Matlock (Reboot)

Review by AJ

Matlock is CBS’ latest legal drama, loosely a remake of an 80’s TV show of the same name. While other legal dramas often portray the lives of spry, young lawyers doing their thing, Matlock’s main draw is quite the opposite. It follows an intrepid geriatric lawyer who uses her senior citizen privilege and motherly warmth to investigate cases. That character, Madeline Matlock, is played by Academy Award-winning actress Kathy Bates. 

At this point, law dramas and police procedural have been explored in every angle unimaginable. Matlock’s main draw totally hinges on Bates’ stellar presence as a long-retired lawyer who joins a prestigious New York City law firm with a hidden motive. With her granny charm, she disarms her much younger, cynical colleagues. But the fun for audiences is knowing that, underneath it all, Matlock is much more calculating than meets the eye.  

Bates truly shows her class as an Oscar-winning veteran actress. Her stable of law firm colleagues perform well, indeed, but she brings an unspoken gravitas to every scene she’s in. Her performance perfectly balances humour, banter, and harrowing emotion. It has always been obvious for those of you familiar with Bates’ body of work – Misery, Dolores Claiborne, Titanic, American Horror Story –  but one can never praise her enough for the sense of ease she brings to her roles, however complex. She just knows how to deliver big emotions in such a nuanced way. 

As they are wont to do, legal drama isn’t complete without interpersonal drama between the lawyers. Like most office dramas, there are great dynamics between the team at the law firm. Admittedly, many of these characters feel so cookie-cutter you can almost see the mold mark: there’s the ambitious one, the cold genius one, the pacifier, the lackadaisical one – they literally just open a book of stock characters and check the boxes. The key lies in the execution, which involves an undercurrent of family and parent-child bond themes baked into the storylines. Matlock with her precocious grandson instantly wins you over, as are all the times she turns on the “harmless old lady” facade.

The plot itself is pretty formulaic though well executed. If you’ve seen a few legal dramas, you’ve kinda seen it all. The cases are not the most important factor, it’s what’s running parallel with the case of the week. Thankfully, the show is unexpectedly really good at pulling the rug from under you. Even if you can kinda guess how something’s gonna end up, you’ll still be in for some pleasant surprises. There is a big one that you have to look out for which will add a layer of intrigue best discovered on your own. 

With Bates in the lead and its premise, Matlock manages to set itself apart from other legal dramas on the air. It’s great to see the kind of heroine so rarely put front and centre in Hollywood, showing that – if given the right project – there is no reason older women cannot be the lead to their own shows. But more than that, the show really knows how to utilize her age and the social perception around people of that age to benefit the legal cases at hand. Sharply written with magnetic acting and intriguing themes, Matlock is a fun, richly layered show worth checking out.