By CBS has been advertising its new “Matlock” series with cheery, folksy trailers not unlike those that ushered in “Elsbeth” last year and led many to ask the question “why are we getting a Matlock reboot”?
It certainly seemed as though these fish-out-of-water comedy promos were designed primarily for the few people who would remember the original Andy Griffith series and would be curious about this gender-swapped version starring Kathy Bates in what’s expected to be her final performance.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR “MATLOCK” PREMIERE
However, the premiere episode has revealed that this cheery procedural about a economically struggling widow and septuagenarian lawyer named Madeline ‘Matty’ Matlock returning to work isn’t what it appears.
Instead, she’s Madeline Kingston, a well-off wife and grandmother who intends to take no prisoners on her personal crusade to destroy the prestigious law firm she’s finagled her way into – a firm whose big pharma client sold the recalled-too-late opioids that killed her daughter.
Creator and showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman spoke to Deadline and explained why they decided to take this approach:
“I didn’t want to just do a gender-swapped version, that wasn’t interesting. So I started to think that maybe she is using the name Matlock. I gave myself sort of a challenge. I can continue to tell the audience they’re underestimating her but then they’re fooled at the end.
I knew I wanted her to have a spine of steel throughout the show, that it had real stakes, that there was something real and deep we could explore…. Why would a woman like that want to go back into the law firm? What could be deep and meaningful enough? Then the story unfolded. So I pitched it, from beginning to end.”
As a result, from the second episode, “you’re on the inside with her” and watching it from the perspective that she’s a spy, along with learning more about her backstory and what led to her adopting this plan.
Urman says Madeline Kingston is a “much more direct, much more driven, and a harder character than Matty Matlock” and we’ll see where her Matlock persona came from (the show already explains that she lifted the Matlock name from the old TV series).
Bates’ character also adopts technique from the “I, Claudius” playbook – having people deliberately underestimate her as a sweet simpleton with no real agenda and relatively ‘invisible’ in corporate culture. She uses that to her advantage, never really giving away what she is truly capable of.
Urban adds that this arc will be resolved by the end of the first season and won’t be dragged out.
An encore of the “Matlock” pilot will air October 10th with the second episode airing October 17th. “Matlock” will also be available on the Paramount+ service.
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