Elsbeth returns to CBS with two episodes on April 4. Jane Krakowski, Linda Lavin and Jesse Tyler Ferguson are the guest stars in those episodes.
The show, a spinoff of The Good Wife and The Good Fight, debuted February 29. Carrie Preston plays Elsbeth, an attorney who relocates to New York for an investigative role involving the NYPD. She’s an offbeat character — whimsical and a bit goofy, but also with a keen analytical mind that comes in handy when tracking a perp.
Jonathan Tolins executive produces the series with Robert and Michelle King and Liz Glotzer.
Viewers know early in the episodes who the perpetrator is, then watch Elsbeth piece together the case. Tolins described Elsbeth as “a police procedural with a twinkle in its eye.”
Elsbeth premiered to 8.52 million viewers across broadcast and streaming, with seven days of viewing. Robert King said Elsbeth’s strong start is due in part to its warmth. “Unlike a lot of TV, it dove into the brightness,” he told B+C during a press event in New York. “We tried to make things welcoming, not gritty and grim.”
Tolins attributes the early success to “the magic of Carrie Preston,” and Michelle King seconds that notion. “Carrie is a comic genius with the ability to not only sell it with the lines, but also the physical comedy,” she said. “It’s so fun to watch. There are so few actors who can do it at that level.”
Preston’s credits include having played Arlene in True Blood and Miss Lydia Crane in The Holdovers. Elsbeth was not a major character on either The Good Wife or The Good Fight, and Preston likened early talk of an Elsbeth series to Charlie Brown trying to kick the football. Actors hear enough rumors, but learn not to celebrate until a deal is done. “I didn’t think this moment would happen, so I’m not taking it for granted,” she said.
To what does she attribute the show’s solid launch? “Great writing and directing,” Preston said.
Wendell Pierce plays NYPD Capt. C.W. Wagner and Carra Patterson portrays Kaya Blanke, a uniformed police officer who accompanies Elsbeth on her investigative excursions around New York.
Preston and Pierce had not worked together before. Preston said both were at The Juilliard School, but at different times. She kept an eye on his career after he left Juilliard, and said she hoped for similar success.
Preston noted “the groundedness that [Pierce] brings to everything he does. He’s very present as a performer, which always helps me. I always like to be with an actor who is rooted to what they’re doing.”
Pierce has played some dark characters, most notably Det. Bunk Moreland on The Wire. Elsbeth lets him show another side of his personality. “I think he’s doing this because he gets to be funny,” Preston said. “He does so many dark or dramatic things. I think he’s having a lovely time exploring the levity in the work.”
Preston's character is essentially a tourist in New York, wowed by its energy, and eager to catch the hot Broadway show or check out the trendy restaurant. In the many, many promos on CBS, she wears a foam Statue of Liberty crown that no true New Yorker would ever don.
A review in The New York Times said: “The core joke of Elsbeth is its own wobbly preposterousness, the way its protagonist is at odds not only with the other characters but also with the show that’s nominally built around her. In ways both too cute and really quite ingenious, Elsbeth Tascioni keeps disrupting a boilerplate CBS police procedural already in progress.”
Robert King said the producers were eager to show the city in a different light than what other series might show. “We live in New York. To do a show that is not only set in New York, but also embraces New York and the beauty of New York, is fun.”
