‘Elsbeth’ TV Review – Carrie Preston Hits All the Right Notes in Fresh, Standalone Spinoff of ‘The Good Wife’ [Season 1]

Spinoffs are a true gamble, especially if the source material is beloved. One recent example of a major bet that paid off tremendously was Better Call Saul, which took an entertaining supporting character from the massively popular Breaking Bad and gave him his own show, which turned out to be just as good as – but still markedly different from – its predecessor. Another acclaimed drama series from the early 2010s is now getting a new chapter added to its universe after already spinning off a six-season drama, and its focus is even riskier than Saul, considering Bob Odenkirk appeared in 43 out of 62 episodes of Breaking Bad and Carrie Preston was in just 14 of The Good Wife’s 156 hours. Fortunately, this experiment also pays off, presenting an appealing new twist on a procedural with an absolutely captivating lead character.

Preston won an Emmy in 2013 as a Good Wife guest star for playing the undeniably eccentric Elsbeth Tascioni, who has a certain charm despite not really being able to read the room. The new show that bears her name first sees her wearing a Statue of Liberty foam crown as the lone passenger on a hip-hour NYC tour bus clapping for the confused musician-guide, who can’t understand why she wants to be on the upper deck of the bus when it’s 28 degrees outside and is actually just using the hop-on/hop-off bus as her own personal Uber. She’s here for business, she says, noting that it’s a temporary job but she really wants it to be permanent. She utters a number of amusing lines echoing that sentiment, declaring “Oh, I don’t think anyone’s expecting me” and responding to the question of “Are you with the police?” with “I think so! I’m not sure yet.”

CBS has long been a bastion of procedurals, with the NCIS and FBI franchises currently populating much of the broadcast network’s primetime schedule. Elsbeth is indeed a procedural drama, and not necessarily as continuity-driven as The Good Wife, where weekly viewing was crucial to the enjoyment experience. Instead, it’s more like Elementary, presenting a clever approach to the art of crime storytelling with only a few recurring subplots to tether the installments together. Each episode opens with a murder being committed with the perpetrator clearly identified, and it’s just a matter of time before Elsbeth stumbles onto the scene and immediately begins noticing things that everyone else has missed. She’s pretty sure she knows who did it right away, though it does take her time to convince everyone else that she’s been right all along.

Preston is a true talent, and it’s great to see this role expanded from her barely-recurring status on The Good Wife to a show where she’s the star. The way that she quizzically leans into the frame highlights her skill as a subtle physical comedian, and her very funny character is able to impressively anchor this dramatic series. She’s particularly skilled at explaining how to pronounce her first name – and correcting people on how to say her last name – and full of such genuine pleasantness that it’s hard not to like her even if she’s far from socially adept. She gets excited about little things, like the possibility of getting to keep the “little booties” she’s wearing at a crime scene, and seems to want to get to know everyone she meets, even those she believes are guilty of murder. She doesn’t eat quite as much as Brad Pitt in Ocean’s Eleven but comes close, salivating over a famous “Dirty Water Dog” in her closet office and munching on a pretzel during an interrogation.

Where this show truly excels in the three episodes provided for review is in its selection of guest stars. Episode one begins with Stephen Moyer as a stage director intent on killing one of his stars, presenting a fun reunion for fans of True Blood, where Moyer played a vampire and Preston portrayed good-natured waitress Arlene. The successive installments feature two talented stars known for their comedy and theater work – Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Jane Krakowski – excelling in meaty roles as a reality producer and a real estate agent, respectively. Casting enticing murder suspects – whom the audience immediately knows to be guilty – is crucial to this show’s appeal, and it does marvelously in that respect.

Building the show with the regular cast members is still a work-in-progress, though Carra Patterson establishes herself as a standout as Elsbeth’s relatively reserved and soft-spoken police department liaison, whose unexpected knowledge of and love for trashy reality television makes her a major asset with Ferguson’s case. As the gruff police captain who’s always irritated by Elsbeth’s antics, The Wire and Treme alum Wendell Pierce doesn’t yet have much to do, and the same is largely true for Fredric Lehne as a detective and Danny McCarthy as a colleague of Elsbeth’s keeping tabs on her back in Chicago, offering a tenuous connection back to this show’s origins. If the show gets picked up, there’s plenty of time to amplify their roles.

That the link between Elsbeth and The Good Wife isn’t so pronounced is potentially this new show’s best asset. Despite relying on franchise enthusiasm to churn out more and more programming, CBS has the benefit here of attracting new audiences who didn’t watch the original series. In fact, aside from a few mentions of Cary Agos, there’s little to even indicate that this is a spinoff of a preexisting show. For those who enjoyed Preston’s Emmy-winning work on CBS’ most recent awards-friendly drama, this will be a fun return to the character, and for anyone else, it’s an inviting new opportunity to get to know this delight of a character. 

Grade: B+

Elsbeth premieres on Thursday, February 29 at 10pm ET on the CBS Television Network and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs).