Elsbeth Is a Disappointing Entry in The Good Wife Television Universe

In the opening minutes of the episode, a murder is committed. Then, a quirky, charismatic lead with auburn hair solves the crime in unconventional ways using her unique powers of observation… Sound familiar?

It should. Elsbeth gives off that “I liked this show the first time around when it was called Poker Face” vibe. The Good Wife and The Good Fight spinoff has been in development for a while now, so it’s unlikely the series copied Poker Face’s Columbo-inspired premise and more just suffers by following in its wake.  After two wildly creative and successful series, our standards for shows set in the The Good Wife universe are high. Elsbeth isn’t necessarily a bad show, but it’s definitely a disappointing one. 

The series centers on Carrie Preston’s Elsbeth Tascioni, a character Preston first introduced way back in 2010 during the first season of The Good Wife. She went on to guest star in 14 episodes of that series (garnering two Emmy nominations and one win along the way) and five episodes of The Good Wife spinoff, The Good Fight. What’s most curious about this new drama (and believe me, a lot of the choices fall under the “things that make you go hmmm…” category) is that Robert King and Michelle King, the duo behind both The Good Wife and The Good Fight, take Elsbeth out of not only Chicago, but also the courtroom, a setting where she thrived. With scenes taking place in Lincoln Center fountains and the Rockefeller Center ice skating rink, the show often feels like a tour of NYC’s landmarks. And, like Elsbeth’s journey from Chicago to NYC, the Kings handed off the baton to Jonathan Tolins as executive producer.

Since The Good Fight ended in November of 2022, there has been an utter dearth of compelling legal dramas. By contrast, we have plenty of police dramas. Part of what made The Good Fight and The Good Wife so special was its unique blend of legal cases, corporate machinations, interpersonal strife, unique characters, and shocking plot twists. The stakes on both series were always high. By contrast, Elsbeth is a run-of-the-mill network police drama where we already know who committed the crime before the opening credits roll. It’s not that the stakes aren’t high—it’s that there are no stakes. And in a post-Suits-craze landscape, it’s puzzling to see Elsbeth move away from the legal drama-vibes we seem to crave. 

Because of lawsuits over wrongful arrests, the NYPD is under a consent decree to have an outside observer on their investigations. “A few wrongful arrests in the unit and now we are stuck with the police police,” Detective Donnelly (guest star Molly Price) says. Elsbeth has been sent to monitor the cases, much to the chagrin of Captain C.W. Wagner (Wendell Pierce). Her first case involves a college theater director (guest star Stephen Moyer) who murders one of his students when she threatens to go to the dean about their affair. And if nothing else, the show definitely has guest stars going for it. In the three episodes made available for review, Jesse Tyler Ferguson guests as Skip, a reality show producer of a Real Housewives-type show called Lavish Ladies. (Fake TV shows that closely emulate real ones is an area where the Kings thrive). In the third episode, you’ll find Jane Krakowski as a high-end real estate agent who will do anything to make the sale. So far, most famous guest star equals perpetrator of the crime. 

Leading the series, Preston remains a delight. All that we loved and remembered about Elsbeth is there. Her colorful and often mismatched outfits. Her many large and disorganized bags. Her bubbly ability to disarm people with her eccentric charm. The way she leverages that people underestimate her to her advantage. “You sent me a nutcase,” Wagner complains after interacting with Elsbeth for the first time. The series leans hard into her most peculiar attributes. 

What doesn’t make sense is the context Elsbeth is placed in. Why does she so desperately want to relocate to New York and stop practicing law? Why is she able to so easily discover what seasoned NYPD detectives cannot? For example, it’s Elsbeth, not the litany of detectives, who notices that the victim had teeth whitening strips in. She’s the only one who wonders about the texts the victim sent moments before her death. She’s the only one who thinks to listen for the background noise on a voicemail.  Why do the detectives just allow her to freely roam the crime scene? It’s so clearly not her job to be investigating the crime. But that doesn’t stop her. 

Elsbeth also does this strange thing where the criminal happily chats with Elsbeth after being caught. “What was it that gave me away?” the college professor muses. “You have no idea how hard it is to make good TV,” Skip confides. Everyone is in a pretty good mood after being arrested—I know Preston is charming, but it’s a little ridiculous. 

In addition to Preston and Pierce, the only other series regular is Carra Patterson’s Officer Kaya Blanke, who Wagner assigns to keep Elsbeth in check. That’s a relatively small regular cast, especially for a network drama. While it might make sense for her to constantly be interacting with new lead detectives, only having three series regulars keeps Elsbeth’s world fairly insular. The series name checks Matt Czuchry’s Cary Agos quite a bit in the pilot episode. It’s rather cruel to tease viewers that we might see Cary again without fulfilling that promise, so one can only hope that he and a few other of The Good Wife/Fight faces make an appearance on the series eventually. 

The first three episodes plant the seeds for a larger mystery the show may need to grapple with, and perhaps that ultimately will make Elsbeth appointment television. But right now? It’s just a disappointing letdown. 

Elsbeth premieres February 29th at 10 p.m. on CBS, streaming on Paramount+. 

Amy Amatangelo, the TV Gal®, is a Boston-based freelance writer and a member of the Television Critics Association. She wasn’t allowed to watch much TV as a child and now her parents have to live with this as her career. You can follow her on Twitter (@AmyTVGal).

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