Never have I felt so alone as I did during my years as a devoted fan of The Good Wife but stone cold hater of recurring character Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston). She was a defence attorney who would periodically pop up with her maddening “quirkiness” and pluck answers from the ether to win her clients’ freedom as if she were a wondrous mystery instead of the deus ex machina she was. Every time she showed up, it was like a cartoon started playing in the middle of the otherwise meticulously assembled, plotted and played legal drama. It never failed to make me want to put a fist through the screen. Yet she became a fan favourite, and so a spinoff became inevitable.
Now it is here. It is called Elsbeth. Robert and Michelle King, creators of The Good Wife (and its excellent first spinoff The Good Fight, starring the wonderful Christine Baranski, which reproduced all the strengths of the original while adding some simmering rage and surrealist touches as the US moved into its Trump era) evidently had five minutes to spare and scribbled down some notes that unfortunately have made it all the way to the screen.
