'Elsbeth' Star Carrie Preston Says Crime-Solving Lawyer Is On 'Shaky Ground' In Season 2

Note: This story contains spoilers from the second season premiere of “Elsbeth.”

Elsbeth Tascioni is back to investigate the case of a disgruntled opera fan who stabbed an annoying audience member while at the New York police station where she now calls home in the second season premiere of the CBS series “Elsbeth.” is faced with a major roadblock in the form of a stern new lieutenant (Daniel K. Isaac from “Billions”).

Carrie Preston, who played the role of the lawyer-turned-detective for 14 years on “The Good Wife” and “The Good Fight” and now on her own series, told TheWrap that the theme of season two is, “You can “Past”, which applies not only to the series of colorful suspects, but also to Elsbeth and her colleagues at the police.

She also discusses working with Nathan Lane – the opera fan who Elsbeth immediately thinks is the murderer and who is flattered that she wants to listen to him talk about the art form for hours.

“Starting the season with Nathan Lane was a dream come true for me and I’m excited to report that he is just the first in a line of sensational actors joining us this season,” showrunner Jonathan Tolins told TheWrap in a statement. “We’re having a lot of fun this season experimenting with the show’s format while immersing Elsbeth and the rest of our characters in even more vivid slices of New York life.”

TheWrap: Can you talk about Elsbeth's interactions with some of the new characters, like the lieutenant who tells her that if he does his job right, she'll be gone in a few months??

Carrie Preston: Just when she thought she could trust and rely on this job. (After this) performance she is on shaky ground. He'll continue to poke his little head in and start poking around in her world and find out what other people in the precinct think about her presence. It makes sense. She's not a detective. Aside from that very vague consent form, she doesn't actually have permission to act like a detective, so I can imagine she's causing a stir in the department.

On the other hand, the new detective she's working with on this case is happy to admit when he's wrong. It must be refreshing for someone to actually listen to Elsbeth so early in the process.

Yes, it's beautiful. Usually we see (the detectives) come in and have a little conflict with Elsbeth and feel threatened by her. You'd think such a stereotypical character would think in a certain way, and the writing is clever enough to avoid leaning towards the obvious. I think that's what really keeps our show fresh and exciting.

Another development in the first season premiere is that Kaya (Carra Patterson) is unfortunately no longer on the fast track to becoming a detective.

This is such a shock because we ended the first season so well, but the theme of the second season is that you can't escape your past. It will put a damper on things for now. Elsbeth and Wagner will also have a lot to deal with about their past. Luckily, Kaya and Elsbeth have such a wonderful friendship that they can help each other and find a way to overcome this friendship. It's a beautiful thing to see the relationship between these two.

This was a really fun episode.

Jonathan Tolins, our showrunner, is a huge opera lover. He was very excited to write this episode and get very specific, and he wrote it for Nathan Lane. Having Nathan Lane there really set the tone and the bar. And as director we had Nancy Hower, one of our most brilliant directors, and that combination in our first episode really sent us into the running in a great way.

She becomes friends with Nathan Lane's character and you're almost sad that a murder had to take place for them to meet.

I love that about the show and I love that about my character, that she tries to approach the murderers on a human level, even if she doesn't like them. Of course she doesn't agree with her behavior, but she wants to understand where it comes from. This makes playing games really fun because we connect with them on an emotional or human level.

By all other accounts, they probably would have remained friends because I think she really enjoyed his passion for the art form. And he was so lonely. Jon wrote some wonderful lines in which I also made some astute observations about the art form that no one else around him had really understood. I think he was excited to have someone who was a captive audience.

Her type of superpower is that she can disarm to the point of causing them to let down their guard.

Sometimes you really identify with the killers, although in this case I think we can all agree that he definitely overreacted.

Elsbeth loves the game of cat and mouse because she knows she will catch this mouse. But sometimes she doesn't like it so much, sometimes it hurts a little, like in the season 1 finale where she really had an affection for (fashion designer and killer) Mateo. I think she sees the loneliness in Nathan Lane's character, but he's just freaking out and that's unforgivable

And we see that the Elsbeth clothing line that Mateo designed is being taken out of stores.

In the world of art and fashion, everything is temporary. I thought that was really funny. And it also allows Elsbeth to be the only one in this world who is dressed like Elsbeth.

“Elsbeth” airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and streams the next day on Paramount+.

The post 'Elsbeth' Star Carrie Preston Says Season 2 Finds the Crime-solving Lawyer on 'Shaky Ground' appeared first on TheWrap.