Matthew Broderick‘s guest appearance on Carrie Preston‘s CBS series Elsbeth requires him to get physical.
In Us Weekly‘s exclusive clip from the Thursday, February 20, episode, Broderick’s character, Lawrence, challenges Preston’s Elsbeth to a fencing match.
“Do you understand the rules?” Lawrence asks before Elsbeth fires back, “Yes, they are not that hard.”
Lawrence gets two points on Elsbeth before she gets comfortable enough to score one. Elsbeth also finds time to poke holes in the mysterious death of a college admissions officer, which happened after the victim fenced with someone.
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“[These masks] are so easy to put on and take off, I wonder why Ethan didn’t take his off when he couldn’t breathe,” she notes. “Oh, look. There’s points on both sides — just like when Ethan’s body was found.”
According to the official synopsis, Thursday’s episode of Elsbeth has the titular character crossing paths with an independent educational consultant — played by Broderick — who promises an Ivy League future to “high-paying clients and their painfully average kids.” The case gets personal when Elsbeth and Teddy (Ben Levi Ross) question “how well she prepared him for the real world.”
Elsbeth’s nemesis Judge Milton Crawford (played by Preston’s real-life husband, Michael Emerson) is slated to return — in addition to Broderick’s real-life son. James Wilkie Broderick, whom Matthew, 62, shares with wife Sarah Jessica Parker, is sharing the screen with his dad for the first time on Elsbeth. In addition to James, 22, Matthew and Parker, 59, share 15-year-old twin daughters Tabitha Hodge and Marion Loretta Elwell.
Following in his famous parents’ footsteps, James is currently studying classics and acting at Brown University. He previously had a minor role in Apple TV+’s miniseries Lady in the Lake and is set to appear in the upcoming project Days Ending in Y.
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Elsbeth, which debuted in February 2024, is a spinoff series based on Preston’s character from The Good Wife and The Good Fight. Elsbeth Tascioni returned in her own show as an attorney who became a de facto detective who aids the NYPD in their investigations. The character’s quirky and unconventional methods lead her to make unique observations that help solve crimes.
Elsbeth, which premiered in 2024, also stars Wendell Pierce and Carra Patterson. The procedural setup of the show means each episode has new characters that need Elsbeth’s help — and many of them might look familiar. Jane Krakowski, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Blair Underwood, Keegan-Michael Key, Laura Benanti and Vanessa Williams are just some of the famous guests who’ve appeared on the show so far.
Elsbeth airs on CBS Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Paramount+.
