Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Elsbeth Season 4, Episode 2.
Elsbeth is, like Columbo before it, built around the idea of the “howcatchem,” where the killer is revealed at the start of an episode, and the intrigue is in how the perpetrator gets caught. In both series, the lead characters — Carrie Preston‘s Elsbeth and Peter Falk‘s Lieutenant Columbo — are captivating eccentrics with keen minds and sharp observational skills, which play well to the format. But every once in a while, the “howcatchem” format is put to the side for a traditional “whodunit” episode, where the killer is not outed from the start, but rather has their identity revealed to the protagonist and the audience at the same time. The most recent episode of Elsbeth, “Death of a Playwright,” is the latest venture into the whodunit, a format with a decidedly spotty record for the series. But it’s the show’s strongest argument yet to continue dipping its toes in the whodunit pool.
The Whodunit Has Been a Hit or Miss on ‘Elsbeth’
Prior to “Death of a Playwright,” the whodunit format had two notable entries in Elsbeth. The first came in Season 2 with “Tiny Town,” where a murder in New York is witnessed by Angus (Ioan Gruffudd), a musician in Tattersall, Scotland. How, you may ask? Via the Iris, a 24/7 livestream installation that allows people on one side to see what’s happening on the other side, and vice versa. Unfortunately, Angus had been distracted at an inopportune moment and missed who it was that poisoned a young woman sitting at a table. That leaves Elsbeth and Officer Kaya Blanke (Carra Patterson) with little to work from, apart from Angus’ vague recollection of a man arguing with the victim prior to her death and the victim’s work ID.
“Tiny Town” works because it is faithful to the whodunit format while remaining true to the spirit of the series. There are the false leads and red herrings that are part and parcel of the whodunit, while the killer is a legitimate surprise. And we, as viewers, get to see Elsbeth utilize her skills from a different point of view. She’s not building a case against someone we already know did it, but rather piecing together clues to narrow down the list of suspects . . . and still not getting it right until near the end, when she is in real danger. Still, Elsbeth is as Elsbeth has always been, quirks and all.
But everything that “Tiny Town” got right about the whodunit, Season 3’s “Basket Case” gets wrong. Even though we don’t see who actually commits the murder of a university athletic director, it’s painfully obvious. So obvious that it’s a disservice to Elsbeth’s character that she doesn’t figure it out right away. The red herring is limited to one suspect, the 22-year-old girlfriend of the football coach that — SPOILER — is the killer, and she’s so unlikable that it serves as the only real reason she’d be a suspect at all. And the clues that Elsbeth gets pretty much fall in her lap, like finding a witness who is a specific cab driver for an unidentified cab company. In New York, no less. “Basket Case” is a howcatchem in whodunit clothing, leaving one to wonder why they even bothered trying.
‘Elsbeth’s “Death of a Playwright” Breaks the Tie
Clearly, then, “Tiny Town” was a one-off, a whodunit that succeeded in a world so entrenched in its howcatchem format that its follow-up couldn’t break the mold. And if your whodunit efforts are in name only, give up and stick to what you already know works. Nevertheless, the minds behind Elsbeth opted to take another swing at the whodunit with “Death of a Playwright.” Succeed, and the format is one that can be rolled out from time to time as a break from the norm. Fail, and never try a whodunit again.
Thankfully, “Death of a Playwright” makes a strong case for the whodunit in the world of Elsbeth. Like “Basket Case” before it, there isn’t exactly a laundry list of suspects, but still enough to make it reasonable and plausible that Elsbeth doesn’t get it right on the first try. And like “Tiny Town,” the red herrings and plot twists are enough to keep the reveal of the killer a surprise. But unlike “Tiny Town,” that reveal is very Elsbeth in nature, a crazy wealth of exposition that respects the whodunit format while gently satirizing it. It’s that final piece that makes an Elsbeth whodunit its own entity, and sets up “Death of a Playwright” as the standard on how to use the format effectively in the series. Just don’t push your luck, CBS.
