‘Elsbeth:’ Carrie Preston On Her Journey & the Show’s Emmy Recategorization [VIDEO]

Already renewed for a fourth season, the hit CBS series Elsbeth, starring Carrie Preston, is still comfort TV. But it’s comfort TV that has something to say, even when it’s subtle.

Sure, like Murder She Wrote (another CBS series) each week there’s a murder, the audience usually knows whodunnit in the first ten minutes, and Elsbeth Tascioni is on hand to sleuth the case in her singular, whimsical but deceptively clever style, a la Hercule Poirot. Nicely, tied up. Mostly.

But there are also interesting things happening in the titular character’s life, both at home and in the office, and those plots are carried over series to series.

Still, what makes the show so infectiously charming and captivating is the delightful Carrie Preston, who is living her dream job.

And now, she may even have a shot at a Best Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy. Yes, the comedy category, where it belongs.

For some baffling reason the show was entered in the Drama category two years running, a misguided decision that resulted in no Emmy love in any field. But this year, with ‘a lot of petitioning and hard work on CBS’s part’ it has been recategorized correctly.

And, perhaps, some of the many mostly-NYC-based guest actors will also be in consideration like the great Dianne Wiest, who commands her episode as a murderous Mother Superior or Steve Buscemi, who asked to be on the show, and kills as a Crossword Puzzle whiz. And Patti LuPone is guesting as a diva cabaret singer later this season!

Last year, things got a bit scary for Elsbeth as she suffered her own internal crisis of confidence in people –and a little bit, in herself– thanks to the grim realities of today’s world. The world hasn’t changed, if anything it’s gotten more frightening, but Elsbeth refused to have her eternal optimism damaged or deterred.

In Season Three, she embarks on a romance with Mayoral candidate Alec Bloom (a dashing Ivan Herandez, wowing audiences in Schmigadoon on Broadway), whose campaign is being managed by none other than Marissa Gold (the fab Sarah Steele), a face from Elsbeth’s Chicago past, injecting the show with a refreshing dose of past history. And the marvelous Ben Levi Ross (currently wowing  in Ragtime on Broadway) is back as her loving son Teddy.

Preston played Elsbeth in 19 episodes of The Good Wife and The Good Fight, over the course of 16 years, picking up an Emmy for Guest Actress in the process.

Her breakthrough role was on HBO’s groundbreaking True Blood (2010 SAG Ensemble nomination), where she portrayed Arlene Fowler for seven seasons. TV credits include the LGBTQ miniseries When We Rise, the Netflix series and Grace and Frankie.  She also directed episodes of Claws, The Good Fight, and the series, Your Honor.

She made her Broadway debut, opposite Patrick Stewart in Shakespeare’s The Tempest and appeared opposite Stewart again in the Guthrie Theater’s production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, as Honey. Other theater credits: Chaucer in Rome, The Rivals, Hamlet and Festen, in 2006, her last Broadway show to date.

Her screen work includes, My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Straight-Jacket, Transamerica, Towelhead, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Duplicity, Virginia, 5 Flights Up, 30 Miles from Nowhere, They/Them, Space Oddity, One of Those Days and Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers.

The Contending had the pleasure of a chat with Preston about the series and the exciting Emmy placement news.