This quirky Good Wife spinoff is a joyful antidote to all the slick legal thrillers

ELSBETH ★★★½

Has there ever been a better TV detective than Columbo? Peter Falk’s rumpled little lieutenant, wrapped in battered raincoat and wearing a quizzical expression, was surely peerless in the field of small-screen sleuths. The brilliance of the show wasn’t just in Falk’s magnificent characterisation, but in the unconventional approach to the genre: in Columbo, the murderer was revealed at the beginning, shown committing the murder, and the fun was in discovering just how Columbo was going to trip them up.

Carrie Preston plays the eccentric detective Elsbeth Tascioni in the eponymous series created by Good Wife and Good Fight producers Robert and Michelle King.

Invariably, this would mean lulling the killer into a false sense of security, irritating them with his persistence while simultaneously convincing them the shabby cop who kept following them around was a buffoon. Columbo’s quarries tended to be arrogant types, sure of the brilliance of their meticulously arranged crimes – but they didn’t reckon with the peculiar genius of their adversary. We reiterate, it was the greatest of detective shows.

This opinion, one surmises, is one shared by the creators of Elsbeth, a modern crime series that follows the Columbo template closely enough that it verges on remake territory – perhaps just different enough be called a homage instead.

As in Columbo, we begin each episode with the murderer shown committing the crime. As in Columbo, it’s not about whodunnit, it’s about how they’ll be caught. And as in Columbo, the answer lies in the quicksilver mind of a criminological genius who presents as singularly unthreatening, even as they dig remorselessly for the truth.

Here, that genius is Elsbeth Tascioni, a character who may already be familiar to viewers of The Good Wife and The Good Fight. Elsbeth appeared in both those shows, with actor Carrie Preston winning an Emmy for her portrayal in the former. This is a different proposition to those slick, classy legal dramas, though: it’s a full-blooded quirky detective romp the way they used to make them, with murder as intellectual exercise, crime as fun and investigation as semi-comedic joyride.

Carrie Preston’s supersleuth Elsbeth is in the vein of Columbo.

Elsbeth is not actually a cop: she’s a lawyer, assigned to monitor the NYPD as part of a “consent decree” following some wrongful arrest suits. As such, she’s in a position to observe the details of fiendish crimes, and aggravate the police officers she is shadowing. And Elsbeth can be powerfully aggravating: her sweet, gee-whiz friendliness has a tendency to disarm all she meets – unless they happen to be a detective on whose case she’s homing in, or a murderer she keeps badgering with apparently stupid questions.

Preston is an eternal delight in the role, determination and razor-sharp mind just below her bubbly Midwestern surface. Her ability to get killers to underestimate her is key to her success with mysteries, while her capacity to charm and beguile with her wholesome manner is key to her success with viewers. Sweet, innocent, and an unstoppable crime-busting machine: that’s our Elsbeth.

Elsbeth is not entirely a murder-of-the-week series: the writers have thrown an extra spice into the recipe by giving the heroine a bonus ongoing arc. Although ostensibly dispatched to monitor police investigations, she has a secret mission to carry out for the Department of Justice. This provides a plot thread to run through the series but, to be honest, it doesn’t feel entirely necessary, as Elsbeth’s eccentric fencing with criminal masterminds is sufficient to make for a satisfying show.

Preston has strong support around her. While the lead investigators, and police Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce), find Tascioni an irritant, she has the loyalty of Officer Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson), who quickly becomes Elsbeth’s Watson. The series also boasts an impressive array of guest stars, particularly in the murderers’ roles (another trait it shares with Columbo). Stephen Moyer, Jane Krakowski, Keegan-Michael Key and Nathan Lane are just a few of the luminaries who throw themselves into the fray over the course of the series.

It’s all wildly implausible, of course – the brilliant amateur detective, the ridiculously elaborate crimes, the solutions whose brilliance far outstrip their likelihood to stand up in court – but that is all part of the appeal. Wildly unlikely murder mysteries have a rich and proud history in TV, and Elsbeth joins that tradition. With the DNA of Columbo, and a stack of others, such as Castle, Jonathan Creek, Miss Marple and Murder, She Wrote, running through her veins, Elsbeth Tascioni is one of the most enjoyable sleuths we’ve seen in years.

Elsbeth airs on Wednesdays at 9pm on Channel 10, and streams on 10Play.

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