Artificial Genius

I loved the Good Wife and I really love Elsbeth the character, as well as this new show. In this episode, the guest murderer is so funny and watchable. I enjoyed her micro expressions and loopy yet determined persona. Being a big Columbo fan, I also enjoy the cat-and-mouse interplay between Elsbeth and her arrogant criminals. I hope they get better at the forensic parts. For example, there is no way the victim's computer would still be at his abode after his murder. And being an expert in technology, there is no way the murderer would just send a folder to Trash and not expect it to be discovered. Big blunders that affected my enjoyment of this light-hearted and self-aware show.

I love Elsbeth, I love Good Wife, I love Good Fight.

But this show.... is so one dimensional. And without the political overtones of its sister shows, I find it very boring, and very predictable.

Poker Face did the Columbo "how do they catch them" much better. In Elsbeth (who is still a delight btw), you can basically see the episode laid out entirely in front of you, with rarely in twists and turns that are worth mentioning.

There's no tension, because there's no threat! Elsbeth is never any danger physically or emotionally.

This episode tries to comment on virtue signalling, but goes very close to feeding into right wing nonsense that victims are lying for attention.

A young woman who suffered an attack years before has a crime fighting site but is threatened with unwanted exposure from a reporter doing a story on her. When the deed is done, Elsbeth is on the job with help from her female police officer friend, as usual, to figure out how to catch her. I've enjoyed many of these Columbo-like cases and this was one of the most enjoyable of them so far, that's for sure! Oh, and it seems in this one Elsbeth got a new pet dog for her efforts. There's also an intriguing subplot about her superior trying to get out of some kind of jam. Only two more eps to go for this season. So I highly recommend "Artificial Genius".

This episode is a brutally funny takedown of Gen Z. Its relentless virtue-signalling, cliche-ridden phrases, and slavish devotion to groupthink thinly disguising their essentially narcissistic worldview and reveals them to be as greedy and selfish as every generation before them.

Elsbeth's endless disingenuous genius drives the lead suspect bonkers, and she is condescendingly patronizing until she learns that Elsbeth might be able to help her get richer. Just like every other generation before hers.

This show is a hoot - and also serious as it consistently addresses issues that are timeless and contemporary. Elsbeth 's sunny and positive personality conceals a razorlike mind that she's turned into a powerful force for good. Her distaste for her prior history of defending less than solid citizens sent her on a righteous path instead of turning her into a cynic. She seems to relish her new persona-a genuine, empathetic and enthusiastic woman who no longer needs to compromise her strong moral code to do her job- and one she seems to love.

Quinn Powers (Elizabeth Lail) was once a victim of crime. The police knew her attacker had hurt others in the neighbourhood but did not warn the public. Quinn was left with a limp.

Now she has created an app called Cerberus. It will help victims of crime by making sure that any crimes are reported to the subscribers of the app, by other members of the public. Thereby bypassing the police who decide what to release to the world at large.

On the eve of her company going public. Journalist Josh Johnson plans to expose Quinn Powers. She has exaggerated a lot of things and her app contains several flaws. One of them is it can create false alerts based on duff information fed into it.

This was an enjoyable episode partly because Lail is such a hissable villain. Her false perkiness even grated Elsbeth.

There was something about the way the murder was constructed that reminded me of an old Columbo episode. Then again if you are going to steal, steal from the best.