If you see Wendell Pierce in a show, you know it’s gonna be good. 

From The Wire to Treme, Suits to Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, the mere presence of Pierce in a series telegraphs that this is a high-quality joint worth savoring, and in the past, that has almost always meant the show was on cable until now. As the mysterious NYC law enforcement officer Captain C.W. Wagner on the quirky crime procedural Elsbeth, Pierce is on a network series. For an actor beloved for his work on premium cable shows, that can come with some baggage. 

“'I did know that some actors were staying away from broadcast television because of people's habits of streaming and things of that nature," he tells BET.com. But I was open to it. I think sometimes people assume that broadcast television [doesn’t have] great material, but television wouldn’t be what it is if it wasn't for this Tiffany network.” 

That sparkling network Pierce speaks of is CBS, part of the Paramount company that also owns BET and is, of course, one of the oldest TV networks in existence. And that, in a way, is the rub; CBS is also home to shows like NCIS and Young Sheldon, which, despite being massively successful, may not be top of mind for hip and trendy viewers, or for that matter, Black viewers either. But Pierce says he was attracted to Elsbeth, a clever and charming crime-of-the-week show with a comedic bent, not because he was trying to be cool but because the material is good. “It’s kind of like this female Columbo. And I loved Columbo growing up. It's a classic television format.” 

Elsbeth follows Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) as the titular Elsbeth––a character from The Good Wife that Preston won an Emmy for playing in 2013. Elsbeth is a kind of goofy, fish-out-of-water lawyer from Chicago now in New York City observing cases alongside police officers. (Exactly why a lawyer is watching the police as they work is revealed in the first episode.) Pierce’s character Wagner is forced to give Elsbeth access to cases but reluctantly begins to marvel at how she cracks cases with the most banal of details, like, say, the type of deodorant found in a dead woman’s house that leads to a break in a case. She and Wagner make an unlikely pair––she’s the childlike innocent and he’s the stoic, tough leader––but they build a rapport that helps solve cases and makes the series fun to watch. Elsbeth is part thriller, part whodunnit, and part daffy comedy. 

“Wagner is a man who is very much on the upward mobility ladder of the NYPD,” Pierce says. “He wants to be chief one day, and then this thorn in his side comes along. What started out as a contentious relationship becomes mutually beneficial.” There’s also more to his story as––again, spoiler––we learn at the end of the first episode that Elsbeth knows a little bit more about Wagner than even he knows, and, as harmless as she seems, she’s got an agenda that could make her Wagner’s. “There's layers to him,” he says, “and like an onion, you peel away and start to find out ‘Who is the true C.W. Wagner?’”

Of course, the role has Pierce playing someone in law enforcement, which can carry sensitivities for Black viewers. But the cool thing about Elsbeth, he says, is that the show’s creators, Robert and Michelle King, don’t shy away from race in their work but lean into it, often to strong, provocative effect. Lowkey, the Kings have had an usually solid track record of supporting Black talent (Power creator Courtney Kemp matriculated on their show The Good Wife) and writing multidimensional Black stories into their shows, including The Good Fight, which is set in a Black Chicago law firm, and Evil, which stars Mike Coulter as an aspiring priest studying supernatural phenomena. In those shows, race and the complexities of Black identity remain part of the narrative, not a one-time “special episode” topic. Pierce says Elsbeth is no exception. 

“You’d expect it from something like The Wire,” he says. “But the thing about the Kings is that they’re so good at [addressing] topical things.” 

Pierce says that, having played law enforcement officials previously in his career, he’s done a lot of research into how Black officers think and their motivations for becoming officers in the first place. “It’s a unique position to be in. I've found so many Black officers became policemen because the crime that they're fighting against does not reflect the communities that they come from. They knew people in the neighborhood are hard working, law abiding people who are adversely affected by the crime the most. We may investigate that with Captain Wagner; [the show] gives you that layered intention of why they became police officers in the first place.”

Mostly, though, Elsbeth is just an old-school detective show with a twist. “It's a great crime thriller, and a funny, enjoyable ride. It’s a little bit of both.”

Elsbeth airs on CBS Thursdays at 10PM and Paramount+.