Anyone here watching "Elsbeth"?

Whoops, my bad: it's at the opera, not a Broadway show, and the dudebro busts out a phone! (Thankfully Miss LuPone wasn't present.)

So, no recent threads then, R2/R3?

[quote] So, no recent threads then, R2/R3?

See R1.

I've tried a couple times, OP, but I can't seem to get into it. I like Preston, but her character is too quirky for me.

I like it a lot.

What kind of fucking name is Elsbeth? It should be Elizabeth or Beth. Make a decision!

Elisasue?

I loved the last season.

Haven’t watched the premier episode for this year yet.

[quote] They pay dearly for their sins!

Well, only HE does.

Casting director must be gay. Daniel Davis AND Nathan Lane in the same episode?

The show was great! Nathan is such a hoot.

Carrie wore some beautiful outfits this time around. That blouse was fantastic.

She has major dyke vibes.

This show and the new Matlock have basically the same premise. Quirky rich woman improbably comes in with a hidden agenda and solves every case.

Except for the rich part, that High Potential chick is the same fish-out-of-water story as well.

It's a fun show, not intended to be Breaking Bad. And it has fun performances from the NYC theater crowd.

I hope they bring Laura Benanti back.

She’s a little too quirky for an hour. Better in small doses like Good Wife and Good Fight. IMHO.

Maybe I missed something. *Why* is she quirky? Is there an explanation? I understand why Monk was quirky.

[quote]*Why* is she quirky?

Surprise anal.

R21 😂 I laughed/farted.

Her fashion sense, the fact she carries about ten random bags/totes (why is that, btw?)

Her thinking and reasoning is bizarre and random. But there is a method to her madness.

She’s great. I’m liking her more than Maddie Matlock.

Although, I thought she had been caught in her lie when the top lawyer went to her apartment. How’d she know she would go? They’re paying for an apartment in Queens!

I want to

I wanted to like this so much. I really like Carrie Preston, and I love how they cast so many NY theater people. But it just seems like it's trying too hard and the tone it really 'off.'

I simply cannot imagine that character getting its own spin-off. Worked amazingly, in small doses, in the sometimes very serious Good Wife. Not so much anymore in the progressively ludicrous Good Fight.

It's twee.

I hate twee.

Miss LuPone is not talented enough for the opera.

[quote]Maybe I missed something. *Why* is she quirky? Is there an explanation?

Not really. She was a recurring character for over a decade on "The Good Wife" and "The Good Fight," but her MO then was at least similar to what happens in the new show. On those shows, everyone simply assumed she was either a ditz or lunatic, but then she schooled every single person to the contrary by the end of each show. That's not workable in the same fashion on a show with her in the lead – obviously the NYPD knows she's brilliant – but I think the "quirk" here is simply defying the "ditzy broad" stereotype.

[quote]This show and the new Matlock have basically the same premise. Quirky rich woman improbably comes in with a hidden agenda and solves every case.

Yes, and the original "Matlock" in the '80s stole "Columbo's" premise, now being used by this show, the "Matlock" reboot, and of course "Poker Face" (handily the best of the bunch since it's not constrained by network budgets and 42-minute runtimes). Your point is ...?

[quote]Casting director must be gay. Daniel Davis AND Nathan Lane in the same episode?

I watched its first season, and this was handily the gayest episode yet. (Particularly after Nathan's character's supposed "late wife" was entirely fictional.) Kaya's also giving me dyke vibes this year for some reason.

Christian Borle seems to have a recurring role (he was first-billed in the guest stars) but this week they only used his voice.

Having never seen The Good Wife before until just a few months ago, I have no idea who that new person is.

I saw 1 episode where she appeared, season 1, I think. Does she do more in later seasons?

So now Elsbeth’s real-life hubby will appear on the show.

Michael Emerson will play a judge on the show.

I’ve always liked him as an actor. Especially on Person Of Interest.

R30 Christian Borle was a recurring character on The Good Wife as a smarmy lawyer. I wonder if he'll be the same character or a new one. Nathan Lane was also on TGW and had an episode with Elsbeth, but he played a different character on Elsbeth. It would be fun if they carried over some of the characters from TGW and TGF universe.

Were TGW and TGF as twee as Elsbeth?

This show seems to be down my alley but now if you don't catch a CBS show live on TV it's not always available to view a few days later, and I am uninterested in Paramount Plus.

Same thing happened several years back - I got into The Good Place and Superstore but I could never catch up a day or two later on NBC and then I just lost interest.

So what's her secret?

R31, Elsbeth's appearances on the original two shows were always sporadic, and usually one-offs IIRC. Bit of a long story, but both shows had probably two dozen total "rotating" and usually "quirky" characters who showed up now & then, including Elsbeth. Also, like the "Law & Order" shows, "The Good Wife" and "The Good Fight" had 80% of Broadway as guest stars at some point. (Even Jonathan Groff was on a "Good Wife" episode briefly as the witness in a trial, back when he was being a drunken ho and sleeping around in the early 2010s.)

No, R34, those shows were in no way "twee." It's almost like they were an odd fusion of a legal procedural, but with strong undercurrents of soap opera-esque drama. "The Good Wife" was fairly straightforward: they based the concept on all the politicians like Anthony Weiner who invariably "confess" to some tawdy extramarital affair – in addition to a corruption scandal that lands him in jail – at a press conference, with the dutiful "good wife" standing next to him. On the show, Chris Noth played the cheater (Peter), and Julianna Margulies played the wife (Alicia). Since they had no savings and Peter ended up in jail for his crimes, and Alicia hadn't worked since leaving the workforce to have kids nearly 20 years prior – but rather conveniently both went to law school and kept her license valid – she ends up working as a first-year associate at a Chicago law firm.

"The Good Fight" was considerably different, and based on the original show's best supporting character, Diane, played by Christine Baranski. Since it was on Paramount+, they could thankfully employ far racier dialogue and topics, and the literal entire show changed direction when Trump won in 2016. Like the rest of us, the showrunners fully expected Hillary to win, and after seven full seasons of minding her tongue on "The Good Wife" (always solely on CBS), her first scene in "The Good Fight" is watching the 2016 election returns at her apartment and screaming "FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!"

So: they retooled it as a Trump satire, and it's one of the few shows that's successfully done so, given that it's an EPIC challenge. (Claiming Haitian migrants in Springfield are stealing, and eating, pets sounds like extreme satire on its own, but it's obviously nothing of the sort.)

R36 I do think The Good Fight became too much of a ridiculous soap opera at some point, and it was no longer good TV. The first two seasons were incredible. And then, with all the Judge Wagner stuff, it became patently ridiculous.

Not watching in protest of CBS canceling So Help Me Todd to pay for these two new shows. I really liked So Help Me Todd.

Thanks, R36.

I’m liking what I’m seeing so far.