Note: This story contains spoilers from “Matlock” Episode 1.
“Matlock” promised to be unlike any broadcast reboot we’ve seen before from the star, but that didn’t stop the CBS drama’s premiere episode twist from feeling any less shocking.
The series wasted no time to show how Madeline “Matty” Matlock (Kathy Bates) uses the societal tendency to overlook older women to her advantage, as she sleuthed her way into a job at a prestigious law firm in an effort to rebuild her career as a lawyer after decades away from the field. Throughout the premiere, Matty introduced herself to her reluctant new colleagues as a down-on-her-luck former attorney and widow who’s forced to return to the workforce as she is in need of making money so she can provide for her grandson, whom she’s raising after her daughter’s death a few year’s back.
The show also established its meta-connection to the original “Matlock” early, with Matty noting the “coincidence” of her last name in connection to the character that led the 1986 classic played by Andy Griffith.
But all that was turned on its head in the final moments of the finale, when viewers saw Matty stepping into a town car, putting on a large wedding ring on her finger and going home to a fancy New York City brownstone. Turns out Madeline Kingston (her real name) is at the law firm in search of justice, hoping to learn who in the law firm helped hide evidence in an opioid case that led to many deaths, including her daughter’s from a drug overdose.
“The writer challenge I gave myself with ‘Matlock’ was to create this character who is constantly telling others, and the audience, that they’re underestimating her. [But] underestimate her at your own risk. She’s got more going on than you think,” series creator Jennie Snyder Urman told TheWrap of the show’s surprise central mystery.
Matty’s connection to the original “Matlock” also unveiled another layer, as her husband and grandson revealed how the original series was Matty’s daughter’s favorite show growing up. It was she who inspired Matty to take on the pseudonym to hide her tracks from her new colleagues.
Given her prior work on “Jane the Virgin,” which famously tackled humor with telenovela-level dramatics, it’s not surprising that the meta-reboot aspect of “Matlock” was there from the first pitch Urman made to CBS.
“When I was trying to see if this would be a project I would take on, I took a walk and the take that you saw kind of came to me,” she said. “It was always built into the premise and into the character.”
Matty’s secret now adds a new layer of tension to the proceedings of this already tense law procedural. And Urman teased that while the growing friendship between Matty and Olympia (Sky P. Marshall) is among the central relationships on the show, the tension of the looming secret coming to light will keep the savvy titular lawyer on her toes.
“Once you finish this (undercover mission), she’s not going to still be your friend. You’ve been lying the show time,” Urman said. “That emotion is something she did not expect to have, or a calculation she made before she started this.”
As for working with Bates, an Oscar winner for “Misery” and Emmy winner for “American Horror Story,” the showrunner recalled having her first meeting with the Hollywood legend and how it felt to have her sign on to the project.
“I pitched [the show] with her in mind … it was a real gift when they it to Kathy and she wanted to meet. I was so nervous,” she said. “I went and she just said, ‘I wouldn’t change a word Jennie…’ Then I exhaled and we just talked about character.
“She took away all of my nerves [about the show],” she added.
“Matlock” will release Episode 2 on Thursday, Oct. 17. Episodes are also available to stream on Paramount+.
