February 8th Episode of "The Good Wife" Features Return of Guest Star Michael J. Fox

Tuesday, February 8, 2011, CBS, 10 PM (ET): "Method Man," another well-written, clever episode of "The Good Wife," with guest star Michael J. Fox. Robert and Michelle King wrote the episode from a Keith Eisner story. Michael Zinberg directed guest star Fox, returning as the sharp but somewhat unprincipled lawyer opponent of the firm in a class action suit for women who have suffered miscarriages. When a judge rules that our favorite group of attorneys must join forces with Fox, playing Lewis Canny, the adversaries must attempt to be on the same side.

ENSEMBLE CAST EXCELLENT.

As always, the acting by the ensemble cast was superb and it appears that Christine Baranski will live to fight in court another day after all. Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick doesn't trust the cutthroat lawyer at all and says of him, "He's in the pocket of corporate interests. Believe me!"

A MOLE PLANTS SPYWARE (SPECtAPRO)

Fox does appear to be selling out the class action participants quite cheaply, asking for only a $2 million deal, when, at one point, the figure $85 million is being bandied about by Julianna Margulies' character in computer notes to Christine Baranski's character. The catch is that crack investigator Kalinda has discovered that spyware (Spectapro) has been planted on computers throughout the law firm. It is not known, initially, who the "mole" is, but Will, Julianna's boss and potential love interest, instructs the girls to play dirty and send messages back and forth that will lead them to the culprit, who turns out to be the African-American boss none of them liked. By show's end, he's been canned.

WILL CHARLES' ROMANCE

There is a sub-plot involving Will's (Josh Charles') current girlfriend, who says, "What's the point? I don't want this," to Alicia, as Will, once again, no-shows for a luncheon date. Alicia asks, "What do you want?" and gets the answer "I don't know." By the episode's end, Will, too, is seen ruminating, "I don't know what I want. I'm very good when I know what I want, but when I don't, I suck." However, the two lovers seem to have patched up their differences by episode's end.

PETER FLORRICK'S CAMPAIGN

There's a clever sub-plot involving the campaign of Peter Florrick ("Mr Big" from "Sex and the City," as played by Chris Noth). A rabid supporter of Peter's is putting ridiculous ads online, and Eli Gold cleverly puts a stop to the hilarity of the ads by telling the supporter, a high school music teacher, that he is to be working for the campaign and send all future posts to him. Somehow, we all know that the thrilled "little guy" is never going to see any of his work on YouTube from that point on, but he's too clueless to know he's been had. There's also a "Just Say Now: Amendment 31" movement to legalize marijuana and Peter remembers a fellow inmate, a rapper, who might do him some good with the youth vote, so that seems to be a future theme.

FOX IS OUT-FOXED in COURT

Michael J. Fox is out-foxed (pun intended) in this episode, in an amusing scene where he raises an objection to his own legal team in court and there is additional confusion over whether a document can be "privileged" and not privileged at one and the same time (Fox supposedly showed it to J & L Equity, the firm being sued).

Michael J. Fox's character of Lewis Canny articulates a thought that has been floating out there throughout the past 2 presidential campaigns, namely: "I think companies are paying too much for their mistakes. I think people are being paid too much." That, he says, was his motivation for attempting to more-or-less sell out his own clients, in asking for a far lower dollar amount than the company might be forced to pay in reparation. Earlier, his wife, Simone, whom Archie Panjabi (Kalinda) poses as a reporter to interview, in an attempt to gain additional ammunition for the firm, had told Kalinda that Lewis (Michael J. Fox) decided to become a crusading attorney for the wronged women because she had suffered a miscarriage and he truly believed in the cause. But, as one scripted line put it, "Once a corporate lawyer, always a corporate lawyer."