Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-03-09 (Saturday)

Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

Elsbeth (CBS) New murder mystery about a quirky detective (I mean
lawyer) named Monk, I mean Mrs. Columbo, I mean Elsbeth, who notices
things other people don't notice and helps police solve crimes whether
they want the help or not.  First up she solves the murder of a young
actress by noticing she used two spaces instead of one when she typed
her suicide note, and noting only old people use two spaces.  Wait, a
minute, *I* use two spaces when I type!  And I'm *not* old!  I had *no*
idea when I watched but according to Wiki this is a spin off of "The
Good Wife" and "The Good Fight" two shows I never watched before.  Now
I'm wishing I didn't know it was a spin-off because I'm going to assume
there's a lot of background stuff going on that I'm missing.

Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) was a recurring character on The Good
Wife, a quirky but brilliant defense attorney. i was going to say she
was on a dozen episodes, but IMDb sez 14 episodes. There's no backstory.
The Good Wife was set in Chicago (filmed in Queens with nearly no
Chicago establishment shots). I disliked The Good Fight and have no idea
if Elsbeth was given a backstory on that show.

There's no possibility that the character can carry a weekly show, and
the writing stunk. They weren't even hiding that it was a Columbo ripoff
(not a Mrs. Columbo ripoff as she wasn't quirky).

All the backstory you need was in the pilot, that she was sent from
Chicago to New York by the FBI agent in Chicago because -- from the
field office in another part of the country -- he was investigating
Bunk, something that wouldn't happen in real life.

Clearly they've dropped the defense attorney profession to substitute an
absurd hook as to why she's investigating and second guessing detectives
and solving crimes as a civilian.