A night at the opera

Elsbeth

Murder by subscription

Season 2

Episode 1

Editor's Rating

4 stars

****

Photo: Michael Parmelee/CBS

Welcome back, Elsbeth Viewers! It's fall in New York! It's time to go back to school, buy bouquets of flowers with sharpened pencils, and if you're Elsbeth Tascioni and NYPD officer Kaya Blanke, it's also time to get back to solving murders!

The premiere episode's cold open is brisk, efficient and funny, introducing us to the week's victim and murderer and using Elsbeth and Kaya to deliver a fun, self-aware look back at last season. Oh, it's good to be back. I love it when a show gets meta, and Elsbeth goes hard in this department, as these two work and friendship partners describe the strange feeling of finally getting into the rhythm (airing ten episodes) and then taking an abrupt, seemingly inexplicable month-long break between solving high-profile cases. You could even call it a break! I see what you do, writer and executive producer Jonathan Tolin, and it makes me laugh.

We're also treated to a few Easter eggs from the first season, including the closure of designer Mateo Hart's boutique and the takeover of his space as a Halloween megastore (definitely not to be confused with Halloween Spirit). Maybe Hart's department store would have survived longer, Elsbeth and Kaya muse aloud, if he hadn't been, you know, a confessed murderer. The other highlight is an understated sidewalk bench ad for Joann Lenox Realty; If there's anyone who could find a way to make her business a success while serving a prison sentence for murder, it's Jane Krakowski's guest character.

What a relief it is – a reaction we should all understand – to hear the unmistakable sirens announcing the approach of several police vehicles and probably an ambulance. To the crime scene! In a slight role shift from last season's premiere episode, this time Kaya introduces herself to the local detective. Of the detectives she and Elsbeth have worked with so far, Detective Fleming (Daniel Oreskes) perhaps has the best attitude right from the start: he knows he's expecting them both, doesn't take their presence personally, and proves himself to be a skillful arranger an outstanding position thanks to his 36 years of service.

Fleming has a great attitude, but isn't a particularly creative thinker. He believes all crimes are about sex or money, and noticing the absence of a wallet, he quickly attributes the stabbing death of Wall Street bro Eddie Reese (Corey Mach) to the latter. His death from 36 cuts is clearly a case of burglary gone wrong. But nothing else is missing from Eddie's house, and someone appears to have thrown his phone across the room so hard that it shattered. Things don't work out, and fortunately Fleming is gracious enough not to need Captain Wagner's urging for Elsbeth and Kaya to join his ongoing investigation.

As is often the case ElsbethThe fun of solving the crime will be watching Elsbeth and Kaya figure it out, since viewers have already seen the murder mystery (Philip, played by Nathan Lane) and why (Eddie's inability to behave properly at the opera, went too far too often). . I'm anti-murder (brave and iconoclastic, I know), but I admit that Eddie was annoying and awkward at best, and very disruptive to other people's enjoyment of the opera at worst.

This obnoxious, disrespectful parvenue only showed up because he inherited his late grandmother's seats after her death, and the opera is a very elegant and successful chick magnet. Had he sat elsewhere in the room he might not have met a stormy end, but he had the misfortune of sitting in front of Philip, whose tolerance for such behavior began in the basement and only continued to sink. A helpful montage shows us what this bumbling guy did at performances by Il Trovatore, The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, La Bohemeand deadly, Tosca. He played games on his phone, took selfies during performances, made out with his dates and finally crossed his final limit by answering a call during a crucial aria and making the mistake of saying out loud where he was going.

Philip, running out of patience, pursues Eddie and then stabs him in a reenactment of Tosca stabbing Baron Scarpia during “E qual via scegliete” – adapting the performance's choreography to his own vengeful stabbing. The two scenes are intercut, underscoring Philipp's extensive knowledge of the aria and its staging, as well as the idea that he kills Eddie to avenge the dignity of the opera itself. It's nice that he ends up quoting the opera and declaring his forgiveness to Eddie's lifeless body, but sir. You are a real murderer and you don't just play one on stage. If anyone should hope for forgiveness, it's you.

The investigation goes as expected: Elsbeth and Kaya are better investigators than Fleming, who is generally disinterested, jumps to conclusions, and lacks the acting skills to play an effective bad cop in an interrogation. He utilizes his two best qualities by championing Kaya as a great detective of the future and proving he can easily admit when he's wrong. There is no need to ask for his further blessing, and after noticing many disapproving grimaces in the background of Eddie's selfies, Elsbeth and Kaya Philipps decide to attend a performance themselves, sitting in his late grandmother's seats.

The presence of Elsbeth and Kaya arouses Philipp's curiosity and introduces Elsbeth and Kaya to the friendly Dr. Jablonsky from last season's Plastic Surgery episode, who provides some useful backstory about Philip. He is infamous as “The Aisle Seat Scold,” a lawyer who was fired from his law firm for being “too argumentative,” which is saying something. Elsbeth's genuine admiration for that evening's opera – she cries violently at a performance of Madama Butterfly – convinces Philip that she might make a suitable student despite the investigation into a murder he is guilty of, leading to the best scenes of the episode. It's so much fun watching Preston and Lane dance around each other, and for die-hard TV addicts like me, it's especially amusing to see Lane once again playing a questionable character (like he did in the second season of ” Just murders in the building) and a person caught up in the politics of opera audiences (as he did in). The Gilded Age)

Her scenes include several other wonderfully funny moments, including Philip saying at the end of a sentence four hours Information Lecture: “And this is why you should never mention Andrew Lloyd Webber in this context.” What led to this caution is not revealed; I'm assuming Elsbeth said something about her enjoyment of Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.

Kaya's observation that the handle of the killer's knife has left a noticeable bruise on Eddie's chest causes Elsbeth's eagle eye to land on a retractable knife on display in Philip's vast room of opera memorabilia. She later learns that he had received the knife from the great (fictional?) singer Gino Gozzi after a props accident during a 1968 performance Tosca in Philadelphia. Why wouldn't Philip, who obviously lives for the details and shares them with anyone who shows the slightest interest in opera, not include this colorful anecdote in his hour-long lecture earlier? Hm.

Elsbeth objects to Philip's strategy of persistently withholding relevant details and enthusiastically sharing details he considers irrelevant. Not only does she notice the knife's origins, and she doesn't just try to prove he was at the crime scene by comparing the DNA found on Eddie with what they can glean from the opera glasses he gives to Elsbeth. It is assumed that the DNA can be traced back to the murder weapon someone Since she is connected to the Opera Company, she turns to Fritz, the supposedly predatory archivist. In fact, the DNA from the crime scene matches some found in the archived (and unwashed, new) costume worn by Gino Gozzi to play the title role in Rigoletto many years ago. It doesn't matter that Philip washed away evidence after stabbing Eddie, because Gino's DNA was on the knife before the stabbing. Another week, another case solved by the homicide squad.

The scenes, covering two of the season's storylines, feel a little cramped after the smooth flow of the week's mystery. Now that the corrupt Lieutenant Noonan has been caught and fired, Captain Wagner needs a new administrative lieutenant and finds his man in Lieutenant Connor (Daniel K. Isaac). Connor, a self-proclaimed rules and regulations guy who will probably befriend the good captain, conducts a comprehensive survey of the precinct. It's a solid approach to getting an overview of the situation, but its findings throw a wrench into Kaya's path to becoming a detective. It turns out that Kaya is just a few college credits short of qualifying for a promotion to detective, so the quick promotion she was promised has to be put on hold while she completes her degree requirements. Apparently an overzealous PD recruiter deceived her into believing that her two high school AP courses would count toward her application. Any increase in salary or responsibility must first be awaited.

We are now in the final moment and first cliffhanger of the season premiere, as Elsbeth goes for a walk with her dog. As she walks through the park in a head-to-toe pink ensemble, a large black SUV pulls up and a male voice tells her to get in. Some would call this an offer she can't refuse. DUN, DUN, DUN!!!

• In which theater were all the scenes in the opera house filmed? It's great!

• The dress in the episode must be based on Elsbeth's fairly structured dress for the scenes in the opera. It features an A-line design and a color and floral print with oversized roses in hot coral, yellow and pink tones. Elsbeth does not appear inconspicuous, even if she dresses appropriately for the occasion and the surroundings.