With only three episodes of Matlock to go on the 2025 TV schedule - one of which is April 17th’s two-part finale teased by Jason Ritter- there's a lot of ground to cover for Paramount+ subscription holders that may be a bit behind. That’s a sprint that Ms. Kathy Bates herself might relate to, as her story about the biggest challenge to making an episode of Matlock is something that Aaron Sorkin vets could probably identify with.
In an appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show, the award-winning lead of showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman’s radical reboot came clean about how “walk and talk” scenes are kind of a sworn nemesis. Or rather, here’s how Kathy Bates described this scenario, in her own words:
They're the bane of my existence. Where you have to learn dialogue and then you have to walk and talk really fast at the same time.
While I haven’t exactly counted the times that Matlock has shown its titular double agent roaming the halls of Jacobson Moore to discuss a case, I have a feeling that the number would surely surprise me. As we’ve seen 15 of the 18 episodes making up Season 1, that’s a lot of legal wrangling to parse through.
On the plus side, these offices do look large enough to allow such conversations to take place on a regular basis. Which is good, as Matlock's early Season 2 renewal will be allowed to lean more into this hallowed tradition of serious TV business.
Luckily, as Bates shared in her continuing remarks, it apparently isn’t the walking that bothers her. In fact, here’s how Matlock’s intrepid lead sees the physical side of things:
It sounds really easy, but when David [Del Rio] and I first did it in the pilot - you know, I've lost a lot of weight, which is great, I've lost like 100 pounds - so I'm walking and walking and walking and walking. That part's good.
A diagnosed Type 2 diabetic, Ms. Bates’ recent recollection on her weight loss invoked tales of when the physicality of past roles left her exhausted. So knowing that Misery’s Academy Award winning legend is physically up for the challenge could be counted as a vindication for her efforts.
However, in Kathy Bates’ final piece to this puzzle, she shared why the “talk” in “walk and talk” is such a daunting task - while also revealing how co-stars like David Del Rio help her along:
But the brain is still old. So I really have to depend on David, he's so great to work with and he's on it. So, he helps me get the confidence to do it. And if we mess up we just stop right in the middle, and then we back up and we keep going.
It’s surprising that this ensemble cast can walk all of those twists and turns in smart business attire, but then again, that is part of an actor’s process, isn’t it?
We’ll see who’s left standing on the way to Matlock's much-hyped Season 1 finale, as Kathy Bates and her co-stars return this Thursday, at 9 PM ET on CBS, to walk and talk in “The Johnson Case.”
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