Elsbeth star Carrie Preston teases the road ahead after that series premiere twist

Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) has made it to the Big Apple!

In her new series Elsbeth, The Good Wife standout has left her defense attorney days behind as she begins working with the NYPD to oversee their cases. Although she has been tasked by the Department of Justice, her new colleagues — including Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce) — are not sure Elsbeth is the right fit after she sticks her nose in the case of a murdered dancer. Elsbeth rightly believes she was killed by her teacher (played by Preston's True Blood costar Stephen Moyer). Finding an ally in Officer Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson), she solves the case, but at the end of the episode we discover the real reason Elsbeth is in NYC: to investigate Captain Wagner.

Preston teases that the road ahead for her beloved lawyer will be increasingly difficult. “There’s a wonderful tension because she loves this job and she has to answer to the Department of Justice. She has to answer to the people who brought her there, so she does have to carry through with this investigation, but she’s finding that she really likes Captain Wagner and finds him to be incredibly upstanding,” she explains.

EW spoke to Preston about playing Elsbeth again, the comedy of the new show, and some of the adventures ahead for her character.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You’re playing Elsbeth again! What makes her a character you want to keep returning to, and what made this show, which leans into crime more than the law, the right vehicle for her?

CARRIE PRESTON: She’s so full of wonder, curiosity and joy. She keeps me guessing, so I get inspired by her. Those infectious qualities.

[Robert and Michelle King] created this show borrowing the structure of Colombo, which is, you know who the murderer is, then the joy of watching the show is seeing the cat and mouse between the murderer and Elsbeth. You see her piece together how the criminal did it. It’s the how-done-it and not the who-done-it. Elsbeth is so unconventional in the way that she does things, so the criminals underestimate her and don’t see her coming.

One thing that’s wonderful about the show is that it brings such a new energy that is different from the [original] two shows. The Good Wife and The Good Fight were dramas, and Elsbeth was just a little bit of comedy dropped in there. Elsbeth is a comedy with a drop of the drama of a police procedural. Also, we have these incredible guest stars that are attracted to this show already because the writing is so rich. It’s dialogue heavy and there’s subtext to play between characters in this cat-and-mouse game that happens in each episode. It’s fun to mine and it’s what's special about this show.

At what point did you start to think Elsbeth was a character who could carry her own story?

I don’t like to be presumptuous about any of that, so every time I would play her, I would approach it as it was the last time, because you never know as a guest actor. You just serve the main storyline. I would say season 3, which was my second arc on The Good Wife, was when we really hit our stride with the alchemy between the writing and the acting. She could then function as the big guns they brought in when a case couldn’t be solved.

Elsbeth has been such a scene stealer in the past. Did you have any concerns about Elsbeth being the main character of her own show?

Yeah, remaining grounded and that I am able to sustain her over an entire episode being in every scene. I had to learn how to calibrate, which I’m learning still because we’re in the middle of shooting the season. Elsbeth is a larger-than-life character, and just making sure it doesn’t come on too strong, and I’m working on that now. Finding that pace.

We see Elsbeth starting to bond with Kaya in the pilot, but obviously this investigation is an obstacle for the new friends. What’s ahead for them?

What I love about Elsbeth is she has such an appreciation for women that are more put together than she is, and she looks up to Kaya even though she’s younger than Elsbeth. She finds this young woman is so self-possessed and Elsbeth can be so scatterbrained and hasn’t really mastered being grounded. Also, she sees in Kaya someone she can mentor, because [Elsbeth] understands how to look at a situation from a different angle to illuminate it. They’re both going to rub off on each other. I just love having a female friendship on television that’s not competitive. It’s supportive.

There’s definitely some conflict internally with Elsbeth because she’s, in essence, not fully telling the truth about why she’s there to these people that she is growing very fond of, and that’s tough for her. She says in the pilot that she really wants to be on the side of truth now. As a defense attorney, she worked with people that have done some really indefensible things and now being in this situation she’s seeing it as a way to finally be a truth seeker that she always wanted to be and yet she’s being disingenuous to people that she’s growing to respect.

You spend a lot of time with Stephen Moyer’s character in the pilot. Do you have a standout scene or memory?

There was one day pretty early on in shooting where Stephen and I had a seven-page scene, and that is unheard of in television. Now in the edit, it got cut down to three pages, but it was so fun to work with Stephen because we did True Blood together for seven years so I have history with him. We both come from theater, so it felt we were doing a one-act play. This show has these really wonderful long scenes that actors can really, to make a True Blood pun, sink their teeth into.

Which scene was it?

It was the one where I’m in his office and I try to sniff him to see if he wears the right deodorant, which is one of the main clues I’m trying to use to catch him.

In addition to Moyer, Elsbeth has a bunch of exciting guest stars coming up, including Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jane Krakowski, Retta, and Blair Underwood. Can you share some fun stories from the set about working with any of them?

Well, Jane Krakowski and I had to rock climb on one of those climbing walls and we didn’t get any rehearsal. I do not do this and I think she'd done it once with her son, so that was really extraordinary because we're having to climb the wall while saying a fair amount of pretty complicated dialogue. Blair Underwood and I have some interesting moments on a tennis court, so they’re definitely putting in these set pieces and we’re having a lot of fun with them.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Elsbeth airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

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