I would
gladly watch Carrie Preston read the phone book. Not just because the first
thing she would do was marvel that phone books still exist or that she would no
doubt go on a wonderful stream of consciousness that would lead us to wonderful
place but because you just know that three names in she would have figured out
how to crack a legal case or as she’s doing now, solve a murder for the NYPD.
It has been
one of the great joys, of the many that Robert and Elizabeth King have given me
over the past fifteen years, to watch Carrie Preston play Elsbeth Tascioni. Every
time her character appeared on The Good Wife I started to smile just
seeing her name in the guest credits. There’s always a lot of joy to be found
on that show or really any of the series the Kings have done but Carrie Preston
had the ability that very few TV characters in a comedy or drama have managed
to do even in the era of Peak TV. And that’s the moment she appears onscreen, sometimes
without having to say a word, you’re beginning to chuckle watching her. The
Good Wife had a lot of actors who had the ability to do that (Alan Cumming
in particular was remarkable) but Elsbeth was special because you always knew
that though she really was as scattered-brained and seemed to be distracted by
shiny objects behind that persona was, as one character said, Rambo. I think it
was as early as 2014 that I said the woman should have her own series and the
Kings wanted to do it for awhile but Preston has been a busy actress. She was a
regular on True Blood while The Good Wife was on the air (when
she won her first Emmy she gave a shoutout to her True Blood family) and
after both The Good Wife and True Blood ended she landed a role
on the criminally underrated Claws where she and an entire group of
comic actresses including Niecy Nash-Betts and Judy Reyes, ran a nail-salon/criminal
enterprise. She was always available to show up on The Good Fight when
the Kings needed her but their schedules never aligned.
Then finally the
gods smiled on us as brightly as Elsbeth does on everybody as we finally got Elsbeth.
We had to go through a strike and a basically destroyed network season but
in February the series debuted and the rest of the world fell in love with her
and the entire series.
Admittedly Elsbeth
is the most conventional series the Kings have ever done, certainly a
departure from the team that most recently brought us to cancelled far-too-soon
Evil. It is a mystery of the week series where we see a horrible crime
committed by the guest star of the week in New York City where even the seedy
underbelly shines brighter. This is, of course, a trend as old as Columbo and
even before Elsbeth debuted we essentially got the exact same thing on Poker
Face with Natasha Lyonne almost embodying Peter Falk the longer Season 1
ran. (And to be clear I’m breathless with anticipation for Season 2 of that
show.) But there is a critical difference and that may be that for the first
time in their entire career, with the possible exception of Braindead, the
Kings have decided to throw even the idea of being serious to the wind and just
letting everybody have fun. For all intents and purposes this is a comedy with
no really serious elements thrown in and that’s because the series has decided,
certainly in the first two episodes of the new season, to lean in to the New
York element of the show. The criminals are, more often then not, only
marginally more despicable then the victims and that’s frequently true of all
the suspects and even some of the witnesses.
Nothing
reminded me more of that then the opening moments of Season 2. Nathan Lane
played a world-weary subscriber to the MET and was going to the opening night
of the opera. When he reached his seat, a young man was there and he was
someone baffled because this was the seat of a much older woman. The young man
said his grandmother had died and when Lane’s character offered his sympathy, he
responded dismissively. When he was asked if he liked the opera he said no but
this was a surefire, classy way to get women and get laid. Cut to several
scenes of this man being every
theatergoers worse nightmare, making out with a nearby woman, eating pretzel
and in the final indignity taking a phone call while Tosca was going on, talking
while in the seat and only then leaving. By that point anyone whose a
regular moviegoer would know that killing this man was a victimless crime and I
practically cheered Lane as he did so with intercuts of Tosca.
The actual
investigation was, as you’d expect, more delightful as Elsbeth very quickly
realized that the victim was an opera-goer and went to the next performance with
Elsbeth and Officer Blanke (the always superb Carra Patterson) going to the
next night’s performance. Elsbeth watched the first act and was clearly moved
by it. She then struck up a conversation with Lane, partly because she knew he
did but also because he was interested in her reaction. She then came to his
home that day, which was full of opera memorabilia and he asked if she wanted
to know all about opera. She said yes. Surtitle ‘Four Hours Later’ “And that’s
why you should never use Andrew Lloyd Weber in this context.” Elsbeth actually
had the look of a rapt scholar. While this was going on we learned that this ‘opera
lover’ was as much of a boor to his dates who liked the opera less than he did
(“It’s longer and less interesting that Oppenheimer” one told them) as
Elsbeth narrowed in on Lane’s character. When she came to arrest him at the end
of the episode he didn’t seem angry or even upset. What he wanted to know the
most was whether all of her interest opera was a lie. “No. It’s a lovely art
form!” she assured him. The last exchange between them was utterly delightful
and I wouldn’t dream of spoiling it, save to say its quintessentially Elsbeth
both in the show and the character.
There are
other stories going on that are more serious: the Kings are keeping to their
pattern of having several smaller subplots going on throughout each series. For
one, there’s a new oversight director at the NYPD trying to make sure
everything’s going according to plan and there’s a chance he and Elsbeth might
end up butting heads down the line. As it is there’s also the story of Officer
Blanke realizing that she’s two college credits short of her degree and as a
result may end up getting kicked out of the department. Captain Wagner (the
always wonderful Wendell Pierce) makes clear he’ll do what he can to run
defense for her as she starts going to night school. Perhaps the more troubling
thing, at least for Elsbeth herself, is that in last night’s episode she ran
into an old colleague from Chicago who made it very clear that a client whose
divorce they worked on might come up in the news and that she had to be very
clear on attorney-client privilege. Elsbeth, for once, actually seemed upset by
the encounter and rattled when it was over – particularly considering in the
final minute we learned it might well come back to bite her sooner then she
thinks.
Far more fun
was when Elsbeth went to the scene of the most recent murder – a group of
billionaires training to go into space – and ran into a fire department
official who really does seem to be her soul mate when it comes to both
attention to detail and slight ADD. There’s clearly an attraction between the
two, something that caused Elsbeth to be more scattered then usual and a wonderful
moment when they clearly went on their first date – spent an entire montage
playing with gadgets that had to do with space. According to canon (and we were
reminded of it in this episode) Elsbeth is married and has a child but its been
a long time since she’s felt a spark of attraction with someone. She’s denying
it, of course, which makes her more adorable but given the Kings tendency to
bring back recurring guest stars as love interests (viva Gary Cole!) I’m pretty
sure we’ll see him again this season.
The thing you
can get watching Elsbeth is how much fun everybody on this show really
does seem to be having. That’s true of every show the Kings have made (you
could even sense it on Evil) but no one seems to be that dour. Well, the
criminals do and so do some of the people they’re investigating but considering
the dialogue and characters they have to play, you know they love saying these
words. Here’s one sample from last night’s murderer played by Rob Riggle to
console his son: “I started out with nothing, except the $4 million dollars my
father left me.” Nothing the Kings do is by chance, from how Elsbeth designs her
office each week to the clips of TV newscast or social media we see in almost
every episode. And the roster of guest actors remains impressive as always.
Even more delightful Michael Emerson…yes Mr. Carrie Preston and Leland himself –
is going to be a guest actor later this
season. The two have acted together on other shows of course (Preston actually
played Emerson’s recurring love interest on Person of Interest) but
despite their mutual work for the Kings they have yet to work on the same one
of their series together. (Well, the two of them are really busy.)
Network TV as
was actually said in a recent publication or two is indeed having a moment and
much of it can be seen in the series that have debuted throughout 2024. The strike
wiped out most of the network’s new season but we did get some gems: in
addition to Elsbeth we got Tracker, Found and The Irrational. Already
we’ve seen some potentially minor gems in both High Potential and Brilliant
Minds and the reboot of Matlock has already been renewed for a
second season. As I mentioned I think that the era of Peak TV is not so much
over but in flux and its encouraging in a big way that network TV, which while
producing some small gems, has mostly been in stasis so far this decade. I
honestly thought the strike would end up being the nail in the coffin. So far this
year, it’s looking like I was wrong about that – and that makes me nearly as
happy as, well, Elsbeth perpetually is.
My score:
4.75 stars.
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