complications of a rapidly changing tech landscape.

They set up shop in the unfinished headquarters of a startup that went bust.

It’s an appropriately scrappy setup for a case-of-the-week show inspired by current headlines. Michael and Olivia tackle questions the law is still working to answer and take the side of the underdog even when the arguments aren’t clear-cut.

Michael’s own motivations are complicated, too. “And he does see the value in helping people, but he also sees the value in making money,” Colter says. As the two attorneys build their business, Keller sees their growing friendship—and the way they navigate disagreements with respect—as central to the series. “To me, that feels like such a heartbeat to the whole show, a kind of touchstone along the way,” said Keller.

For CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach, the series reflects what sets the Kings apart. “The Kings’ ability to find characters and stories that speak to the moment is unparalleled and they once again delivered a show that feels almost scarily prescient in the best and most entertaining way.”

An Idea Meets the Moment

The road to Cupertino started while the Kings were wrapping up The Good Wife for CBS, well before the AI boom. Their original plan would have sent Christine Baranski’s character to Silicon Valley; instead, she stayed in Chicago for The Good Fight.

For Robert, the setting is personal. “I grew up in San Jose and I was very aware whenever I went back home how much it changed,” he says. As tech’s one-time disruptors became the people in charge, he and Michelle saw an opportunity to focus on those living with the consequences of that power. “It just came about that seemed like a David vs. Goliath thing of people at the bottom who are trying to basically correct what people at the top are doing.”

After Evil ended, the pair revisited the concept. With AI increasingly part of daily life, there was plenty of material to explore the promises and costs of innovation. Even so, Robert initially wondered whether that world could sustain a procedural’s weekly stakes. “But the news has given us like an endless stream of cases,” he says.

One case involves a coder blamed for a deadly drone display. Another features Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man (Cliff Smith) guest starring as a musician taking an AI music studio to court over lost streaming royalties.

Given the subject matter, humor plays an essential role in keeping the show from becoming heavy-handed. As she recalled to The New York Times, Michelle’s instruction to the writers was simple: “Make it funny.”

A Deep Bench of Talent

Colter reunites with the Kings after four seasons as priest-in-training David Acosta on breakout hit Evil, trading supernatural investigations for legal battles. Keller is new to the Kings’ roster but not to prestige television, with credits that include Fargo, Legion and Tokyo Vice.