Pilot – As the opening episode of Elsbeth begins, Alex Modarian (Stephen Moyer) watches and conducts a play. He tells Todd Ritter (Arthur Langlie) he is going to go congratulate the cast. Alex sets a timer before sneaking around and putting on gloves. He sits down at a desk for one of the cast members and puts pills in a bag. It appears he replaces the pills in the bottle before rushing to leave. He speaks to Olivia Cherry (Alex Costello). Olivia tells him not to shush her because she is going to the dean. She tells him not to put this on her because he’s the one sleeping with the students. Olivia asks for her keys because she doesn’t want Alex near her apartment ever again. Later, Alex sneaks into Olivia’s apartment and finds her passed out.

He puts a bag over her head and stages a suicide. In the morning, Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) takes a tour of New York and tells the hip-hop guide (Jahir Hipps) she is from Chicago. She is there for a temporary job, but she wants it to be permanent because she loves New York. Elsbeth gets off the bus and tells a cop she is meeting with Detective Smullen (Danny Mastrogiorgio). She is a part of the consent decree. Elsbeth learns there was a suicide at the location. She goes inside and experiences her first crime scene. Elsbeth finds Detective Smullen interviewing a witness. Smullen gets in touch with Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce) who says City Hall wants Elsbeth there and not him.

He tells Smullen it’s the lawsuit from last year and all those wrongful arrests by the Major Case Unit. A judge has ordered them to hire an outside attorney for police oversight to observe their investigations for a year. Meanwhile, Elsbeth is busy looking through Olivia’s bathroom cabinet. She learns that the victim had a bag over her head. Elsbeth finds it odd that Old Irish is in the medicine cabinet because a woman wouldn’t use it. She learns about places to visit in New York while she is there. When Smullen interrupts, Elsbeth admits she doesn’t think this is a suicide. She doubts the woman would’ve whitened her teeth before she committed suicide. She also suspects Olivia was expecting to have sex with someone if she had her diaphragm in.

Elsbeth speaks to Alex and others who knew the victim. Alex explains he is the director at Olivia’s school and he doesn’t think she was getting the parts she wanted. Smullen interrupts and asks Elsbeth to leave. Then, he questions Alex and the others about receiving texts from Olivia who was having difficulty. In the elevator, Elsbeth asks Alex about going to Cat while she is in New York. Before he leaves, she ends up telling him that the police will start investigating Olivia’s death as a murder. Elsbeth gets splashed by water. Kaya Blanke welcomes her to New York. Smullen tells Wagner about the case and how Elsbeth thinks it’s a murder. They ask Kaya what she thinks of Elsbeth. Wagner tasks Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson) with finding out what type of trouble Elsbeth can be.

Wagner calls Agent Celetano to complain about the lawyer he sent. Elsbeth goes to the school to watch the students rehearse. She chases Alex out. She learns more about his students. Elsbeth wants to know more about the person Olivia was dating. He insists he isn’t a killer before getting rid of her. Elsbeth returns to his office just in time to hear him on the phone with Lana. She gets her phone and shows Alex the message Olivia sent to her classmates before she killed herself. She says older people tend to put two spaces after every period. Elsbeth went through Olivia’s old texts and noticed she only did one space. Alex calls her funny before asking if she’d like tickets to The Lion King. He agrees to get them for her since he knows the company manager.

Next, Alex prints off a paper asking why someone isn’t answering his calls. It is signed as Trevor. Elsbeth meets Wagner who wants to talk to her about the consent decree. Elsbeth admits to defending some guilty individuals during her time as a lawyer. Agent Celetano mentioned this job to her and told her she didn’t have to lie anymore. Elsbeth could always tell how guilty a client was based on how much they talked. Elsbeth says Alex talks a lot so she suspects he may be guilty. When she visits Alex, she finds him with Smullen and Kaya. Alex tells her about Trevor James who was allegedly stalking Olivia. As they leave, Detective Smullen urges Elsbeth to stop hounding Alex. In private, Elsbeth tells Kaya about the double spaces. She recommends finding some writing samples from Alex Modarian.

Elsbeth questions Lana Brolin (Julia McDermott) who says Alex has been a perfect gentleman. She asks Lana if they’re dating. Lana denies it. Then, she explains she didn’t sleep with Alex to get the roles. Kaya confirms Alex uses two spaces after every period. Elsbeth thinks Alex finds a new replacement every semester. She suspects Olivia replaced Beatrice Bruni (Chelsea Lee Williams). They visit Beatrice to see what she says about Alex. Beatrice says Alex has his favorites. The wider you spread your legs the bigger the part. She doesn’t think Alex is a killer though. Elsbeth wonders if Alex was worried he was going to be canceled. Beatrice offers to sign her statement if she can prove it. Wagner checks in with Kaya and Smullen.

Kaya tells them that Alex features a new actress every six months. It is Elsbeth’s theory that he does it because he is sleeping with the student in question. Elsbeth catches up with Alex at a pub. They sit down and Elsbeth begins telling Alex about his writing and Olivia’s text messages. She accuses Alex of writing the texts to give himself an alibi. Elsbeth thinks he copied Olivia’s SIM card to text from her phone. Todd comes over and admits to typing up Alex’s syllabuses. He also says he uses Old Irish deodorant. Later, Smullen tells Elsbeth that they found some DNA on a hair on the deodorant and it belonged to Todd who is in custody. Elsbeth doesn’t believe that Todd was responsible. Kaya tells her to listen to a specific part of Todd’s interview. Todd says he just cut and paste parts of the syllabus from the notes on Alex’s computer.

Elsbeth tries to tell Wagner that Todd didn’t kill Olivia. Wagner tells her to go apologize to Alex and they’ll talk about her future. Wagner threatens to call Cary Agos from Chicago, but Elsbeth keeps pushing. He eventually leaves. Elsbeth approaches Alex to try to apologize to him. Kaya interrupts to tell Elsbeth that Captain Wagner wants her to be there when they search Todd’s dorm room. Todd tells Alex that he was released. Alex sets his timer again. Moments later, the police catch Alex in the act. As he is arrested, he tells Elsbeth to think about him when she sees Cats. She asks Kaya if she wants to see a play. Wagner asks Elsbeth how they’re going to make this work. Elsbeth gets in touch with Agent Celetano who asks if she is ready to get started. She thinks he is wrong about Wagner who has been nice to her. He reminds her that nice people can be corrupt too.

 

Elsbeth Review

The opening episode of Elsbeth was okay although there isn’t much in terms of originality here. These police procedurals have been done to death in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere so it’s hard to cheer for yet another addition to the genre. Elsbeth does try to separate itself from the masses by being wacky and humorous, but that may be its downfall in the long run.

Nothing about the series was effectively humorous although Carrie Preston does a pretty good job as a kooky lawyer turned investigator. The rest of the episode was either okay, unoriginal, or slightly dull. There obviously wasn’t any mystery because the killing was laid bare in the first few minutes of the episode. Like so many of these shows, there isn’t any investigating to be seen and instead it’s primarily conversations and more conversations until the killer is handcuffed.

Some of the performances were lifeless in this episode like it was just reading the script. If nothing else, the pilot episode of Elsbeth was watchable. If the series is going to stick around for a while, it’ll need to bring more to the table including personalities and personal dramas for the characters. This episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of Elsbeth can be found on Reel Mockery here.

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