Matlock: Pilot

October 8, 2024 2:33 AM - Season 1, Episode 1

IMDB summarizes: "Follows Madeline Matlock as she rejoins the work force at a prestigious law firm, where she uses her wily tactics to win cases and expose wrong doing."

Today I learned that a reboot of Matlock starring Kathy Bates just premiered on CBS and is streaming on Paramount+ !

(For those who don't know about the eighties-nineties TV series, it starred TV stalwarts Andy Griffith and Dick van Dyke and ran for several years.)

I haven't yet watched it, but I suspect other MeFites will want to talk about it! More comments from me later, God willing.

posted by rabia.elizabeth (6 comments total)

Genuinely hope this is decent. I’m spending a lot of time with my parents, and one thing we can all agree on is cozy mysteries. We’re running out, and I’d be glad to see Kathy Bates in one.
posted by Countess Elena at 7:03 AM on October 8 [1 favorite]

I love a goofy cozy mystery show and I was immediately sold on this one while we were going through the new season premieres to decide what was worth keeping in the watch-list. I don't watch a lot of legal tv shows (haven't watched more than maybe a few episodes of the OG Matlock, and that was more "it just happened to be on the Hallmark murder channel in the wee hours while I was going through an insomniac period") so I can't comment on that aspect, but it definitely feels like it'll be fun.

Plus the pilot did its job: I'm now curious to see where it goes since I had suspicions throughout the episode and was like "I knew something was up!" when we reached the end.
posted by paisley sheep at 9:13 AM on October 8 [1 favorite]

Alan Sepinwall liked it well enough (the full RS review is paywalled now, but it was generally favorable) and iirc the AV Club liked it too. I probably won't sail the Seven Seas for it but I won't be sorry to check it out when I visit my mom over the holidays (almost guaranteed she'll be watching it), unlike some of the other insulting dreck she'll put on (I'm looking at you, Blue Bloods).
posted by Pedantzilla at 9:21 AM on October 8 [1 favorite]

Man, that feels like a marketing miss - I was aware that Kathy Bates was doing the usual marketing rounds, but I didn't know it was for Matlock. All the coverage felt like, I dunno, maybe some anniversary of Misery or other.
posted by Kyol at 2:52 PM on October 8

Hmm. I haven’t watched traditional-network series in many years and now I remember why. Did writers always use ongoing national tragedies as plot points for police procedurals? Perhaps so, but maybe I was oblivious when I was younger. Either that or Vince Gilligan and his crew have spoiled my appreciation for lighter weight fare. They knew how to reckon with tragedy.

Anyway, nice to see Kathy Bates and Beau Bridges again, but I probably won’t continue to watch.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 3:06 AM on October 9

I'm pretty uninterested generally about the existence of Matlock 2.0, but Kathy Bates is the shit and we should applaud any effort to get capable older women into leading roles. Hell, anything over 40 really; Hollywood continues to have massive inequities.

I don't love IP recycling like this, but I'm reminded of Queen Latifah as The Equalizer, and anything that gets people talking about how we don't have to always put white men in reboots of shows about white men, I'm on board with that.
posted by mcstayinskool at 7:24 AM on October 9 [4 favorites]