Elsbeth’s third season is wrapping up on the 2026 TV schedule, but luckily, Carrie Preston’s titular character will be back for Season 4 later this year. This also means that fans will be able to look forward to more guest stars, Elsbeth's unique ways of solving a murder, and the fashion that comes along with it. Her bag game is certainly on point, but Preston is evidently not much of a fan.
If Elsbeth Tascioni is known for one thing that doesn’t tie her to her professional career, it’s definitely her bags. The character is never seen without her big bags, which hold a number of items, and she even tried to condense them in a previous episode. But it’s just one of the lovable quirks of Elsbeth, and while it’s a fun touch to her, Preston told Variety that she’s carrying quite a lot of weight on her shoulders, both figuratively and literally:
Don’t ask any crew member to tell you what I really think about the bags at this point. They are wonderful, and of course, they are part of the character. But logistically, carrying them around and taking them on and off my shoulders, we’ve had to really work on it — because I was starting to have some physical problems. Like, ‘got to go to physical therapy’ kind of issues.
Since the bags are pretty big and Elsbeth carries them around from crime scene to crime scene, the bags would have to have something in them to make them look like she’s carrying a lot. So it can’t exactly be like a cup, which can hold virtually nothing, even if a scene calls for drinking. It’s definitely understandable why Preston doesn’t like it, especially given how much Elsbeth has to carry. Luckily, with a little bit of trial and error, Preston and the crew were able to figure out the best course of action when it comes to Elsbeth’s many bags to make sure that they’re not causing any problems:
So we had to figure out what we put in the bags to make them look like they have stuff in them — but be still light enough for me to have them on my shoulders all day long.
After three seasons, I would hope that Preston isn’t hurting herself in order to have Elsbeth’s personality stand out. So it makes me happy that she was able to find at least some type of common ground. At this point, it’s hard to imagine Elsbeth without her many bags and belongings, and apparently, a lot goes into making sure everything goes smoothly on the crime procedural:
If one bag goes off the shoulder, they can’t use that take. So my on-set costumer, who’s amazing, will put top stick tape on the bags to make them stick to my shoulders. She’ll safety pin them sometimes, and so they won’t fall off. But then it’s very hard between scenes for me to take them off. So, it’s like a whole thing! It’s a real production, those bags.
Since Elsbeth was previously unable to declutter her life and her bags, it can be assumed they won’t be going anywhere any time soon. And there will be many more bags that she will carry in the fourth season. If anything, it sounds like Preston was able to somewhat take the weight off her shoulders, while still keeping one of the best parts about Elsbeth Tascioni.
The bags are not all that Preston has had to work on when it comes to Elsbeth. She’s opened up about the hard work that went into changing the show from drama to comedy on the awards circuit, telling CinemaBlend that it’s a “strenuous” job, but the crew really helps. I cannot wait to see how that continues going into these final Season 3 episodes and Season 4. New episodes air on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS, streaming the next day with a Paramount+ subscription.
