‘Elsbeth’ Saves Its Sophomore Season With a Song

When Elsbeth started last year we quickly fell in love with this colorful, quirky, queen. But we were equally as quick to point out that audiences might grow tired of Elsbeth’s eccentricities.

The only challenge I see here is that Elsbeth has been such a remarkably fun scene-stealer that there is a small risk she doesn’t work as well as a lead. Can viewers withstand 42 minutes of quirks and eccentricities every week?

It seems like we were right. OK, Dustin was right (Happy boss? You were right about something!) The showrunners must have realized it too because not only did they tone it down, they wrote episodes about people telling Elsbeth to tone it down. Kinda rude. Kinda necessary.

They brought in Elsbeth’s son, Teddy (Ben Levi Ross from Tick, Tick… Boom!), this season, and his primary role seems to have been to get his mom to chill out.

They broke up Kaya and Elsbeth’s dynamic duo. And, as Kaya (Carra Patterson) settled into her new role as a Detective she started distancing herself from Elsbeth’s unorthodox antics.

In episode 16, ‘Hot Tub Crime Machine,’ Mary Louise Parker played a decluttering guru who tried to convince Elsbeth to let go of the burden of carrying around all of her belongings. For a couple of episodes, Elsbeth did carry around fewer tote bags, so I guess that worked in a way.

The entire subplot about Judge Milton Crawford (played by Carrie Preston’s IRL husband Michael Emerson) was a rebuke of Elsbeth’s M.O. To the point that in the penultimate episode of this season, Elsbeth went to jail because of her “overreach” in pursuing a wealthy suspect. They called it “harassment,” and it was! The reality of policing finally caught up with Elsbeth a little bit this year.

But not so much that the finale didn’t make prison seem like summer camp. The episode, ‘Ramen Holiday,’ was set in a very clean, brightly lit facility where roughly 40% of the population were criminals Elsbeth had a hand in apprehending. A jolly good time was had by many previous guests from both seasons in prison jumpsuits. The featured guest stars included Stephen Moyer, Retta, Gina Gershon, Elizabeth Lail, Arian Moayed, André De Shields, Alyssa Milano, and Mary-Louise Parker, who were working together to put on a prison play about Elsbeth when she arrived.

The episode borrowed creatively from Sing Sing, Chicago and Will Trent (because I refuse to believe it’s a coincidence that two network dramas had fantasy song and dance numbers this season.)

The plot was even more silly than usual. And honestly, if you didn’t realize who the killer was as soon as she said “Everyone around here calls me Mama,” I don’t know what to tell you. No one calls anyone “Mama” unless they’re the head of a criminal enterprise. That’s just facts.

Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce) and Officer Spongebob Chandler (Ethan Slater) blackmailed the judge who put Elsbeth in prison so she was released in time to see Kaya off on her top secret new assignment in Washington D.C.. And for the record, I would much rather have Officer Reynolds (played by genderqueer actor b), who was also introduced this season, replace Kaya than Chandler. Alas, no one has asked me … yet. I’m available though, call me CBS!

In the end, this season stretched our patience and credulity. While it might have veered off into complete silliness, Elsbeth has never pretended to be anything else. It just took us two seasons to catch on to how silly it was going to be. Carra Patterson was stellar and will be missed next season. We still have Pierce as the Captain and Daniel K. Isaac as his second in command, both wonderful anchors. And we have the showrunners’ ability to stack the guest star list with A+ actors from the B-list to look forward to. Plus, Carrie Preston remains a brilliant comedienne who fully embodies the role of Elsbeth with so much gusto that it’s hard to not still be charmed by her.

In the finale scene, when Elsbeth is Columbo-ing her way through the whodunnit, there’s an extra standing in the back dressed as a prison guard who is visibly struggling to keep a straight face. And that’s the essence of Elsbeth. We know this is silly, and we want to laugh at it. They want us to laugh at it, too. So, as long as you’re not looking for a serious procedural. Or one that even makes sense all of the time, I think you can safely look forward to season three in the fall to see what new, ridiculous scenarios they come up.

All episodes of Elsbeth are now available to stream on Paramount+.