Last year Robert and Michelle King
decided to move Elsbeth for consideration as a drama in most awards into
comedies. The result was predictable: the Emmys continued their decade long
tradition of pretending that no show the Kings make is worthy of awards and
numerous other groups such as the Critics' Choice Awards and the Astras
nominated Carrie Preston and Elsbeth in the Comedy category where the
previous year it had contended for dramatic awards.
In hindsight moving Elsbeth into
the comedy category was honestly something the Kings should have done all along
and not merely to give Carrie Preston a chance at an Emmy to go with her Emmy
for hear more than fourteen years of playing this extraordinary character. Given the way that Carrie Preston has always
put in brilliant gestures and facial expression every time she's on screen
combined with all the wonderful outfits she wears (no one rocks a scarf like
Elsbeth Tascioni) it should really have been competing in this category the
whole time. And let's be honest: the always sunny, relentlessly cheerful,
ridiculous about of empathy even for those she knows committed murder really
puts her up there with Ted Lasso and Janine Teague for the kind of optimistic,
kind people that have been delighting us on TV during the 2020 a bit more than
it does with so many of the best dramas. (Though I'd love to see Elsbeth try to
work her relentless charm on Jackson Lamb who might appreciate how she does
what she does even if he'd never acknowledge it.)
It never fails that every time I just
see Carrie Preston do anything on Elsbeth I start smiling knowing that I
will be chuckling if not laughing out loud in a moment. In hindsight I should
have figured out this was a comedy long ago but the Kings have been so
brilliant at melding genres ever since I started watching The Good Wife that
I just figured it was their impish sense of humor leading the day. This is very
much the case as Season 4 continues on its merry way as Elsbeth now continues
her brilliant professional capacity with increasing personal issues.
We all know just how good Elsbeth is
at what she does and the Kings know we know. So they've found new ways to mix
it up that surprise us. The second
episode dealt with the aftermath of getting the work of a famous playwright
being workshopped to an avant-garde artist who clearly didn't respect it. This
was done with the disapproval of both the mother and the son of that playwright
and when the avant-garde playwright met his end we assumed the son did it but
for once we didn't see it. The show unfolded with the viewer being led to
believe this with the son continuously having visions of his disapproving
father (John Doman) tormenting him from beyond the grave. The son had no alibi,
asked his mother to lie for him, but when confronted the mother gave him up.
This led us to believe that the case was closed – but that was over in only the
third act. Then there was a remarkable twist that revealed the mother had
actually killed him to the shock of all involved – but not Elsbeth who'd
figured it out. The episode actually had a happy twist which I won't spoil
here.
Elsbeth is dealing with some issue of
her own. In a wonderful segment last season Teddy (Ben Levi Ross) proposed to
his boyfriend and he accepted leading to their nuptials. But around that time
it was revealed that Elsbeth hadn't been talking to her mother who to this
point on the show had never been mentioned. The second episode ended with her
talking to her and in the third episode we finally met her. Played by that
exceptional stage actress Christine Ebersole Lily clearly has so many of the
gestures and mannerism of her daughter but is the completely polar opposite.
She's ridiculous passive aggressive to Elsbeth at her apartment while clearly
favoring Teddy. When she gets locked out of her apartment she goes to the
police station where Elsbeth works (while she's on a case) and when the chief
(Wendell Pierce) sees her and offers to help she says she's just going to wait
for her daughter on the bench, refusing to go into the office Elsbeth has
staked out. She then completely reorganizes the clutter that we all know
Elsbeth loves and endears herself to the Chief, and then makes it clear she
neither understands what her daughter does nor thinks she's very good at it. Elsbeth
does everything she possibly can to try and reach out to her mother at the end
of the episode but she just keeps meeting that brick wall. Our heart, as
always, goes out to this goofy redhead who we now understand even more both in
terms of her personality and as a parent. (For the record Elsbeth, you're a
much better mother than yours in.)
As always Elsbeth continues on her
merry way through the billionaire class of New York City who are always toxic
in what they do and yet somehow you really get why they commit their crimes
most of the time. This was particularly true in the most recent episode when we
met Summer and Winter Redgrave who were performing for an American Idol type
reality show which Summer advanced and began a rock star career and Winter was
rejected and began a Gwynneth Paltrow type wellness career. (Jemma Kirke played
Paltrow as if she were Margot Tannenbaum.) Summer had clearly managed to build
an enormously successful business which had the product names I would dream of
spoiling here and that argued for ethical business but in fact were just as
unethical as anything else. (Winter was brought down because she'd been dealing
in illegal bugs for her nail polish.) Cream was designed in order to make you
feel inferior – the detective's words not mine – and that's clearly what Summer
did when she strolled into Winter's place and demanded that she take a sale
from a Walmart type chain, something she was forced to do because of a drag
along clause Summer's lawyers had figured out. (Elsbeth of course knew this
from her previous job when she investigated.) Winter rightfully saw that this
was her sister ruining something that was hers and even though she was killing
her sister, we could see – as of course did Elsbeth – both sides of it. We were led to the fun of watching Elsbeth
give her spirit animal as a unicorn and find that she couldn't stand a sensory
deprivation tank, but at least she got to pick her swimsuit.
Elsbeth fills several needs in me as a viewer
even beyond the obvious of its genius in writing, directing and comedy. With Cupertino
coming immediately after the Kings have finally achieved what the Dick
Wolfs and Ryan Murphy have: a block of network programming on them on a given
night. (Of course because this is TV it's all on Thursday which is 9-1-1 on
ABC and Law & Order on NBC.) To have two hours of King Size
programming on a network has been on my bucket list and I've been hoping for it
since Elsbeth debuted. That it may only last until Kathy Bates Matlock
returns is something I can live with: those two shows balance them out just
as neatly.
Also for those of you still mourning
the cancellation of Poker Face Elsbeth now fills this void perfectly.
It's a comedy series that shows the guest star of the week committing a murder
in the first act, a redhead with a unique sense of style shows up and knows the
killer is lying, and then she spends the episode figuring out who did it. The
difference is when Charlie Cale did it, it usually ended with a lot more chaos
and violence and she left before things got rough. When Elsbeth does it she's
so sweet and polite, the killers do face justice and some of them actually ask
them what they did wrong. Don't get me wrong: I loved Natasha Lyonne and Poker
Face as much as anyone else and I'm fully aware of the similarities but
honestly I'd rather hang out with Elsbeth Tascioni then Charlie Cale any day of
the week. I kind of get the feeling Charlie would too.
And of course Elsbeth is an
hour long comedy just as Poker Face was. I don't know if a new version
will ever get greenlit but if you needed a reason to watch this show (though to
be fair a lot of people already are) Elsbeth will fill that void too.
My score: 5 stars.
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