Elsbeth was created as a deus ex machina.
Again in 2010, on “The Good Wife,” the writers saved portray our characters into corners, discovering dilemmas they couldn’t escape, after which discovering methods for them to take action.
Elsbeth Tascioni was such an escape.
We wished Alicia Florrick, our lead, to must depend on a personality who was the precise reverse of her: a unusual and confused lawyer with no colour sense who was intuitively good. In different phrases, a feminine Columbo — somebody Alicia didn’t know she wanted till she arrived.
It was a personality meant to final solely three episodes. Then we met Carrie Preston.
Our casting director, Mark Saks, talked about Carrie as somebody who was obtainable coming off of “True Blood,” however we remembered her much more from a small half she had within the wonderful Tony Gilroy film “Duplicity.” She performed one of many solely sincere and susceptible characters in it. And what was outstanding is she made honesty and vulnerability humorous.
The primary scene we shot with Carrie was her introduction on the present. She entered Alicia’s condo and received the higher of a cop who underestimated her. The scene had no apparent comedian beats. It had some character shading however not rather more.
However one of the vital invaluable issues a showrunner can do is to observe dailies. All of them. It’s one of the best ways to see how an actor tweaks a personality, performs with inflection, finds comedy in strains you by no means thought have been humorous.
That’s what we noticed in Carrie.
The following episode we began writing towards these tweaks, discovering the comedian pauses she performed up, by no means aiming straight towards a punchline, giving her an offbeat line or two, letting Carrie discover the comedy.
Nearly instantly, Carrie made the character her personal, bringing in a form of aw-shucks Midwestern sweetness. But in addition there was a crafty there. Elsbeth knew she was being underestimated by her foe and she or he wasn’t offended. She used it. And that goes to the core of what’s enjoyable about Elsbeth. It’s by no means utterly clear when her innocence is actual or fake.
Carrie Preston in “Elsbeth.”
(Michael Parmelee / CBS)
We nonetheless watch Carrie in dailies, 15 years on, and love the best way she makes Elsbeth each candy and crafty.
On “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight,” we at all times considered Elsbeth as a spice — an oddball character who strolls in each eight or 9 episodes and provides a distinction to the extra critical plot.
Then the pandemic hit and we determined to make amends for all of the streaming reveals we missed. However we realized so most of the “prestige” serialized reveals felt like homework: an excessive amount of backstory, too many episodes you needed to take in to be updated. On the finish of the day, we determined we simply wished to observe one other episode of “Columbo.”
And we realized we missed Elsbeth, we missed Carrie Preston, and she or he would make an excellent feminine Columbo. And that’s the way it began.
We talked to Fred Murphy, our director of images on all the pieces we’ve ever accomplished, and mentioned the standard cliches of New York police reveals. They’re gritty and grungy and handheld. We wished simply the alternative for “Elsbeth”: blue skies, a picture-postcard view of New York — Elsbeth’s view of New York.
We talked to Dan Lawson, our wardrobe designer on all the pieces we’ve ever accomplished, and we mentioned how Elsbeth must be the stranger in New York. All of the New Yorkers needed to be fashionable, cool, all sporting variations of the identical muted palette. Solely Elsbeth didn’t get the Higher East Facet memo, sporting each wild colour on earth.
These collaborations led the pilot and sequence towards its closing iteration. Elsbeth was the final word vacationer, ignoring each trash can and alleyway, seeing solely the fantastic thing about New York. Even the murders she sees as elegant and fairly.
We have been working one other present on the time, “Evil,” a streaming sequence that couldn’t have been extra completely different. It was very odd to be on one name in regards to the prettiest vacationer locale to finest promote Elsbeth’s love for New York and one other name about what a demon’s guts ought to appear to be when Andrea Martin’s Sister Andrea pops them like a pimple.
The solutions: Rockefeller Middle ice-skating rink and crimson oatmeal.
That’s the place Jon Tolins got here in. Jon is a writer-producer and wonderful playwright who we’ve labored with ever since “Braindead.” He had Elsbeth’s voice and perspective down completely, so we requested him to run “Elsbeth” after the pilot. He’s been working the present ever since.
One of many joys about writing for TV is how a lot it’s not a lone expertise. It’s an accumulation of nice work from proficient collaborators and buddies. We’d like to take sole credit score, however like one of the best TV, it’s a gaggle effort. And we nonetheless watch the dailies.
