Series / Elsbeth

Elsbeth is a CBS Mystery of the Week series starring Carrie Preston reprising her role as Elsbeth Tascioni from The Good Wife and The Good Fight.

Tired of defending criminals, the eccentric attorney decides to leave Chicago and move to New York as an outside observer of the NYPD and its operations as part of a consent decree. The NYPD hopes to be able to distract her and wait her out, but it's not long before Elsbeth barges into murder investigations where her unique mind lets her spot crimes other miss.

The series premiered on CBS on February 29th, 2024. On April 18th, it was renewed for a second season.

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This series includes examples of:

• Accidental Murder: In "Ball Girl," Cliff just wanted to drug Johann so his son, Hunter could win a big tennis match. He never counted on the medication in Johann's system reacting poorly to the nitroglycerin on the towel to cause Johann to die on court. He's clearly shaken by it, even remarking "It was an accident" to his son while not openly confessing to it.
• The Alibi: Each killer tries to use this, most going to extremes to make it work only for Elsbeth to see it through because no regular person is so easily able to provide an alibi. In "Reality Shock," when Skip offers to show on his phone the time of a call and his description almost word for word what the woman he was with at the time said, he might as well just hang a sign to Elsbeth he's guilty.
• Asshole Victim: The second episode's victim is the co-op board president of an apartment building who drives everyone crazy with her interference, from trying to set up someone with her son to interrupting a kid's birthday party over the noise to refusing to sell or renovate to openly threaten them with blackmail to ensure she stays in control. It's no wonder It turns out pretty much everyone on the building board aided Joann in setting up her murder. Also, when tearing up Gloria's apartment, they find the remains of her husband who "ran off" 30 years earlier so on top of all else, she was a killer.
• Bad "Bad Acting":
  • Subverted in the first episode as Elsbeth says she knew from the start who the killer was by his acting.
    Alex: You weren't convinced by my acting?
    Elsbeth: Oh, no, I was. People in life...don't act.
  • In "Reality Shock", Elsbeth is immediately able to clock that Skip Mason is guilty by his forced reaction upon hearing of Wendy Wexler's death.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Elsbeth is amazingly friendly to everyone she meets, but once she starts to suspect your crime, you might as well turn yourself in on the spot.
• Blackmail Backfire: Played with in "Ball Girl" as the ball girl confronts Cliff on how he drugged Johann's towel and wants in on a scheme to drug other opposing players and clean up on bets. He points out she's wearing expensive shoes from a bet she made on his underdog son in the match where Johann died so she looks guiltier. Rather than be cowed, she just laughs, "Reverse card, nice," and assumes they're now a partnership over Cliff's objections.
• Broken Pedestal: Played for laughs in "Reality Shock". Blanke is a huge fan of Lavish Ladies but becomes disillusioned to learn that the reality show is heavily staged and finally renounces her fandom when Elsbeth proves that the show's creator is a murderer.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Elsbeth in spades. She's awkwardly friendly and comes across as being almost childishly naïve, but she has a keen eye for detail and dogged determination that makes her a formidable investigator.
• Buffy Speak:
  • When first introduced, Elsbeth briefly forgets the term "consent decree" and says that she's in New York for the "thingy thing".
  • In "Ball Girl," Cliff is baffled by the titular ball girl constantly speaking in Gen-Z text-style phrases.
• Continuity Nod: Cary Agos from The Good Wife is mentioned as having been also considered for Elsbeth's job as the consent decree attorney.
• Contrived Coincidence: In "A Classic New York Character," Elsbeth realizes the entire co-op board was in on the plot to kill Gloria as it's impossible so many "random" distractions could have been happening at once to aid Joann's plan. As Blanke sums up, "you got your stories too straight."
• Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: "A Classic New York Character" has Joann convincing the co-op board that Oprah Winfrey is going to buy an apartment in the building, careful not to actually say her name. After Gloria's murder, she tells them the bad press has scared Oprah off. Joann knows that none of the board members can check on this...except Elsbeth, a Chicago native who has plenty of connections in the city, is easily able to find out Oprah has never heard of Joann, let alone ready to buy a new space in New York.
• Electrified Bathtub: Wendy Wexler in "Reality Shock" is killed when one of her own branded blenders is tossed into the bathtub while still plugged in.
• Everybody Did It: "A Classic New York Character" has Elsbeth figuring out that pretty much everyone on the building co-op board was part of the plan to kill Gloria.
• Exact Words: Elsbeth is often good picking up someone using this. For example in "Ball Girl," she points out to a detective that a suspect didn't deny giving someone drugs, she simply said "I didn't give him anything that would kill him."
• Foreshadowing: In "A Classic New York Character," co-op president Gloria is adamant on not renovating the building. That's because she doesn't want anyone to find the remains of her husband she killed 30 years ago.
• Friendly Enemy: Elsbeth doesn't have any personal grudge against the killers she goes up against and is so cheerful and nice that some become genuinely fond of her and get taken away in cuffs with smiles on their faces.
• Genre Shift: The Good Wife and The Good Fight were legal soap operas whereas Elsbeth is a lighthearted murder mystery series.
• Good Feels Good: Elsbeth says that being a consent decree attorney means her only job is to find and reveal the truth, which feels good and refreshing as being a lawyer who provided vigorous defense to clients she knew were criminals was wearing on her.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: The castvmembers of Lavish Ladies imbibe so much alcohol that some have started spiking their own drinks with pills to be able to feel a buzz.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Ultimately, Skip Mason gets taken down because years of on-set abuse have turned enough of his show's cast and crew against him so they're happy to help Elsbeth set up an Engineered Public Confession.
• In Love with the Mark: In "Love Knocked Off," Margo sets up a con artist to pose as a wealthy man to woo a millionaire client. The plan is to get married, then divorce her and split the money. Too bad the guy falls for the woman for real and ready to tell her the truth so Margo kills him.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: A Running Gag is Wagner boldly announcing the death was an accident and/or a suspect is guilty, only for someone to walk in with evidence to the contrary.
• Lampshade Hanging: When talking to Margo Clarke about office romances between lawyers, Elsbeth mentions that they always seem to result in sex on top of office desks — which is a staple feature of legal soaps going back decades.
• Mean Boss: Skip Mason, the executive producer of Lavish Ladies, is a Manipulative Bastard who plays cast members against one another and makes sure they're always drunk and drugged to maintain on-camera drama on top of being generally unpleasant. He graduates to being a Bad Boss when he murders Wendy Wexler and decides to use the incident to boost ratings.
• Motive Misidentification: "A Classic New York Character" appears to have Joann wanting to kill Gloria because the latter was blocking Joann's attempt to get Oprah Winfrey to invest in the building. In reality Joann's mother had an affair long ago with Gloria's husband, with Gloria ruining the woman's life. Joann was following her mother's dying wish to get her revenge.
• Naked Freakout: In "Reality Shock" Katricia strips off while yelling at the other Lavish Ladies which Skip caused by drugging her.
• Never Gets Drunk: "Reality Shock" has a former member of a reality show downing a dozen shots in front of Elsbeth to show she simply cannot get drunk. That's why she was fired, because unlike the other ladies, Skip couldn't manipulate her into acting up for better drama.
• Oh, Crap!: Upon hearing that Elsbeth has been asking lots of questions, Captain Wagner freezes in shock because she only starts doing that if she thinks someone is worthy of suspicion.
• Outside-Context Problem: The killers are all thrown when Elsbeth gets on the case. They built their plans around dealing with serious police detectives who want to clear cases quickly rather than a civilian who latches onto the tiniest details and picks away at every inconsistency while cheerfully befriending them.
  Joann: Okay, listen, if the police have questions let them send a detective and interview me formally. This game is no longer cute.
• Orgy of Evidence: The surest sign to Elsbeth that someone isn't the killer is how much evidence is piling up against them. After all, as a lawyer, she knows full well that evidence just doesn't fall into your lap so easily.
• The Perfect Crime:
  • Most episodes run on the killer having carefully planned out almost every step of the murder, including an alibi for themselves and meticulous timing. And they might have gotten away with it had Elsbeth not arrived on the scene.
  • Subverted in "Reality Shock" as Skip's murder of Wendy was a spur-of-the-moment decision when she tried blackmailing him, and his lack of planning plays a major part in Elsbeth proving his guilt.
• Removing the Rival: "An Ear For an Ear" has plastic surgeon Vanessa murdering former protege Astrid when the latter's new practice (and shots at Vanessa's age) threatened Vanessa's own practice.
• The Reveal: The final scene of the first episode reveals Elsbeth's real reason for being in New York is to investigate Captain Wagner for suspected corruption.
• Reverse Whodunnit: Each episode opens by showing who the killer is and how they perpetrated their crime. The rest of the episode features a cat-and-mouse game as Elsbeth solves the mystery while the killer tries to throw her off the trail.
• Ridiculously High Relationship Standards: What drives Margo in "Love Knocked Off" is how her latest matchmaking client refuses any of her suitors.
  Margo: Finding a man who spends his free time protecting the Great Barrier Reef, has perfect teeth and flies private takes time.
• Saying Too Much: As Elsbeth puts it, "I can always tell how guilty a client was by how much they talked." So when the killer speaks more than they should, from an alibi to details of a crime they shouldn't know about, Elsbeth is onto them.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • As noted, Elsbeth herself is this as each killer could have outwitted the cops but not Elsbeth.
  • In "An Ear For an Ear," Vanessa's otherwise brilliant alibi of being at an art museum is marred when a climate protestor tosses paint over the area, splattering people. Vanessa went ahead to fake the splatter on her own shoes, but Elsbeth is able to see that A) It's not the right coat of paint and B) the splatter pattern just doesn't make sense, which means Vanessa wasn't really at the museum.
• Splash of Color: Elsbeth pops in each scene as she wears bright colors while most others are dressed in darker shades and the city backdrop is very gray.
• Spotting the Thread: Thanks to her quirky mental process, Elsbeth can latch onto the minor detail even experienced detectives miss to start unraveling the crime, such as realizing that a supposed suicide was staged because the victim died in the middle of self-grooming.
• Was It Really Worth It?: Subverted in "A Classic New York Character" as an arrested Joann flat out says she doesn't regret killing Gloria and it's worth going to jail for her revenge.
• The Watson: Kaya Blanke shadows Elsbeth and asks questions that help the audience better understand Elsbeth's thought processes. Blanke also provides her own insights to investigations, such as helping Elsbeth understand the character dynamics in the Lavish Ladies reality show.
• Worthy Opponent: The show's killers-of-the-week invariably come to regard Elsbeth as a canny adversary and tip their hats to her (some begrudgingly) when she proves their guilt.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: The rotating pack of detectives on each murder case all think they're in a straight-up CBS-style procedural and cases are nice and obvious. They don't grasp they're the supporting players in a comedic murder mystery where the eccentric lawyer is the real crime-solver.

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