Okay, TV fans. It is with great delight that I will reveal my favourite series currently on American television. It is (drum role, please!) Matlock, staring Academy Award winner, Kathy Bates. Bates is simply an outstanding actress, with myriad accomplishments on stage and screen. She received an Oscar for her performance as Annie Wilkes, an obsessed fan, in the 1990 thriller Misery, directed by Rob Reiner and based on a 1987 novel by Stephen King. In addition, Kathy has had Oscar-nominated roles in Primary Colors (1998), About Schmidt (2002) and Richard Jewell (2019).
But wait! That's not all! Kathy Bates has earned two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, as well as nominations for a Tony Award and two BAFTA Awards. Although she has made her mark on the silver screen, Kathy is also known for her substantial work on television. She received her first Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress for an appearance in the nineth season of Two and a Half Men (2012). She won her second Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for her portrayal of Delphine LaLaurie in American Horror Story: Coven (2013).
The 76-year-old Bates is now the star of Matlock, which does not have any direct connections to the Andy Griffith legal drama series of the same name, which ran for nine seasons on NBC and then ABC. Griffith's Matlock premiered in on NBC in 1985. Andy played the role of Ben Matlock, a folksy criminal defence attorney. In 1992, NBC cancelled Matlock in favour of "younger" programming. The network offered Griffith a "graceful exit six two-hour Matlock movies over the next three years." Instead, Andy negotiated with ABC to move the production of Matlock from Hollywood to Wilmington, North Carolina, a short plane ride from his home. ABC picked up the show for three more seasons, until 1995.
This new Matlock is not Andy Griffith's Matlock. It has some similarities but it is not exactly a reboot of the Griffith series, It has a much different premise. In the new series, Kathy Bates plays an attorney with an astute legal mind, but she is also a woman on a mission. A decade after her daughter Ellie's death from opioid addiction, Bates' Madeleine Kingston seeks answers as to how and why her daughter died.. She seeks justice. So, she goes undercover, so to speak, using the name Madeline "Matty" Matlock as her alias because Matlock was her late daughter Ellie's favourite show.
"I know there was some talk of creating this character as a granddaughter of the original Matlock - someone in her 30s or 40s, - so I'm incredibly fortunate that at 76, for for heaven's sake, I've been able to play this role," Bates told the Los Angeles Times in a recent phone call. Her role has been earning her rave reviews. According to Cristina Escobar on Roger Ebert.com, Bates' Matlock knows what people see when they look at her - if they look at her at all. She's invisible to many, underestimated by nearly everyone, deemed a harmless (and kind) old woman. She is some of those things, but she's also incredibly savvy, able to use those expectations to her advantage everywhere she goes. She can also laugh at herself, making the show eminently watchable."
Matty is a clever septuagenarian who claims she is reentering the legal world in order to support her young grandson after her late husband gambled away their savings. The truth is that Matty is actually quite wealthy, her husband of 49 years, Edwin Kingston (Sam Anderson), s very much alive, and her teen grandson Alfie (Aaron D. Harris) is architect of her master plan.
Matty manages to get hired by a prestigious New York law firm, Jacobson Moore. She simply marches into the boardroom and refuses to take no for an answer. Little do they know that she has an agenda. She is determined to prove that her new colleagues hid documents that could have taken opioids off the market, and prevented her daughter's death.
Olympia Lawrence, played by Skye P Marshall, a junior partner at Jackson Moore, becomes Matty's boss. Also on Olympia's team are junior associates Sarah (Leah Lewis) and Billy (David Del Rio). Olympia has a lot on her plate. Aside from her work commitment, she's a divorced mother of two, still technically working alongside her ex, Julian (Jason Ritter), and Julian's father, Senior (Beau Bridges).
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| Skye P. Marshall |
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| Jason Ritter |
Beau Bridges
The new Matlock is formatted in a-case-of-the-week style, a trait it shares with the original Matlock. Olympia's team defends a range of crimes, from murder to sexual harassment to wrongful imprisonment. Each case is resolved before the closing credits appear on the screen. The only issue that remains unresolved is the mystery surrounding the death of Matty's daughter.
Kathy Bates' return to network television was completely unexpected. In early 2023, when she was sent the pilot script for Matlock, she was actually planning to retire. It's a good thing that she didn't. By the way, fans, CBS has already renewed Matlock for a second season. It renewed the show after just two episodes.
SOURCES: Los Angeles Times, "'Matlock' star Kathy Bates is having way too much fun to retire," by Max Gao, November 22, 2024; TVLine (tvline.com), "CBS' Matlock Just Revealed Its Wild Not-a- Reboot Twist - Grade the Premiere, Get Scoop on What's Next," by Matt Webb Mitovich, September 22, 2024; Roger Ebert.com, "'Matlock' Remakes a Classic with Humor and Moral Force," by Cristoma Escobar, September 20, 2024; Collider (collider.com), "'Matlock' Review: Kathy Bates Commands the Screen in CBS's Surprisingly Solid Legal Drama," by Carly Lane, September 20, 2024; Wikipedia
- Joanne
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