Spoilers ahead for the Valentine's Day episode of Elsbeth Season 2, called "Tiny Town" and available streaming now with a Paramount+ subscription.
Elsbeth is the place to be in the 2025 TV schedule to find celebrities in guest star roles, often playing murderers with entertainingly bizarre motives. Season 2 started out strong with Nathan Lane as a murderous opera lover, and his former Producers co-star Matthew Broderick is on the way next. While I'm hyped for Broderick as a Broadway fan after speaking with the show's costume designer, I can't help but hope for more of Ioan Gruffudd after "Tiny Town" and his introduction as a dreamy musician/firefighter from Scotland to woo Carrie Preston's character..
In the Valentine's Day episode, Gruffudd's Angus was the unlikely witness to a murder from Scotland via a video installation transmitting live video between NYC and his – you guessed it – tiny town thousands of miles away. He quickly managed to charm Elsbeth, complimenting her brightly-colored wardrobe, flirting via cell phone, and having his own music available. And since celebrity guest stars on the CBS show tend play murderers, I was paranoid throughout the episode that a reveal was coming that Angus was a bad guy.
Instead, the reveal was much cuter, as he traveled those thousands of miles to meet Elsbeth in New York City and explain that music isn't his main source of income. No, he's a firefighter, continuing Elsbeth's streak of catching the eye of fire first responders. He's no murderer – he's just a dreamy musician/firefighter who traveled from Scotland to celebrate Valentine's Day. Alas, Angus lives an ocean away from the leading lady, so this isn't the beginning of a full-time, in-person romance for Elsbeth, but I can always hope to see Gruffudd back as the character, right?
My hopes are certainly high after speaking with Elsbeth costume designer Dan Lawson recently at SCAD TVfest in Atlanta. After putting together Carrie Preston's Breakfast at Tiffany's look back in the fall, Lawson chatted with me on the TVfest red carpet about what to expect with the show's return in 2025:
It's a great season, and the first half was really fun, really terrific, but the second half of the season is even more Elsbethian, if you will. It's wonderful. The writers do such a good job of every week, creating this unique world that we go into and investigate, and it's so fun to be able to do that and sort of grow with the show. But the second half of the second season, is fantastic.
A big part of that "unique world" is of course the rotating cast of famous guest stars who will deliver killer performances, with Season 2 standouts including The Conners star Laurie Metcalf as a procedural star-turned-murderer, Pamela Adlon as a chef who's not afraid to kill for her career, and Eric McCormack in a much more chilling role than his work on Will & Grace. Dan Lawson went on to tease some more upcoming stars:
We have such wonderful stars coming in, guest stars on the show. Tracy Ullman, Mary Louise Parker. I'm telling you, so many amazing guest stars. Alyssa Milano? Oh my god! We have such amazing stars coming in.
I had to shout out Nathan Lane as the first guest killer of Season 2, especially since a former co-star of his is on the way in the not too distant future. Regarding Lane, who previously played another character in the world of Elsbeth Tascioni, the costume designer said:
How lucky was that? We got him, and it's interesting because he was in The Good Wife. He was from that world. We're very careful about who can play a different character from those shows. It can't be too big of a part that they had before, so we were very lucky that he was nice enough to do it. And then Matthew Broderick's going to be on it!
News had broken about Broderick coming on board Elsbeth shortly before I spoke with Dan Lawson, and while it's a bit of a bummer that he and Alan Ruck as his former Ferris Bueller's Day Off co-star were in different episodes of early 2025, I was thrilled that Elsbeth Season 2 landed both stars who originated the lead roles of Broadway's Producers before reprising the roles in the film version. When I admitted as much, the costume designer shared:
I'm telling you, he's a honey. All of these guests stars who come in... I mean, it's got to be so scary to step into a world that you don't know the crew, you don't know, you don't know, you don't know. And they come in and they are so professional, so talented, so warm, so eager to do a great job and to embrace the feeling of the show and how we shoot the show. We're so lucky.
While Broderick won't share an episode with his fellow Producers or Ferris Bueller alums in Season 2, his episode will be a family affair. His son, James Wilkie Broderick, will also appear as a guest star, with the duo playing Lawrence Grey and Carl. According to the episode description from CBS, the case kicks off with the death of a college admissions officer, while Elsbeth quite literally ends up fencing with Matthew Broderick's character.
Called "Foiled Again" and airing on Thursday, February 20 in Elsbeth's usual 10 p.m. ET time slot on CBS, the episode will also feature the return of Carrie Preston's real-life husband Michael Emerson. Check out the promo below:
Keep tuning in to CBS on Thursdays following Matlock in the wake of Kathy Bates' big award for more of Elsbeth Tascioni. If you've missed any episodes so far, the full first season and all of Season 2 so far can be found streaming on Paramount+. If you, like me, are a Broadway fan excited about Matthew Broderick joining Elsbeth in the same season that featured Nathan Lane... well, I wouldn't count on his character bursting into song, but perhaps wielding a deadly weapon!
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