5 moments of brilliance in Elsbeth S1

Being in Elsbeth Tascioni’s (Carrie Preston) crosshairs is like going for a jog and spotting an adorable romp of otters – which then chase you down and tear into your flesh with their vicious little teeth. This is a thing that has actually happened to people. 

If you’re a fan of legal dramas The Good Wife and The Good Fight, Elsbeth might already be your favourite courtroom kook. If not, well, imagine if Elle Woods from Legally Blonde was a middle-aged former attorney, still rocking her colourful style, love of tangents, and memory for inconvenient details and seemingly trivial facts. 

And yes, it’s “former” attorney. Elsbeth has moved on from terrorising the legal system in Chicago, and she’s now in New York. She’s been appointed to monitor a precinct of the NYPD following a legal case that called some of their controversial arrests into question. Not only is her name the title of the show, for once, she gets to sniff out the truth instead of getting guilty clients off on technicalities. And she’s as thrilled as a party popper about her first time playing tourist in the Big Apple. Is she going to overstep and meddle? For sure. Will she be right? No doubt. Are we going to have fun? Guilty as charged. 

Whether she’s investigating a Real Housewives-style TV series, a bougie Hamptons-based matchmaker, or runway supermodels, Elsbeth is there with her four tote bags and a smile. She might look harmless and cheerful, but she has a way of setting a trap that makes for addictive viewing. Let’s examine the evidence from five cases.

Binge Elsbeth Season 1 now.

Putting on a show: episode 1

Snobby theatre professor Alex Modarian (Stephen Moyer) is covering up the fact that he murdered his latest leading lady and drama student, Olivia Cherry (Alex Costello), to stop her from trying to get him cancelled as a perv and a predator. He leads Elsbeth on a merry chase, and is one of the first people to realise that her “harmless” persona is a cunning act. 

Of all the itty bitty details that give him away, though, the itty bittiest might be the extra space he leaves after a full stop in the text messages that he sends after cloning Olivia’s phone while setting up his crime scene to look like a suicide. The same old-school double spacing he uses in his playbills. We know! What kind of maniac punctuates their text messages in business formal mode? 

PS: Seeing Elsbeth point out Alex’s repeated (and incriminating) spelling mistakes after he sneers at her for wanting to see the stage musical of The Lion King? Delicious. Give us 14 of them right now. 

Social climber: episode 2

Any episode with Jane Krakowski is going to be a good time. And this time she’s playing high-flying NYC estate agent Joann Lennox, who is instrumental in helping the fed-up tenants of a posh building to knock off the most annoying person in their apartment block – you know, the head of the homeowners association who’s always complaining about noise, dogs, and how you live your life. It’s an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery.

Elsbeth dogs Joann’s steps, following her everywhere and complimenting her immaculate wardrobe, hair and personal style and fitness while trying to convince Joann to let her buy the victim’s apartment. Acting on a hunch and some samples she scrapes off the wall leading to the victim’s balcony, Elsbeth even pops up at Joann’s climbing gym, where she manages to beat Joann to the top of the wall, all while she confirms her suspicion that Joann had the skill and the access to slip out of the apartment below and climb the wall to the victim’s balcony. It’s a visual warning to Joann that Elsbeth is at least two steps ahead of her. 

Real Houseknives of NYC: episode 3

We love, love, love a show-within-a-show, and this episode sees Elsbeth turn glittery suspicion into a full-blown diva moment when she suspects Skip Mason (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), the producer of reality series Lavish Ladies (which is for sure based on The Real Housewives of New York City) of throwing a blender in the bathtub of his troublesome star, Wendy Wexler (Nadia Dajani). It’s the glitter from Wendy’s bath bomb that tips Elsbeth off when she catches Skip getting it manicured out of his fingernails. But the way she catches him out shows Elsbeth’s flair for creating a peak reality show moment. 

With the help of NYPD officer Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson), a Lavish Ladies superfan, Elsbeth tracks down one of the series’ “fired” former stars, Katricia (Julie Ann Emery), who suspects Skip of having drugged her to get her to act out on screen. Knowing Skip’s habit of reprimanding his stars off microphone, she has Katricia crash Wendy’s on-screen memorial service in a show-stopping red outfit, claiming to have received an envelope from Wendy just before her death. Skip quickly hustles Katricia off for a “private” conversation, unaware that the envelope really contains a microphone, and that the show’s disgruntled sound engineer is broadcasting his incriminating threats and confessions live to the whole stage. Now that’s how you do a reunion episode!

Love & death: episode 4

Superstar matchmaker to the rich and famous Margo Clarke (Retta, Parks and Recreation’s Donna “Treat Yo’self” Meagle) is desperate to cover up the fact that the only way she was able to find a man for her nightmare client was by hiring a petty criminal to pretend to be a rich Australian. Her reputation, her book tours and her mansion in the Hamptons all hinge on keeping up the illusion. But it’s a statue of Cupid that does her in when Margo uses it as a murder weapon. 

Sharp-eyed Elsbeth spots, first of all, that it’s missing when she compares Margo’s mansion to a photoshoot in a glossy local magazine. And second, Elsbeth realises that Margo has tried to slip in a replacement, when she sees that the Cupid now has two arrows instead of three in his quiver. In a “it pays to be nice” moment, she gets two local fishermen she bumped into (and smiled at) to pull the original Cupid statue out of the water near the dock. The chipped part of the statue is a perfect match for the piece of brass found in the victim’s skull. So what looks like Elsbeth oohing and aahing over Margo’s rich lady life is also her sticking her nose into every single detail. She can do both!

Model citizens: episode 10

Photographer Ezra Tate (Ryan Bourque) is shot dead while snapping his lover, supermodel Nadine Clay (Laura Benanti), who’s walking her final runway at her estranged husband Nick Garrison's (Daniel Passaro) fashion show. But was Ezra blackmailing Nadine over a blackface photoshoot (possibly inspired by the America’s Next Top Model Cycle 4, 2009, “ethnicity switch” photoshoot)? Was it a crime of passion? Or was designer Matteo Hart (André De Shields) dead set on protecting his new muse, Nadine?

In an episode that hinges on models, fashion and photographers, it’s fitting that Elsbeth finally finds her clue that cracks this unusually difficult case in a photo of the runway. It doesn’t reveal the killer’s identity at first glance, but to sharp-eyed Elsbeth it’s all there, in the reflection seen in a pair of sunglasses worn by a fashion maven in the front row of the fatal show. Thank goodness Ezra really was a great photographer. 

PS: While Elsbeth is looking for details, fashion TV fans will spot Project Runway mentor Tim Gunn playing himself. 

Binge Elsbeth Season 1 now.