‘Elsbeth’ Wants To Be the Next ‘Columbo.’ It Nearly Succeeds

In 19 memorable episodes that aired over the course of a dozen years and across two different shows — CBS’ The Good Wife and its streaming spinoff The Good Fight — Carrie Preston played Elsbeth Tascioni, a brilliant lawyer whose eccentric behavior constantly threw off the heroes of those dramas. So naturally, when Preston gets her own series, simply titled Elsbeth, the character is now helping the NYPD solve murders. As one does, right?

This is not the strangest left turn a TV spinoff has taken, if only because Baywatch Nights — where David Hasselhoff’s lifeguard Mitch Buchanan moonlighted as a private detective, and in the second and final season began investigating paranormal mysteries — exists. And, for that matter, television has a long history of shoehorning disparate characters into policework for lack of a better idea. (In the 2010s, the Fox network alone did this with Ichabod Crane, Frankenstein’s monster, and even Lucifer.)

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Still, it’s odd — even for a show with a heroine this odd to begin with —  to find Elsbeth at the center of yet another attempt to make a modern-day Columbo. Like that all-time great, or Peacock’s terrific Poker Face, each episode of Elsbeth begins by showing us a murder being committed — usually by a powerful, arrogant person convinced they have committed the perfect crime. And then, as the formula dictates, Elsbeth shows up, immediately zeroes in on the killer, and keeps annoying them with questions until they inadvertently implicate themselves.

It’s not just that the character is leaping genres, but that on the previous two shows, Elsbeth creators Robert and Michelle King were much more ambitious in tone and theme. Elsbeth isn’t aiming nearly as high. But there’s a reason this open mystery formula — where we know whodunit, and just want to see how the bad guy gets caught — has proved so durable for so long. All it requires is a vivid enough character, played by an appealing performer, and Elsbeth and Preston certainly qualify. If the villains are juicy, so much the better. None of the killers in the first three episodes — Stephen Moyer from True Blood as a drama professor who sleeps with his students, Jesse Tyler Ferguson from Modern Family as an Andy Cohen wannabe managing the egos of his reality TV housewives, and Jane Krakowski from 30 Rock as a real estate agent fed up with the intransigent head of an expensive building’s co-op association(*) — are particularly complicated or crafty, but all three actors are more than able to be convincingly surprised and then annoyed by Elsbeth’s tenacity.

(*) In this case, the victim is also a Very Special Guest Star, played indelibly for a few minutes by the great Linda Lavin.

The Kings’ approach with The Good Wife was also something of a last gasp for prestige ensemble drama on broadcast network TV. The Good Fight, meanwhile, debuted on what was then called CBS All Access (later Paramount+). You couldn’t get those kinds of shows greenlit at any broadcaster now, and especially not at CBS, home of three FBI series, two NCISes, a CSI revival, and many other straightforward procedurals. If Elsbeth wanted to make her way back to the place where she first appeared, it all but had to be in this format.

What is she doing solving crimes in the first place? Well, nobody really understands it, but in theory she has been assigned to oversee a consent decree on the NYPD’s major case division. Consent decrees are meant to investigate and prevent abuses of power by law enforcement, but Elsbeth has apparently chosen to enforce hers by making sure she’s the one who solves every murder that lands with this unit, much to the amusement of her new partner Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson) and the exasperation of Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce). It’s completely silly, but Preston is charming enough to cover for the most ludicrous parts of it.

Mostly, though, Elsbeth left me wondering what supporting players from other series could be placed in a similar “What if [previous show], but make it Columbo?” arrangement. Some ideas(*):

• Darius from Atlanta, like Columbo, Elsbeth, Charlie Cale, et al., has a demeanor that would leave opponents off-kilter, and he’s always much more observant than he seems. Plus, investigating crimes is a good way to pass the time while trapped in a never-ending sensory deprivation tank session. 

• Game of Thrones ended with Arya Stark captaining a ship to find out what lands lay west of Westeros. Who’s to say that she couldn’t get there and discover a wave of unsolved crimes on these strange shores, and a bumbling constabulary in need of the woman who saved the world?

• Columbo was part of a “wheel” of Seventies NBC mystery series, which also included crime-solving spouses McMillan & Wife, urban cowboy McCloud, and sharp-dressed insurance investigator Banacek. Why not revive the wheel concept, but make every spoke a character from Parks and Recreation? One week, Andy Dwyer could live out his Burt Macklin fantasies, though in his case he’d befriend the right suspect entirely by accident. The next, Ron Swanson — who, you may recall, hates people but loves riddles — could have to deal with another death in the national park outside of Pawnee. April Ludgate would, of course, be brilliant on all matters death, and who would do a better job of lulling killers into a false sense of security than Garry Gergich?

• Ayo Edebiri is admittedly one of the busiest actors in Hollywood right now, but if FX and Hulu really want to get extra mileage out of people’s love of The Bear, what if Sydney — a fundamentally curious person — decided to deal with her anxiety by spending her time outside the restaurant in the far less stressful field of murder investigation?

• Finally, I dare you to say you wouldn’t watch a Better Call Saul sequel series where Kim Wexler solves murders in between her day job at a sprinkler company and her volunteer work at a legal aid office.

(*) Not included: Steve and Robin from Stranger Things, who absolutely need a spinoff, but are so close to this sleuthing archetype to begin with that it wouldn’t be the least bit surprising if the Duffer Brothers gave them a van and a Great Dane. 

Maybe Andy Warhol misspoke. Maybe what he meant was, in the future, everyone will be Columbo for 15 minutes. Elsbeth, at least, pulls it off.

The first episode of Elsbeth premieres Feb. 29 on CBS, with additional episodes releasing weekly. I’ve seen the first three.

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