'Elsbeth': Carrie Preston's 'The Good Wife' spinoff series channels 'Columbo'
What to expect from Elsbeth Tascioni in the new show, and could Matt Czuchry's Cary Agos make an appearance
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Beloved character from The Good Wife and The Good Fight, Carrie Preston's Elsbeth Tascioni, has made the journey to New York City in the spinoff series Elsbeth.
When does Elsbeth premiere: Feb. 29 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT
Where to watch Elsbeth: Global TV in Canada and CBS in the U.S.
Where to stream Elsbeth: On the Global TV app and with the STACKTV channel through Prime Video in Canada, Paramount+ in the U.S.
Cast: Carrie Preston, Wendell Pierce, Carra Patterson
Stream Elsbeth by adding the STACKTV channel to your Prime Video subscription with a 14-day free trail, then $12.99/month
What is 'Elsbeth' about?
In one of the most delightful spinoffs we've seen, Elsbeth is bringing her unusual, but charming, attorney tactics to New York, happy to express how excited she is to be in the city and see all the iconic landmarks.
Her job is to be a sort of external observer monitoring the NYPD, which means Captain C.W. Wagner (Wendell Pierce) and Officer Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson) have to accommodate her presence.
But "observer" is too far removed for Elsbeth, who can't help but follows the leads in significant cases.
In the first episode, Stephen Moyer joins the cast as a theatre director wrapped up in an investigation into the death of a college theatre student.
The series starts off in a similar fashion to the famed drama Columbo, with the "howtochatchem" structure, seeing what happened at the beginning of the episode.
"I think we've all discovered something about ourselves over the pandemic, we realized that every night we wanted to watch an episode of Columbo instead of the eight hour movies that were thrown our way," co-creator Robert King told reporters in a virtual presentation for the show.
"It's a very witty build, it's not about whodunit in that Agatha Christie way. It's a howdunit, which is just as fascinating, if not even more fascinating, because it takes a wittier approach to puzzle solving, or problem solving, because the audience knows where this is headed. And then you can see the bad guy or bad woman reverse, and try to get back at Carrie Preston's character before she can solve it."
"There was this article in the New York Times where there was this reporter, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and what she was watching during COVID was reruns of Columbo, and then the last line of the article was, we don't need a reboot of Columbo, just give Elsbeth Tascioni her own show," Preston added.
Reflecting on portraying Elsbeth, Preston said the character holds a "special place in [her] heart."
Could we see Matt Czuchry's Cary Agos in 'Elsbeth'
Fans of The Good Wife and The Good Fight will be curious about any possible appearances from characters from those shows in Elsbeth.
While there is a reference to Matt Czuchry's The Good Wife character Cary Agos, co-creator Michelle King stressed that this series is very much focused on Elsbeth's own story.
"He is referenced, we think about our friends in Chicago, but it's not our expectation that they're travelling to New York anytime soon," Michelle King said. "Elsbeth is on her own in New York, which is kind of part of the fun."
'I write everything funny, I can't help it'
For showrunner Jonathan Tolins, he highlighted that putting together these mysteries was "fun" work.
"In our writers room, we call it the one act play that we open an episode with and we see, how interesting can we make these characters, and this crime, before Elsbeth comes into it," Tolins said.
"What do we tell the audience? What do we not tell the audience? What clues do we establish that they can try to find themselves? And which ones are we going to hide for Elsbeth to find? It's a wonderful puzzle and I think that's one of the reasons why shows like this are so fun to watch."
In terms of working in this Columbo format for the show, The Wire icon, Wendell Pierce, was so engrossed in the crime story that he didn't even initially realize the series took on this structure.
"It was going over my head," Pierce said. "I was so into the thriller and the whodunnit and howdunit of the story, it wasn't until months later, and actually until we started filming, that I realized, this is kind of like Colombo."
"I was so into the crime stories and the one acts that they put together. And then I said, wow this is funny too. I hope people really see and hear the humour."
Stream Elsbeth by adding the STACKTV channel to your Prime Video subscription with a 14-day free trail, then $12.99/month
One thing that does, in fact, come through right from the beginning is the comedy in the series, which gives Elsbeth such a distinctive and appealing tone.
"I write everything funny, I can't help it," Tolins said. "I feel like we spent most of our lives trying to make each other laugh so that kind of happens."
"It's all instinct. I have a wonderful group of writers and that room is very good at knowing when something feels right, when something feels too much or too little. ... You have to, at a certain point, ... get into the vibe of these characters and let the show lead you."
