Stream it or skip it?
Season three of Elspeth He instantly creates a buzz by casting Stephen Colbert as a guest on this season’s premiere, playing a role he knows well: late-night talk show host. But the first episode of the new season is also noteworthy because Amy Sedaris and Andy Richter are also guest stars, and because one of the regular characters from the first two seasons, Kara Patterson, is not present.
Elspeth Season 3: Do you want to stream it or skip it?
Opening shot: Page takes a group of tourists through the offices of a late-night show called Too late with Scotty Bristol.
Essence: Scotty Bristol (Stephen Colbert) has been hosting his late-night show for a long time, and he’s not very popular among his employees. Executive producer and head writer Laurel Hammond Montez (Amy Sedaris) walks past the tourists to tell the writers room that Scotty has rejected all of their ideas. They heard him sending their drawing scripts through a noisy industrial shredder, nicknamed “Mickey II”, to which eyes were glued.
Who is “Mickey I”? He is Scotty’s boyfriend on the show, Mickey Muntz (Andy Richter), who is also Laurel’s husband. The three have a long history together, having been in an improv group together in Seattle for decades. There was always some resentment that Laurel went with Mickey instead of Scotty, and Scotty attacks Mickey by insulting him on the air every night. It has become so stressful for Mickey that he has heart problems and needs to take a vacation. When Scotty refuses to give him time off, Laurel decides to take matters into her own hands.
Earlier that night, Scottie and Laurel run into Elizabeth Tascione (Carrie Preston), who is there to support her spa friend who is there to promote a book. She’s come straight from the airport, having been in Scotland to visit Angus (Ioan Gruffudd), and she’s so jet lag that she falls asleep at random times. She finally returns home to her son Teddy (Ben Levi Ross) and her dog when Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce) summons her to the studio to examine the scene of Scottie’s death.
While it sounds like an “unfortunate shredding incident,” Elspeth thinks otherwise. With Kaya (Kara Patterson) doing her undercover work, Elspeth is paired with patrol officer and aspiring comedian Grace Hackett (Lindsay Mendes). When it becomes clear that Scotty was murdered, the detective on the case, Bobby Smolin (Danny Mastrogiorgio), believes that Mickey was the one who did it, since he had the courage to go back and confront Scotty when he found the body. But Elspeth focuses her attention on Laurel, and kindly asks the head writer to learn the basics of improvisation.
What shows will it remind you of? Elspeth It is in the “howcatchem” style of murder mystery, for which he is best known Colombo It was recently revived by both Elspeth and poker face.
Our take: Despite the first episode making headlines, Colbert did right after Late Show has been canceled by CBS, and it looks like Michelle and Robert King, along with showrunner Jonathan Tolins, are getting Elspeth Going back to what we enjoyed about the show when it first started. Last season, there seemed to be too much focus on season-long story arcs, and the central mysteries of each episode suffered as a result. This season, while it looks like there will be some ongoing action, the mysteries themselves have room to breathe and become more than just a way for Carrie Preston to do her Elsbeth thing.
These arcs will likely include something with Elspeth’s son Teddy, and the cost-cutting going on in the area, which has been undoing Lt. Connor (Daniel K. Isaacs) who’s been crunching numbers. However, one unfortunate byproduct of refocusing the issues each week is that Patterson becomes a recurring guest star rather than a main cast member. We’ll see her pop up from time to time, but she won’t be there every week.
The friendship and partnership between Elsbeth and Kaya was one of our favorite aspects of the first two seasons of the series, and we’re sure to miss it. But Elspeth is also more trusted by Captain Wagner and the people in the area, so having someone “keep an eye on” Elspeth is not necessary. If the writers gave us patrol partners who were as fun as Grace Hackett was, we’d be OK with that.
As for the murder in the first episode, we enjoyed seeing Colbert and Sedaris working together for the first time since then Strangers with candyAnd the chemistry that bound them together as old friends was still there. Also, Richter playing the sidekick was a fun, non-inside joke, given the number of years he spent alongside Conan O’Brien on his various shows. We get why the Kings decided to rely on “yes,” and all that when it comes to Elspeth and Laurel improvising together, but we think this joke burned itself out pretty quickly.
Sex and skin: no one.
Parting shot: Teddy puts a blanket over his mother while Elspeth finally gets the sleep she’s been longing for.
Sleeping star: We’re curious to see if the rotating cast of investigators will be expanded this season. But we also have to love the characters there: Smolen, Fleming (Daniel Oreskes), Donnelly (Molly Price), and Edwards (Michaela Diamond). Also, we will also see more of Character B as Officer Nikki Reynolds this season.
Most experimental fonts: As we said, as much as “yeah, and” has become shorthand for mocking improv, it was relied upon heavily throughout the episode.
Our call: Broadcast it. We’re obsessed with secrets, especially mysteries Elspeth It usually is. But last season moved away from that format a bit, and hopefully the mysteries in Season 3 each week will get the attention they deserve.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) He writes about food, entertainment, parenting, and technology, but he’s not kidding himself: He’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Salon, Rolling Stone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and other places.
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