Effectively, the decision is in. I’ve determined to stay with Matlock. It’s now been moved from the class of show-I’m-giving-a-chance to show-I’m-sticking-with. It’s a part of the common rotation from this level ahead. That shouldn’t come as a shock given how a lot I like community TV procedurals, however to be trustworthy, it took me a number of further weeks to utterly commit as a result of, regardless of every little thing I like concerning the present, there’s one thing about it that drives me loopy.
First, although, let’s speak about what makes Matlock price watching. That begins, after all, with Kathy Bates. The Oscar winner and 4 time nominee has been crushing every little thing she’s been in for many years, and Matlock is not any totally different. Right here, she performs an unassuming older lawyer named Matty who’s in a position to achieve the upperhand in negotiations as a result of nobody sees how laborious she’s taking part in. It’s a great position that enables her to bounce between tender and agency, leaning into totally different feelings relying on what the case requires.
The instances are sometimes very attention-grabbing too. Matty’s regulation agency has a wide range of legal professionals engaged on totally different sorts of instances; so, we’re in a position to watch her help with depositions and examine numerous authorized issues. Typically that includes going to court docket. Typically that includes visiting the houses of witnesses. Typically that simply includes brainstorming technique with different legal professionals and individuals who work on the regulation agency. It’s not very formulaic, at the very least in the case of episode construction; so, you get quite a lot of variance week to week, which is nice as a result of it permits the present to develop its numerous aspect characters.
And there are such a lot of enjoyable aspect characters, all of whom have their very own eccentricities and numerous sideplots. My favorites are positively the primary 12 months associates Matty works intently with. Billy and Sarah have nice chemistry collectively, as he’s extra of an empathetic individuals pleaser and he or she’s extra of a detail-oriented however tough across the edges sort particular person. Their exchanges are nice, they usually bounce off Matty properly, largely supporting one another quite than falling into the recurring community TV entice of being rivals. The extra senior legal professionals are nice too, most prominently an on-again-off-again married couple performed by Skye P Marshall and Jason Ritter, the managing associate performed by Beau Bridges and the executive supervisor Mrs. B, who’s performed by the memorable prosecutor from Bones.
So, yeah, I like all of that, however the issue is that’s not all of the present is. Most case of the week procedurals have some sort of overarching plot that produces long-term character improvement. Assume The Mentalist trying to find Crimson John or Sherlock coping with drug issues on Elementary. Effectively, Matlock’s fundamental conceit is that Matty isn’t actually a retired lawyer going again to work to financially help her grandson. She’s mendacity to everybody. She’s really going again to work to research the regulation agency as a result of her daughter died from a prescription capsule overdose, and he or she needs to carry individuals accountable.
As a fundamental concept for a present, it’s a intelligent replace on the unique (though we nonetheless need a theme). It permits Matty to research a second case always whereas she’s doing her day job. It helps incorporate her husband and grandson who’re often featured aspect characters, and it additionally offers us some intriguing scenes the place, as an viewers, we all know Matty isn’t being utterly truthful with these round her. It’s a robust premise that provides quite a lot of intriguing layers to the present, but it surely’s additionally sooooooooo critical.
Once I say Matlock is critical, I worry you’re not understanding simply how deathly critical it’s typically. It’s SERIOUS on a manner too frequent foundation, and it’s not simply Matty’s character that offers with heavy feelings both. Throughout a latest episode, we noticed Matty have a disaster of religion to the purpose the place she popped a bunch of tablets and threw stuff towards the wall. In the identical episode, we noticed a aspect character admit an affair, one other aspect character confront her father in regulation concerning the remedy of his son and a completely separate aspect character suggest marriage and get rejected, all whereas, you already know, an precise case of the week was occurring. For some community TV reveals, that’s like a complete season of heartbreak, and that was all crammed into one episode right here.
I’m not saying the present is dangerous at dealing with these moments. Kathy Bates is clearly an all-time terrific actor and is nice in these moments. Everybody else on the present can also be greater than able to dealing with the emotional weight. What I’m saying is the present doesn’t put within the work to earn that degree of emotion. Matlock is a community TV procedural, and it’s not practically as sharp and well-written as early seasons of Gray’s Anatomy and even lesser episodes of The Good Spouse. It spends 90 p.c of its runtime every week attempting to take care of a case of the week thriller, and whereas the subject material of these instances is commonly critical, the present normally treats it in a lighthearted community TV-ish type of manner.
A present can hit totally different emotional notes, however it might’t have a number of tones that don’t really feel like they belong in the identical universe. Matlock does that on a regular basis. One minute we’ll be in the course of an absurd plotline about how Matty must faux to have a sick pet as a way to achieve entry to the file room as a result of it’s run by a curmudgeonly administrator who loves animals. Then the subsequent minute we’re in the course of an extremely critical and prolonged argument between Matty and her husband over whether or not her use of their grandson in her schemes is inflicting long-term emotional injury to his persona.
I’m positive some individuals love watching Matlock get extremely critical and go for a giant second of emotional pathos, however to be trustworthy, that’s not what I’m watching the present for, neither is it what the present appears to be going for 90 p.c of the time. If you wish to have massive moments, it’s essential to earn them. You have to put in weeks, months and even years of character improvement and gradual construct earlier than paying all that work off later. Matlock doesn’t do this, nor do I believe it’s ever going to try this. It needs to give attention to its instances each week, however then when it offers us these moments of character improvement that procedurals like this have, it needs to go extraordinarily laborious and pay them off, as if we’re all watching a primary episode of This Is Us. We’re not.
I like Matlock rather a lot. I simply suppose it simply must both tone down the seriousness a little bit bit or put within the emotional prep work wanted to pay that seriousness off correctly… as a result of this in-between space of contrasting tones is not it.