In 2009, producers Robert and Michelle King brought us The Good Wife, one of the last great broadcast network dramas. Launching under the guise of a typical CBS courtroom procedural, The Good Wife soon revealed itself to be a complex character drama on par with its cable contemporaries. Its sequel series, The Good Fight, a launch title for streaming service CBS All Access (now Paramount ), ambitiously pushed well beyond the courtroom to explore the maddening realities of the modern post-truth technocracy. By comparison, Elsbeth, the Kings’ third installment in their ongoing universe, is very light television. It’s a cute, colorful howcatchem that will only get filed as a drama because it runs for an hour. Elsbeth may, like its title character, turn out to be less airy and frivolous than it seems, but based on the three episodes provided to critics, it’s just an inoffensive diversion.
Carrie Preston returns as perky attorney Elsbeth Tascioni, the role that won her an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series a decade ago. Preston portrayed Tascioni in 14 episodes of The Good Wife and five of The Good Fight, and in both series her implacable optimism and bizarre fashion sense........