Elsbeth is a crime drama series that follows attorney Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston), who leaves her career behind to the NYPD and become an investigator, using her unique skills to catch criminal masterminds. She works closely with Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce) and was actually instructed to investigate him, something that was revealed at the end of season 1. Elsbeth is a spinoff of the original television series The Good Wife.
Carrie Preston is well known as Elsbeth, of course, but she was also Arlene Fowler in James Greer in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan. Elsbeth season 2 is currently airing on CBS and Paramount+.
Star Carrie Preston its She Was Surprised By The Elsbeth Season 1 Finale
Screen Rant interviews Carrie Preston about her character's onscreen relationships, the final twist of Elsbeth Season 1, and much more.
Screen Rant interviewed Carrie Preston, Wendell Pierce, Robert King, Michelle King, and Jonathan Tolins about Elsbeth season 2 at New York Comic-Con. They revealed what it is like getting to film in New York City, as well as what they were most excited to explore overall this season. Preston and Pierce also detail their most memorable fan interactions.
The Rest Of The Good Universe Was Set In Chicago, But Filmed In New York, But Elsbeth Gets To Show Off The City
"Now that we're doing this, they deliberately set it here so they can really highlight the city."
Screen Rant: We have The Good Wife, we have The Good Fight, and now Elsbeth. Was there ever any conversation that this title would have the word good in it?
Robert King: No, because Carrie Preston, you have to name it after her. You can't just say, what, The Good Elsbeth?
Screen Rant: Elsbeth is filmed in New York City. What has been your favorite part of that?
Carrie Preston: It's such a great thing for Robert and Michelle and John to be doing this show. They worked ontThe whole "Good Universe" that was set in Chicago, but we shot in New York so they couldn't really show New York. And now that we're doing this, they deliberately set it here so they can really highlight the city. One of my favorite memories was riding on the tour bus when we were shooting the pilot.
That was our last day of shooting, and I've never been on a tour bus. I've lived here for over 30 years. So, sitting on a double-decker tour bus, I'm like, oh, I understand why the tourists want to do this. It's a pretty awesome way to see the city. Then, also, to be shooting this show, this pilot for a show that I didn't know if it was going to get picked up or not. It was just one of those moments where I looked around, and I just felt so blessed.
Jonathan Tolins: Also, we look for fun New York settings for everything. One of my favorites is that it was actually, I think the director and the location of people said, there's this Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park, and we managed to get the rights to film there, and it was just this perfect symbol of Elsbeth in New York. We wrote the line where she says, I never understood why Alice Wonderland is considered weird, but we're always looking for those opportunities. The only challenge we have is we have to convince people to let us film there, and then we tell them it's about a murder.
Wendell Pierce: I love the final moment in the pilot. We are at Lincoln Center. At the Fountain Center and we both went to Julliard, so it was like a homecoming. That was an iconic moment as the burst of the waters go up and Carrie and I were standing there, right where we went to school. That was a full circle moment. So that was really cool.
Carrie Preston: Truly wonderful moment for me too.
Captain Wagner & Elsbeth's Relationship Is Evolving In Season 2, But Not Too Much
"We still have stuff to work on, and I still ire her more and more."
Screen Rant: In season 2, what were you most excited to explore?
Wendell Pierce: Well, she's still a thorn in my side, which is great. That keeps the continuum going. I'm having this interesting journey of self-discovery of, am I as good as I think I am? And how am I as a leader among my men and all? And at the same time, she once again shows me up because she's a lot smarter than almost everyone in the precinct. So I love that evolution and journey of our relationship. We still have stuff to work on, and I still ire her more and more.
Carrie Preston: Yeah, it's fun because one of the themes that John has been working on this season is you can't escape your past. So things from each of the three main characters' past are coming up. It's always great to have a show where everyone gets along, but it's more interesting to have a show where there are some conflicts and there's some stuff coming in that you can play against. We got rid of Noonan, but there's a new lieutenant who comes in and is questioning Elbeth's presence.
Jonathan Tolins: I also think there's a different feeling in that when you're working on the first season, and especially ours was a truncated first season because of the writer's strike, you always have this thing hanging over you. Are you going to get to a second season? Is the show going to be established enough that it could continue? And now we all feel it's a little bit more lived in. We're living in this world and exploring it, and Elsbeth feels more established here and there's a kind of breathing room that we're really loving.
Michelle King: I think the triumph of season 2 is that John and the writers have found ways to explode the procedural to make it different every time while still being comfortable.
Robert King: It's really good to see a well-oiled machine that does comedy because those are hard to find, I think.
Elsbeth Season 2 Is Continuing To Add Variety
" We don't want anyone to feel like you've seen one, you've seen them all."
Screen Rant: Elsbeth, obviously, is really good at solving things almost instantly. But was there ever any conversation that maybe she would struggle here and there?
Jonathan Tolins: There will be struggles. We actually have an episode coming up where the murder is not solved. I won't say which one. We've also been doing a lot of playing with the form. Last year, in the finale, it was the first time where the audience didn't know who did it. And this year we're finding all these different variations. Sometimes you may see who did it, but you don't know why, or sometimes you get the wrong information. We don't want anyone to feel like you've seen one, you've seen them all. We always want to try to surprise ourselves, so the audience will be surprised.
Screen Rant: Since we are here at Comic-Con, do you have a memorable fan interaction that you can talk about?
Carrie Preston: I've gone to some comic cons over the years and there were lots of comic cons when I was on True Blood. I always liked to go to those because I would see several Arlenes, which was my character, walking around. I would always try to take photos with the fans, which always made them even more excited. They were shocked that I was asking. A little reverse. It is the utmost compliment when somebody wants to dress up as your character.
Wendell Pierce: I have a tendency to play a lot of law enforcement. And so I guess my most interesting fan encounter was with Jack Ryan, where I play a CIA officer. In an airport someone saddling up to me saying, slow is smooth, smooth is fast. And I'm like, oh, okay, okay. I know. But the one interesting thing was this one guy in the airport, he was in front of me going down an escalator, and he keeps looking back. You kind of know when a fan is recognizing you.
I get down to security, and I'm going through security and I hear, Hey man, I really like you, from behind me. I turn around, and it's the same guy, and he goes, I just retired. I just left the CIA. I said, did you just front and follow me? He says, good work. He had literally done this thing called Front and Follow. He was in front of me and then he some kind of way surreptitiously got behind me. It was great.
Evil May Have Found Its Audience Too Late
"Why can't we back up history about a year?"
Screen Rant: Michelle and Robert King, Evil has really found its audience, and people are loving it. How has it felt?
Michelle King: It's fantastic. I love the fact that even more people are enjoying the show now that it's gotten on Netflix.
Robert King: And I'm disappointed because they found it too late. Why can't we back up history about a year? Because a lot of the fans came are probably a little too late to save the show. Although never say never, who knows?
Screen Rant: Is there any chance that maybe it will continue?
Robert King: I just think that the streaming world mixed with the old traditional world has created some very odd bedfellows and children. But anything could come out of this.
More About Elsbeth Season 2
Emmy Award winner Carrie Preston is back as Elsbeth Tascioni, the astute but unconventional consent decree attorney working with the NYPD to catch New York’s most well-heeled murderers utilizing her unique point of view. Season 2 of the critically acclaimed series brings new cases and challenges when mistakes of the past come back to haunt Elsbeth, her boss Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce), and detective in training Officer Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson). ELSBETH is based on the character featured in THE GOOD WIFE and THE GOOD FIGHT.
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Elsbeth season 2 premiered on CBS October 17, with new episodes airing every Thursday. Past episodes are streaming now on Paramount+.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
Elsbeth is a crime drama series that began airing in 2024 on CBS and Paramount+. The series follows attorney Elsbeth Tascioni, who leaves her career behind to the NYPD and become an investigator, using her unique skills to catch criminal masterminds. Elsbeth is also a spinoff of the original television series The Good Wife.
- Writers
- Michelle King, Robert King
- Seasons
- 1
- Main Genre
- Crime
- Creator(s)
- Michelle King, Robert King
- Where To Watch
- Paramount Plus
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