Who are the best (or should I say worst?) real villains in movies and TV shows set in modern times? The ones everyone thinks are terrible and easy to root for? In my view, the Sackler family, their supporters, and their competitors are on the run. The profiteers of the opioid epidemic have had a hand in hundreds of thousands of deaths in the United States. And with shows like Netflix’s The Fall of the House of Usher and now CBS’ Matlock, they are being exposed for the truly destructive force they are.
“Matlock” uses this premise to great effect. Kathy Bates uses her immense powers as the titular Madeline “Mattie” Matlock, this time with a hidden (and righteous) agenda. 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 almost everyone, and viewed as a harmless (and kind) old woman. She’s some of those things, but she’s also incredibly clever and can use those expectations to her advantage everywhere she goes. She can also laugh at herself, which makes the show eminently watchable.
Now, I don’t want to mislead you – this is a CBS legal drama with all the trappings that go with it. In each episode, we discuss Matlock’s personality and catch up with the supporting characters. The repetition gets annoying if you watch the show in one go, but if you watch it in weekly episodes as it was intended, it’s less annoying and just part of the formula.
And a twist (which I won’t give away here) revealed at the end of the pilot works. It exposes the artificiality of some legal dramas without straying from the source material. And while the entire scenario is weighty, there’s plenty of room for Bates to have fun along the way, solving crimes while making jokes about being broke and winning over nearly everyone she meets with her folksy charm.
It helps that she’s surrounded by a diverse cast of lawyers who know exactly what show they’re on. Partner Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) is a strong counterpart in the workplace and a potential ally for Matlock. She has inside access but knows that as a black woman in the legal profession, she’ll always be an outsider. Matlock’s two colleagues, Billy (David Del Rio) and Sarah (Leah Lewis), have fun with it. They’re nerds who can’t match Mattie’s smarts, but they can match her charm. They also happen to be tech savvy, using the Internet in ways that amaze the septuagenarian. Now you can get the cross-generational jokes going (hey, they’re repeated for a reason).
Still, the heart of the show lies in its exploration of the opioid epidemic, and that’s where it surprises. Bates’ Mattie and the show’s creators never let up (at least not in the six episodes provided to critics) when it comes to portraying people battling addiction as people deserving of compassion. At one point, they even use similar language, referring to a woman facing addiction as “a person deserving of dignity and respect.”
Along the way, Mattie sheds a lot of wisdom on the subject, making the show a powerful tool for countering some of society’s most unkind assumptions about addiction. I’m not saying the show never gets didactic, but rarely does. And when it does, it’s easily forgiven, because showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman of the phenomenal “Jane the Virgin” (and her vessel Mattie) clearly have their hearts in the right place.
That seriousness, combined with Bates’ performance and the strong and consistent use of humor, make the series worth watching. Matlock isn’t exactly a nostalgic TV drama, but it does offer the comfort of solving at least one complex problem in 42 minutes. That it’s funny and emotional along the way only adds to its charm, especially as the tension builds. By playing with our expectations of a recognizable character like Matlock, CBS honors the original while creating something entirely new.
Six episodes were screened for review. Premiered on CBS on Sunday, September 22nd.
