Carrie Preston on ‘Columbo’-inspired CBS series ‘Elsbeth’: ‘Not whodunit but howdunit’

nypost.com:

Elsbeth” star Carrie Preston welcomes comparisons to “Columbo” — which helped inspire series creators Robert and Michelle King to transplant Elsbeth Tascioni from Chicago to New York City.“Robert and Michelle King told me that during the pandemic that they started watching ‘Columbo’ reruns and just loved them and found it comforting,” Preston, 56, told The Post about the ’70s-era series starring Peter Falk as rumpled, trenchcoat-wearing Lt.

Columbo, whose scattered appearance belied a brilliant deductive mind.“They thought, ‘Hey, that could be how we could create a new show for Elsbeth Tascioni,'” Preston said. “‘Put her in a Columbo role and make this a police show and not a law show.”Preston and her onscreen alter-ego are no strangers to fans of “The Good Wife” and its spinoff, “The Good Fight,” both created by the Kings and both featuring Elsbeth as a quirky recurring character (a lawyer) based in Chicago.In “Elsbeth,” premiering Feb.

29 at 10 p.m., our protagonist lands in New York City as part of a “consent decree” stemming from a lawsuit against the NYPD, in which she’s hired on a temporary basis to shadow the NYPD and its officers to make sure they’re doing everything by the book.In this capacity, she’s no longer a lawyer but an observer — using her wiles, instincts, humor and razor-sharp intuition to help the NYPD solve tough cases.

The series co-stars Carra Patterson as Officer Kaya Blanke and Wendell Pierce as NYPD Capt. CW Wagner.In a throwback to “Columbo,” the villain in each episode is revealed early on — and the fun is then in watching as Elsbeth fits the puzzle pieces together as she by turns annoys, flusters and impresses her new NYPD colleagues.