“Elsbeth” — the phenomenon

Carrie Preston

I don’t know Carrie Preston as a person, but she’s undeniable as an actress. And her character “Elsbeth Tascioni” is the role of a lifetime.

Elsbeth Tascioni is a fictional character in the CBS television series “The Good Wife” and its spin-offs “The Good Fight” and “Elsbeth.” In 2013, Carrie Preston won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for the role. She was also nominated for a second Emmy, as well as three Critics’ Choice Television Awards for her performance.

Elsbeth was beloved but not the favorite child in The Good Wife; simply not the center character. In AP (2024), Carrie Preston says: “I didn’t hear anything for a whole season. And I thought, ‘OK, well, maybe that was that,’ because I wasn’t in season two at all. Then they called back and we all hit our stride at that point. We found the chemistry with the writing and the acting.”

The Good Wife

Elsbeth first endeared herself to the world as Alicia Floricks formidable legal adversary in “The Good Wife”.

“The Good Wife” is an American legal and political drama television series that aired on CBS from September 22, 2009, to May 8, 2016. It centers around Alicia Florrick who resumes her career in law following a public scandal involving her husband’s extramarital affairs and political corruption. Viewers first met Elsbeth at the end of season one of “The Good Wife”. Elsbeth was brought in as an attorney for “Alicia’s” husband, “Peter Florrick” (Chris Noth).

As an attorney herself, Elsbeth initially often found herself on the opposing side of Alicia and her associates, representing clients whose interests conflict with those of the lead character “Alicia” (portrayed by the recently outed racist and homophobe Julianna Margulies).

[embed]Julianna Margulies apologizes for statements about Black, LGBTQ+ solidarity…www.usatoday.com

[embed]Julianna Margulies Apologizes… www.rollingstone.com

Elsbeth became one of The Good Wife‘s most integral recurring characters, having helped several of the show’s characters out of a few legal jams, and sometimes teaming up with Alicia. Despite their professional rivalry as legal adversaries, there are instances throughout the series where they find themselves on the same side of a case or working towards a common goal. These collaborations often highlight their mutual respect for each other’s legal prowess and occasionally showcase their ability to set aside their differences for the sake of achieving a shared objective. These moments of cooperation add depth to their relationship and offer viewers a glimpse into the complexities of their dynamic beyond mere opposition.

The Good Fight

Carrie Preston reprised her role as Elsbeth, in The Good Fight.

"The Good Fight” is a spin-off of the acclaimed television series “The Good Wife.”

Set in the same fictional universe, it follows the story of Diane Lockhart, played by Christine Baranski, who is forced to rebuild her legal career after losing her savings in a financial scam. The series delves into contemporary issues such as politics, race, and the legal system while exploring the personal and professional lives of its characters.

Preston made occasional appearances throughout the series. In this spin-off, Elsbeth continues to showcase her legal acumen and eccentric personality, and to provide assistance to the main characters in navigating complex legal challenges. In Season 6, Carrie Preston also directed one episode.

2024. Enter: “Elsbeth”

Elsbeth, CBS, 2024—

Michelle and Robert King, creators of “The Good Wife,” “The Good Fight,” recognized Elsbeth’s popularity among fans, but it stayed at that for a long time. Preston portrayed Tascioni in 14 episodes of The Good Wife, and reprised the role for a handful of episodes in The Good Fight‘s first two seasons.

About her 14-year journey before getting her own show as “Elsbeth”, Carrie Preston recalls: “Every time I played Elsbeth, I played her like it was the last time because I was always a guest. I played her 19 times over those two shows. That’s really only a couple times a year if you spread it out.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kings binge-watched “Columbo” and realized the parallels between “Columbo” and Elsbeth, both being underestimated yet unexpectedly brilliant characters.

They were inspired to create a show focused on Carrie Preston.

To me, Elsbeth's approach seems extremely calculated, in a well-hidden way.

But this is not the case, according to the creators, who say: “Her ditzy-ness is not an act in our minds. It’s kind of connected to her problem solving.”

Gets “flat” quick

You don’t have to have watched The Good Wife to enjoy Elsbeth. The character’s background as a former high-profile defense lawyer from Chicago who has taken an assignment by the DOJ (the United States Department of Justice) to “police the police” in New York, is explained in every episode.

Each episode is self-contained and the unfolding events self-explanatory.

“Self-contained episodes” refers to episodes of a television series that have a complete storyline within that single episode, without relying heavily on ongoing story arcs or requiring prior knowledge of the show’s overarching plot. These episodes often feature a problem, conflict, or mystery introduced and resolved within the same installment, allowing viewers to enjoy them as standalone stories without needing to watch previous or subsequent episodes.

Carrie Preston, as an actress, is so formidable that it makes life easy for writers and the crew. Unfortunately, too easy for the writers.

There are actresses who get to perform in big-budget movie productions and just can’t carry the plot. The movies are dull and quickly forgotten.

Carrie Preston’s charisma is like connecting a nuclear power plant to a flashlight. I don’t know how she is as a person and how her values are, but a child could write a plot and it would likely be a hit show if Carrie Preston performed it. At least if she played Elsbeth. She has perfected that character, to magical levels.

This is the show’s Achilles heel*. The basic ground rules of storytelling, involving complications and conflict, are barely in the scripts. Aside for perhaps the pilot / the debut installment, these fundamental elements have waned for each subsequent episode. While the show format is not supposed to be a “Whodunit”, these scripts take it to the extreme. Were it not for Carrie Preston, the show would’ve flopped with audiences.

The showrunners need to step up and do her some justice. TV traditions or not — the storylines are too flat, the characters could be a little more well-rounded. This is not 1968 (the year Columbo premiered). Productions from that era, or say 1893 (the Edison Studios) to 1980, are like bank security measures from those days — simpler.

To illustrate using my personal viewing habits. I study stories professionally. Like Walt Disney did, I have watched movies and TV shows with a pen and notepad at hand for the past 20+ years. I have read thousands of books (and articles, reports), and hundreds of scripts and screenplays. As a consequence, while respecting the efforts by everyone involved in a TV or feature production, I don’t have much patience for subpar storytelling. If I find it really lazy, it doesn’t matter how much money I have paid — it is not worth my time. I walked out of the movie theater less than five minutes into Spectre (2015, starring Daniel Craig as “007”). Money — printed coins and paper notes — I can always get “back”. My time however, not so much (or so I have been told). I flip streaming titles like people zapped the TV channels in the 1990s.

Yet — I watched the 3 first episodes of Elsbeth back to back. Just some week after having watched them the first time.

In my opinion: Carrie Preston, the actress, is that good.

Known for…

Carrie Preson has appeared on the TV series Claws, Dr. Death, Brockmire, When We Rise, Person of Interest, Happyish and True Blood, among many others.

Notable movie credits include To the Bone, Duplicity, Doubt, Vicky Christina Barcelona, Towelhead, The Stepford Wives and The Legend of Bagger Vance.

Preston is represented by Innovative Artists, Principal Entertainment LA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.

Further reading

Elsbeth (the following are Wikipedia links) is an American police procedural comedy-drama television series that premiered on February 29, 2024, on CBS. It is a spin-off of *The Good Wife (2009–2016) and [The Good Fight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Fight) (2017–2022), from which Carrie Preston originated the role of Elsbeth Tascioni, an unconventional attorney who ends up working as a de facto* detective. The show focuses on Elsbeth Tascioni, the offbeat, unconventional but astute attorney who, after a successful career in Chicago, utilizes her singular point of view to make unique observations and corner criminals alongside the NYPD.

The series was renewed for a second season in April 2024.

Episodes use the inverted detective story format. It means that the series is a “howcatchem” TV mystery show as opposed to the traditional “whodunit”. Instead, this format shows the audience from the start who the killer is, how and why they commit the crime and — as the story unfolds — how they are caught.

An inverted detective story, also known as a “howcatchem”, is a murder mystery fiction structure in which the commission of the crime is shown or described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator. The story then describes the detective’s attempt to solve the mystery. There may also be subsidiary puzzles, and they are explained or resolved during the story. This format is the opposite of the more typical “whodunit”, where all of the details of the perpetrator of the crime are not revealed until the story’s climax. The first such story was R. Austin Freeman’s The Case of Oskar Brodski published in *Pearson’s Magazine* in 1912

(End of Wikipedia summary).

Agard, C. (2016, December 17). The Good Wife: Carrie Preston to reprise role in The Good Fight spinoff. EW.com. https://ew.com/article/2016/12/16/good-fight-carrie-preston-guest-star-good-wife-spin-off/

Rancilio, A. (2024, April 4). ’The Good Wife’-verse expands with new series “Elsbeth” starring Carrie Preston | AP News. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/elsbeth-good-wife-carrie-preston-acfeab83f8f2001fec4d8c4a5948e9ec

• The term “Achilles’ heel” originates from Greek mythology, specifically from the story of Achilles, a legendary hero of the Trojan War. According to the myth, Achilles was invulnerable, except for his heel, because his mother, Thetis, had dipped him into the River Styx to make him immortal. However, she held him by the heel during the dipping process, leaving that part of his body vulnerable.

“Columbo” originally aired as part of the NBC Mystery Movie series, debuting on February 20, 1968, with the episode “Prescription: Murder.” It continued airing until 1978, with seven seasons and a total of 69 episodes. After its initial run on NBC, “Columbo” was revived for several television movies in the late 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, with the last installment airing in 2003.

Trivia. Carrie Preston has been married to fellow actor Michael Emerson for over 25 years. Emerson is known for his portrayal of the enigmatic and manipulative character Benjamin Linus on the hit television series “Lost”. Additionally, Emerson starred as the mysterious and highly intelligent Harold Finch on the crime drama “Person of Interest”.