Well, the verdict is in. I’ve decided to stick with Matlock. It’s now been moved from the category of show-I’m-giving-a-chance to show-I’m-sticking-with. It’s part of the regular rotation from this point forward. That shouldn’t come as a surprise given how much I love network TV procedurals, but to be honest, it took me a few extra weeks to completely commit because, despite everything I love about the show, there’s something about it that drives me crazy.
First, though, let’s talk about what makes Matlock worth watching. That starts, of course, with Kathy Bates. The Oscar winner and four time nominee has been crushing everything she’s been in for decades, and Matlock is no different. Here, she plays an unassuming older lawyer named Matty who’s able to gain the upperhand in negotiations because no one sees how hard she’s playing. It’s a good role that allows her to bounce between soft and firm, leaning into different emotions depending on what the case calls for.
The cases are often very interesting too. Matty’s law firm has a variety of lawyers working on different kinds of cases; so, we’re able to watch her assist with depositions and investigate various legal matters. Sometimes that involves going to court. Sometimes that involves visiting the homes of witnesses. Sometimes that just involves brainstorming strategy with other lawyers and people who work at the law firm. It’s not very formulaic, at least when it comes to episode structure; so, you get a lot of variance week to week, which is great because it allows the show to develop its various side characters.
And there are so many fun side characters, all of whom have their own eccentricities and various sideplots. My favorites are definitely the first year associates Matty works closely with. Billy and Sarah have great chemistry together, as he’s more of an empathetic people pleaser and she’s more of a detail-oriented but rough around the edges type person. Their exchanges are great, and they bounce off Matty well, mostly supporting each other rather than falling into the recurring network TV trap of being rivals. The more senior lawyers are great too, most prominently an on-again-off-again married couple played by Skye P Marshall and Jason Ritter, the managing partner played by Beau Bridges and the administrative manager Mrs. B, who is played by the memorable prosecutor from Bones.
So, yeah, I love all of that, but the problem is that’s not all the show is. Most case of the week procedurals have some kind of overarching plot that produces long-term character development. Think The Mentalist hunting for Red John or Sherlock dealing with drug problems on Elementary. Well, Matlock’s basic conceit is that Matty isn’t really a retired lawyer going back to work to financially support her grandson. She’s lying to everyone. She’s actually going back to work to investigate the law firm because her daughter died from a prescription pill overdose, and she wants to hold people responsible.
As a basic idea for a show, it’s a clever update on the original (although we still want a theme). It allows Matty to investigate a second case at all times while she’s doing her day job. It helps incorporate her husband and grandson who are regularly featured side characters, and it also gives us some intriguing scenes where, as an audience, we know Matty isn’t being completely truthful with those around her. It’s a strong premise that adds a lot of intriguing layers to the show, but it’s also sooooooooo serious.
When I say Matlock is serious, I fear you’re not understanding just how deathly serious it is sometimes. It is SERIOUS on a way too frequent basis, and it’s not just Matty’s character that deals with heavy emotions either. During a recent episode, we saw Matty have a crisis of faith to the point where she popped a bunch of pills and threw stuff against the wall. In the same episode, we saw a side character admit an affair, another side character confront her father in law about the treatment of his son and a totally separate side character propose marriage and get rejected, all while, you know, an actual case of the week was happening. For some network TV shows, that’s like an entire season of heartbreak, and that was all crammed into one episode here.
I’m not saying the show is bad at handling these moments. Kathy Bates is obviously an all-time terrific actor and is great in these moments. Everyone else on the show is also more than capable of handling the emotional weight. What I’m saying is the show doesn’t put in the work to earn that level of emotion. Matlock is a network TV procedural, and it’s not nearly as sharp and well-written as early seasons of Grey’s Anatomy or even lesser episodes of The Good Wife. It spends 90 percent of its runtime each week trying to deal with a case of the week mystery, and while the subject matter of those cases is often serious, the show usually treats it in a lighthearted network TV-ish sort of way.
A show can hit different emotional notes, but it can’t have multiple tones that don’t feel like they belong in the same universe. Matlock does that all the time. One minute we’ll be in the middle of an absurd plotline about how Matty needs to pretend to have a sick pet in order to gain access to the file room because it’s run by a curmudgeonly administrator who loves animals. Then the next minute we’re in the middle of an incredibly serious and lengthy argument between Matty and her husband over whether her use of their grandson in her schemes is causing long-term emotional damage to his personality.
I’m sure some people love watching Matlock get incredibly serious and go for a big moment of emotional pathos, but to be honest, that’s not what I’m watching the show for, nor is it what the show seems to be going for 90 percent of the time. If you want to have big moments, you need to earn them. You need to put in weeks, months or even years of character development and slow build before paying all that work off later. Matlock doesn’t do that, nor do I think it’s ever going to do that. It wants to focus on its cases every week, but then when it gives us those moments of character development that procedurals like this have, it wants to go extremely hard and pay them off, as if we’re all watching a prime episode of This Is Us. We’re not.
I like Matlock a lot. I just think it just needs to either tone down the seriousness a little bit or put in the emotional prep work needed to pay that seriousness off properly... because this in-between area of contrasting tones isn't it.
