‘Elsbeth’ is a contemporary twist on the classic charm of ‘Columbo’
Fans of the “The Good Wife” (2009-16) and its sequel “The Good Fight’ (2017-2022) are familiar with Elsbeth Tascioni, the brilliant and brilliantly eccentric attorney often dismissed as naïve and kooky until they encounter her in court. Carrie Preston, who won an Emmy as Elsbeth, played the charming scene-stealer 14 times on “The Good Wife” and five times on The Good Fight.” And now, she’s front and center on CBS’ entertaining police procedural “Elsbeth,” which has received strong reviews and a growing audience base. Not only has it been renewed for the second season, the finale on May 23 was the No. 1 show of the evening.
Creators and executive producers Robert and Michelle King have moved Elsbeth away from the Chicago courtroom and set her in New York where she’s been assigned as an impartial observer to the NYPD on murder investigations. But truth be told, she’s really there to discover if the captain (Wendell Pierce) is corrupt. Elsbeth also forms a strong friendship with Kaya (Carra Patterson), the sergeant who has been assigned to keep tabs on her. Though the precinct rolls their eyes at Elsbeth, she surprises, albeit shocks them, by discovering who did it by using her keen observational skills and astute questions. Murders also let down their guard believing she’s just too out there to solve the crime. At the end of the first season, she exonerated the captain and has been invited to become a member of the team.
And just as with “Columbo,” the series has attracted great guest stars as Tony winners Linda Lavin, Jane Krakowski, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Andre De Shields, as well as Keegan-Michael Key, Gina Gershon, Laura Benanti and Stephen Moyer.
During a recent Variety Zoom conversation, the Kings explain that “Elsbeth” was born out of COVID and “Columbo,” the classic mystery series starring Peter Falk as the rumbled L.A. police detective who always outwit the murderer. And just as “Columbo” and the 2023 Peacock series “Poker Face,” we see the murder being committed. The fun is just how they solve the crime.
“We’ve loved Elsbeth, and we loved Carrie from the beginning,” noted Michelle King. “So that goes back years. But in terms of the show, it was really during the pandemic when we were watching a lot of comfort TV and comfort felt like ‘Columbo’-that kind of cozy mystery, rather than watching a 10-hour movie, which is what some of these streaming shows pretend to be.”
Preston, who had never seen “Columbo” before they approached her about “Elsbeth,” said she “dared not believe” her beloved character had her own series until she was standing on the set in New York. “Our business, it can be unpredictable to put it mildly. So, these things, they’re often just ideas in a head, but because of Robert and Michelle and their track record, when they have an idea, people listen.”
The actress noted fans and journalists during “The Good Wife” run were throwing out the idea Elsbeth should get her own series. “Robert even reached out to me during those years and said, ‘Would you be interested?’ And I said ‘yes.” Elsbeth, said Preston, “comes to this world at the NYPD really alone. She’s left her whole life. That’s a courageous thing to do at any age. Then to arrive in this situation and find she has this brilliant ability to solve these crimes in the same way she helped solve legal cases, she transfers that immediately. But she has this younger woman who is really her ticket into this world.”
Though on the surface, Elsbeth and Kaya have little in common, but Patterson believes “they really see something in each other. I think Kaya knows what it feels like to be underestimated. As Elsbeth, she stands out in this world in the NYPD and is constantly being brushed aside. But Kaya in the one who gets to observe her and see how intelligent she is and how there is no detail that’s too small and ends up cracking the case.”
