SPOILER ALERT: This story contains main plot developments on the primary episode of “Elsbeth,” airing on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. 

On “Elsbeth,” Carrie Preston reprises her Emmy profitable position because the eccentrically shrewd legal professional Elsbeth Tascioni, a fan favourite character from the CBS drama “The Good Spouse” and its Paramount+ spin-off “The Good Combat.” On these exhibits, Elsbeth’s scatterbrained habits disarmed her courtroom adversaries — and, simply as usually, her personal purchasers — just for her to upend everybody’s expectations with some ingenious authorized sleight of hand. 

Robert and Michelle King created all three exhibits, however fairly than one other serialized authorized sequence, “Elsbeth” is against the law procedural, relocating its title character from Chicago to New York Metropolis as a part of a authorities consent decree requiring the NYPD to permit a lawyer to watch their actions. The vanity locations Elsbeth on the opposite facet of the authorized equation within the vein of the traditional sequence “Columbo”: The viewers is aware of from the beginning who did it — within the case of the pilot, a well-respected theater director (Stephen Moyer) who kills a pupil to cowl up their affair — after which watches Preston’s Tascioni attempt to remedy it.  

Preston talked with Selection about how Peter Falk’s iconic TV detective was an inspiration for Elsbeth from the very starting, how she approaches performing her character’s daffy intelligence and why followers of “The Good Spouse” and “The Good Combat” shouldn’t maintain out for cameos any time quickly. 

How was Elsbeth first described to you for “The Good Spouse”? 

It’s humorous that you just requested that, as a result of the very first thing that Robert King mentioned to me 14 years in the past after they provided me this position was, “We’re her as like a feminine Colombo.” And right here we’re 14 years later, mainly borrowing the construction of “Colombo” to make the present. She is an unconventional character in the identical approach that he was, someone that folks don’t see coming. 

Did you rewatch Elsbeth’s first episode? 

I went again not too long ago, as a result of I hadn’t checked out it in 14 years. It was fascinating. They are saying your cells change each seven years, so I’ve gotten two new full cycles of cells since I performed this half to start with. However you may see that I used to be discovering my approach as we had been all determining who this particular person is. I used to be there as a visitor to serve the larger story, so I didn’t know the way far I used to be being inspired to go. A few seasons later, after they convey me again, I believe that was after we all discovered the circulation with the character. The alchemy between the writing and the actor began to gel. 

Elsbeth makes these hairpin turns of thought from one thing that appears frivolous to life-or-death severe. How do you discover your approach into that? 

Within the very first couple of scripts, they simply wrote the phrase “pause” in parentheses, and I grew to become extra fascinated by what the pause was than what the phrases had been. I began considering, what is going on in that pause? What if there’s one thing that’s firing in her mind that no person else is aware of? What in the event that they had been fully reverse from what I’m about to say?

Then they stopped writing the pauses, however I began determining the place the twists and turns are. I began considering of it virtually like making a map that I might comply with: What am I considering? What’s my physique doing? And what am I saying? If all three of these issues are at odds, it makes her enjoyable to play, and hopefully shocking to observe. 

How did the Kings broach the thought of doing a derivative to you?  

It actually began on the finish of “The Good Spouse.” There have been quite a lot of followers who had been suggesting {that a} present centered round Elsbeth could be a enjoyable thought. So Robert reached out and mentioned, “Are you curious about that?” And I mentioned, “After all.” Then they determined to do “The Good Combat,” and so they invited me to return on a few instances, and so they even invited me to direct, which was an unimaginable alternative. However then within the deepest a part of COVID, when everyone was at residence watching TV, Robert and Michelle discovered that they had been gravitating in the direction of reruns of “Colombo,” and so they thought, this will probably be that is our approach in if we had been to do a spin-off centered round Elsbeth. However let’s not make it a regulation present. Let’s make it like a police present. 

In order that they approached me once more. This was in 2020. And proper round that very same time, Elizabeth Vincentelli from The New York Occasions wrote an article about how she was watching reruns of “Colombo.” And the final the final line of her article was we don’t want a reboot of Colombo, “simply give Elsbeth Tascioni her personal present.” So it was form of within the zeitgeist there. Nevertheless it took till the tip of “The Good Combat” for them to pitch it. They knew they wished it to be a community present, not a streamer. Fortunately, CBS ordered the script, and so they appreciated it and there we went. 

How has shifting from being a recurring character to the middle of the present affecting your method? 

Every storyline is totally different and interesting, which is enjoyable. Every episode goes to be a unique world.  One week you’re going to be in actual property, the subsequent week you’re going to be within the tennis world. I’m so used to doing one or two episodes after which not taking part in her for a yr. Simply with the ability to play her daily, I’m attending to know her extra, and I believe that could be a actual present.  

Will we see extra elements of her private life on this present? Elsbeth has talked about her son earlier than. 

He has a reputation now — he’s known as Teddy. She talks about him extra. We see her confiding in her co-workers about Teddy, and little feedback about her divorce, issues like that. However it’s nonetheless against the law of the week setup, so we’re positively [focusing] on fixing the crime greater than seeing Elsbeth chilling out at residence. Whether or not you’ll ever meet Teddy — I’m undecided. They haven’t advised me but. However I believe it will be extra attention-grabbing to not. Colombo all the time talked about his spouse. We by no means met her.  

You directed episodes of the TNT drama “Claws,” on which you had a supporting position. Are you directing on “Elsbeth”? 

No, I’m not. I don’t know the way individuals who play leads direct themselves. I might suppose that will make me really feel fairly loopy. I wish to throw myself into one or the opposite if doable. I’m not saying I gained’t think about it if we’re fortunate sufficient to have future seasons of this present. However for this season, I’m simply attempting to play the position of Elsbeth Tascioni as finest as I can. 

I might be studying an excessive amount of into this, however the premiere of “Elsbeth” makes a huge deal that it’s set in New York Metropolis. Is that doable a nod by the Kings to the truth that “The Good Spouse” and “The Good Combat” had been each set in Chicago however famously shot in New York? 

You hit it proper on the top. I believe Robert and Michelle had been like, “OK, we’re going to make New York Metropolis such a personality that that is the solely place that we will shoot and we don’t need to attempt to faux to be something apart from the place we’re.” I believe they had been praying that the community wouldn’t transfer them to Vancouver or Toronto and attempt to shoot that for New York. Fortunately, we’re right here. I’m grateful, as a result of that is the place I stay. 

The pilot additionally mentions Cary Agos, the character from “The Good Spouse” performed by Matt Czuchry, as a doable substitute NYPD monitor. Does that imply we would see Czuchry on the present? 

I believe it was just a bit Easter egg for these followers. Once they had been testing the present, the vast majority of the folks had by no means seen “The Good Spouse” or “The Good Combat.” So they’re hoping that this present goes to face by itself and never be related in any respect with “The Good Spouse” and “The Good Combat.” These little winks and nods about Chicago and her previous and the folks that she’s labored with are simply that, for the second. I’ve not heard that they’re going to be bringing again any characters. All that to say: Possibly? I imply, it will be actually enjoyable to work together with a few of them once more. All of them have event to return to New York. So we’ll see. 

The premiere ends with the revelation that Elsbeth is secretly tasked with investigating Wendell Pierce’s character, NYPD Chief Wagner. That is an episodic present, however is {that a} thread we’ll be following for the total season? 

Undoubtedly. It’s one thing that they’re peppering in. It offers us enjoyable issues to play in addition to the crime facet of all of it. And the viewers doesn’t need to have to observe the episodes to be able to get what’s happening. 

Does the episodic nature of the present, and never eager to alienate viewers who haven’t watched each episode, change how you consider taking part in Elsbeth? 

It does, in that the language is totally different now. There’s quite a lot of questioning. There’s quite a lot of police procedural conditions, that are fairly totally different than what we did in “The Good Spouse” and “The Good Combat,” so I’m acclimating to that. However I’m nonetheless the identical particular person. So I all the time suppose, “How does Elsbeth query someone?” It’s not going to be how Mariska Hargitay’s character questions folks on “Regulation & Order.” However she’s in a state of affairs that’s fairly “Regulation & Order”-like, ? This very shiny, colourful, prismatic, mercurial character is dropped down in the course of the black and white and grey world of New York Metropolis police procedurals. I believe that’s the place the enjoyable of it’s. 

This interview has been edited and condensed.