More Louis Canning on 'The Good Wife'? No Thanks.

On Sunday night’s new episode of The Good Wife, “All Tapped Out,” a lot of awesome stuff went down: Alicia Florrick snapped out of her funk and got back to kicking ass in the courtroom, Cary Agos discovered that he needs to start taking charge of his new law firm, and that pesky (and often confusing) National Security Agency wiretap storyline finally came to an end. I thought the day might never come! But there was one major plot development on Sunday night’s episode that I was not so thrilled about: Lockhart/Gardner’s merger with Louis Canning.

You see, Louis Canning, played by the talented Michael J. Fox, is without a doubt the worst (and most annoying) character on The Good Wife, and I do not relish the thought of having to deal with him for the rest of the season. And depending on where the writers are going with this latest development, I guess we may have to deal with him… for the rest of the series?! Oh jeez, I’m getting dizzy just thinking about it.

My issue isn’t with Fox’s acting — he does a great job making you despise Canning — my issue is with the character itself. I guess I just have a hard time believing that someone so despicable, so dishonest, and so childishly sneaky could actually exist in real life and still run a successful law firm. (I had a similar problem with Martha Plimpton’s recurring character Patti Nyholm, but thankfully, we haven’t been subjected to her shenanigans in a while.) Maybe I’m naïve, maybe there really are people out there like Canning — but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s an irritating little troll and every moment that he spends on my television screen is agony. Why is Canning so annoying? Let me count the ways...

He’s constantly trying to use his medical condition to his advantage.

Canning only brings up his medical condition when he feels like it might benefit him in some way. Canning’s go-to tactic for eliciting sympathy from a judge or a jury has become a running joke on the show — whenever he does it, the camera usually cuts to other characters rolling their eyes (and rightfully so). But if the characters are sick to death of Canning's schtick, imagine how sick of it the viewers are! Won't somebody please make it stop?

He’s a sneaky snake.

Canning is a RAT — he will do or say anything in order to win a case. Some may say that’s a good trait for a lawyer to have, but I vehemently disagree! How could you ever learn to trust a person like that? How could you ever develop a professional relationship with Canning knowing that, at any moment, he could be lying to your face? I mean, at one point during Sunday night’s episode, Diane referred to Canning as “the devil.” I think that says it all, really.

Somehow, his tricks always work.

This is probably my biggest problem with the Canning character: He’s always getting away with his ridiculous schemes, even when what he’s really up to is painfully obvious. In real life, I think people would see right through his crap. For example, remember when Canning kept stalling to keep Alicia from deposing one of his clients during the “Boom De Yah Da” episode last season? For days, Alicia would arrive for the deposition only to discover that Canning's client had conveniently cancelled at the last minute. Each time, Canning would cook up some terrible excuse. Of course, Alicia eventually caught on to what he was doing, but it took way too long. I just don’t think it’s very realistic.

So, now you know: I can't stand Louis Canning. Near the end of Sunday night’s episode when he assured Kalinda that he was not trying to amass partner votes in order to push Diane out of the firm, I didn’t believe him — and I hope Kalinda doesn’t, either! I suppose it’s possible that bringing the Canning character on full-time could stir up some interesting drama on the show, but I’m not convinced that it was a good idea just yet. Though, to be fair, I suppose I should give the writers more than just one episode to make their point. Who knows? Perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised.

Next Week: Alleged wife murderer and all-around super creep Colin Sweeney is back and he’s using Google Glass to try to envision Alicia naked!

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