If you loved The Good Wife, prepare to reengage. After launching in the US as the flagship drama for CBS’s new streaming service, the Christine Baranski-led continuation The Good Fight kicked off on More4 last night.

It’s not even the only spin-off to arrive on UK screens this week. If you’ve enjoyed watching fedora-sporting Machiavelli James Spader lead his maybe-daughter Megan Boone and her FBI squad on a merry dance for four seasons of The Blacklist, perhaps you were tempted to sample The Blacklist: Redemption on Wednesday. This spy-centric spin-off flips the gender dynamic of the usual Blacklist leads with secretive private military contractor Famke Janssen working with Ryan Eggold’s principled ex-CIA spook who, in an Oedipal twist, might just be her son. Or maybe you’re a diehard fan of super-producer Dick Wolf and wanted to see how his new drama Chicago Justice slots in alongside the ever-expanding Windy City universe of Chicago Fire, Chicago PD and Chicago Med.

In the US, this is just business as usual. It feels like spin-off potential is baked in to any TV project’s premise, discussed in the big money meetings where shows are poised to be given the green light. The sunnily optimistic assumption seems to be: this thing we’re making is obviously going to be a smash, so where can we go next?

The cast of Chicago Justice, part of Dick Wolf’s ever-expanding Windy City universe. Photograph: NBC/Chris Haston

The Blacklist: Redemption and Chicago Justice have followed the tried-and-trusted photocopying method, manufacturing new shows designed to coexist and even complement the original. It’s this “the same, but a little different” approach that built the twin empires of global procedural giants CSI and NCIS. The Good Fight comes more from the golden-goose school of transitional spin-offs, promptly following a sundowning series in an effort to hang on to existing fans and hopefully attract new ones. See also: 24 Legacy.

When it works, everyone wins. The Good Fight, where Baranski’s canny lawyer Diane Lockhart suddenly finds herself broke and working for a predominantly black firm of police brutality lawsuit specialists, is well-tooled, crackling entertainment. Perhaps inevitably, the Blacklist: Redemption and Chicago Justice feel a little more disposable, unnecessary, even crass. That’s the risk when you roll the dice in the spin-off game. Sometimes you get Frasier, sometimes you get Tucker’s Luck.

Why has the UK never fully embraced the US model of mass production? Maybe it is because our industries have evolved in such different ways, responding to different market forces. In the UK, there remains a tendency to think of the best TV shows as the work of a single creator, be that Sally Wainwright, Steven Knight or Julian Fellowes. Even with the auteur rise of the showrunner, the US still has a massive professional pool of writers, production staff and technical practitioners all well used to the idea of simply being plugged into well-resourced projects. But it also feels as if in the UK there is a cultural hesitancy – that we think there is something rather vulgar about trying to cash in by doubling down on an existing hit. Instead, we seem to specialise in late-to-the-party origin stories that arrive years after the original has finished: think Endeavour, Prime Suspect 1973 or the Only Fools and Horses prequel Rock and Chips.

A more empathetic crimefighter than Sherlock – is Molly ripe for a spin-off? Photograph: BBC/Hartswood Films/PA

One UK show has at least partially embraced the US obsession with maximising potential. Since 2005, Doctor Who has been the launchpad for various spin-offs, even if each seemed tailored to a particular demographic so as not to cannibalise the mothership: Torchwood (sexier, aimed at adults), The Mary Jane Adventures (wholesome, aimed at children) and the recent Class (aimed at the YA market, albeit haphazardly). But you don’t need a time machine to see that the TV business is evolving beyond national borders, with international co-productions becoming ever more common.

The BBC recently teamed with US cable network FX to make Tom Hardy’s Taboo and ITV partnered with streaming service Hulu to make Harlots for ITV Encore. More US executives having their say will likely mean more spin-offs, pseudo-sequels and companion series. Perhaps it might even be a good thing. We all have at least one show we wished had survived a little longer, even in mutated form. With mega-hit Sherlock either wrapped up or on prolonged hiatus, now might be the perfect time to pitch a series centred on beloved medic Molly Hooper, a more empathetic crimefighter. Just do it the US way: quickly, before the body’s cold.

The Good Fight is on Thursdays at 9pm on More4; Chicago Justice is on Thursdays at 9pm on Universal Channel; The Blacklist: Redemption is on Wednesdays at 9pm on Sky1.