I’ve never felt more alone than when I was an avid fan of The Good Wife, but loathed recurring character Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston). She was a defense attorney who regularly displayed her insane “eccentricity” like a deus ex machina, pulling answers out of the ether to win her client’s freedom. Every time she appeared, it was like a comic strip in the middle of a courtroom drama that had been meticulously constructed, planned, and acted out. There were always times when I wanted to punch my fist through the screen. However, she became such a fan favorite that a spinoff became inevitable.
Now it’s here. It’s called Elsbeth. Robert and Michelle King, the authors of The Good Wife (and the first of the excellent spin-offs, The Good Fight, starring the wonderful Christine Baranski), have created a film that recreates all the best aspects of the original. , added a touch of smoldering anger and surrealism as America moves into the Trump era. ) I obviously had 5 minutes to spare and scribbled some notes, but unfortunately they stayed on the screen.
Elsbeth relocated from Chicago to New York for a new job overseeing the New York City Police Department, which has come under fire for a series of controversial arrests. In fact, it goes even deeper than that, she was secretly there to investigate a suspected corrupt captain, Charles Wallace (Wendell Pierce, too good for this).
Elsbeth’s Carrie Preston and Wendell Pierce. Photo: Elizabeth Fisher/CBS
Although it provides seasonal elements, the show itself follows a basic Mystery of the Week formula. Elsbeth’s ties to the department apparently make her a de facto detective, able to rush to any crime scene and begin questioning suspects. Think of her as Columbo with a wardrobe of primary colors and a more glamorous face.
Those are not difficult cases. Traditionally, a guest star did it. We usually watch them do it, waiting tediously for Elsbeth to piece together the screamingly obvious clues, while we learn that she’s smarter than the police and that her unconventional is made to appear to be a supernatural power rather than a regular powerful stimulant.
In the opening episode, Stephen Moyer plays university drama professor Alex Modarian. She sleeps with students and makes one murder look like a suicide after threatening to go to the authorities. Elsbeth will choose between buying a ticket to see Cats or The Lion King, or staring wide-eyed at the wonders of New York as if she hasn’t seen a TV show or movie in 50 years. When I’m in doubt, I look over my shoulder. We quickly deduce the truth from the few officers present. Evidence collected includes notes from the supposed stalker and misspellings in drama course materials. The two students were easily persuaded to admit their relationship with Alex. And Elsbeth intuit exactly when Alex is about to plant something sinful again in the man she fell for.
In the second episode, Linda Lavin plays the unscrupulous president of an apartment cooperative board. He rejects a high-priced offer (“rhymes with Boprah!”) from a famous client to buy a property, thereby creating multiple suspects among the apartment owners. She fell to her death shortly after.
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So it continues. Jesse Tyler Ferguson plays a reality TV producer who tries to blackmail one of his stars and kills him. His case reveals some glittering marks that catch Elsbeth’s eye. Blair Underwood plays an ambitious father who poisons his son’s tennis rivals, and if you watch long enough, Gina Gershon and Keegan-Michael Key also play sharp-eyed clue-dropping roles. That’s going to happen.
It’s clearly not intended to be anything like The Good Wife or The Good Fight. But it’s also not compelling enough to be the playful homage to the unsophisticated detective shows of yesteryear that it wanted to be. What I can say about it is that Elsbeth’s anger as a main character is about 50% less than before. And it’s probably a good thing for the Kings to keep things rolling until they figure out the next commitment worthy of their talent.
Some claim that Elsbeth is a symbol of neurodivergence. I think this was mainly an attempt to cover up The Good Wife’s creative failures, but if it’s true, it might mean some of the criticism goes away. Or you might wonder why they decided to bother a representative of that community so much and put her on such a bad show.
Elsbeth is streaming on Sky Witness
