If you, like me, have been looking for a while for something to replace “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight” (the legal intrigue! The fabulous suits! Christine Baranski removing her reading glasses in extremely dramatic fashion!), might I suggest “War,” a new British legal drama from George Kay (“Lupin,” “Hijack”).

Premiering Oct. 1 on HBO Max, it’s an eight-episode series focusing on the tense legal battle behind an extremely high-profile divorce, and it’s quite delicious in its nasty this-is-war-and-my-suit-is-better-than-yours way, with a bonus for such extreme Englishness that two of its key female lawyers are named Prudence and Budgie and refer to each other in court as “my learned friend.” That Prudence is played by Archie Panjabi seems an absolute wink to we “Good Wife” fans; I kept waiting for her to whip out a notebook and discuss billable hours with Josh Charles. (Should you be wishing something closer to the “Good Wife” universe: Show creators Robert and Michelle King have a new legal drama, “Cupertino,” launching Oct. 8 on CBS/Paramount+.)

Anyway, here on “War” we have tech gazillionaire Morgan Henderson (Dominic West) and famous actress Carla Duval (Sienna Miller), who are getting divorced for, you know, reasons, and both have hired an extremely posh London law firm to represent their interests and presumably take a lot of their money. Morgan’s firm, Cathcarts, seems the posher of the two, being as one of the partners is actually named St. John Smallwood (Pip Torrens); Carla’s firm, Taylor & Byrne, is headed up by husband-and-wife team Nicholas Taylor (James McArdle) and Serena Byrne (Phoebe Fox). (That Serena is hugely pregnant adds a certain Chekhov’s-gun tension to the proceedings; you know that baby is going to make an appearance, probably wearing a little business suit, but you don’t know when.) From the early scenes, it’s clear that this divorce is going to be very, very nasty. “If they play dirty,” says St. John’s co-partner Beatrice (Nina Sosanya), “we will be total and utter filth.”

With filth being represented by an extremely ambitious young lawyer named Johnny Warren (Archie Renaux), whose ethics are quickly bought by the highest bidder, the drama get nicely mucky, full of extremely dark law offices (seriously, how do these people see to read their legal briefs?), expensively beige flats and people saying things like “Let’s start moving the money” and “I should have taken him to the cottage in Normandy and told him there.” (The latter is Carla, and one of my beefs with “War” is that we never actually get to see this oft-mentioned cottage and I bet it’s a knockout.) The issues do, however, get more or less worked out by the final act; though “War” is already set for a second season, it will feature an entirely new legal standoff and a new cast, not involving Morgan and Carla.

And honestly that’s a blessing, as I’d pretty much had enough of them by the eighth episode, despite West’s delightful way of always seeming secretly amused by the proceedings and Miller’s silky knack with Carla’s princessy privilege. No, the fun here is mainly in the atmosphere and the supporting characters. Torrens (“The Crown”) makes St. John a symphony of headmaster-ish reserve: When a character confronts him with “I don’t believe you!,” St. John merely replies, with dry disinterest, “I really can’t help you with that.” Panjabi, though a late arrival in the drama, is utterly believable as a barracuda in the courtroom. (“She doesn’t seem that scary,” says a character upon meeting Prudence. “That’s what’s so terrifying,” replies another.) And Celia Imrie, as the improbably named Budgie, has a deliciously feline manner in court as she meticulously sets traps; an actual budgie wouldn’t have a chance with this sly cat.

As the elevator door closes on Season 1 (again, a “Good Wife” trademark), I would happily have watched more. “The last thing any client wants,” Beatrice intones in a meeting, seemingly stating the show’s theme, “is for their lawyers to be reasonable.”

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'WAR'

Rating: TV-MA

How to watch: Premieres Oct. 1 on HBO Max, with new episodes dropping Thursdays through Nov. 19

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