When the stunning pilot episode of Matlock revealed Madeline’s revenge mission and secret identification, viewers had been intrigued to observe the initially fascinating character’s growth. Whereas subsequent episodes maintained curiosity, viewers grew to become more and more impatient with the tempo at which the present dragged out the publicity of Madeline’s true identification and the decision of the present’s core thriller, as seen by the present’s steadily declining rankings.
Simply when it appeared like Matlock had reached some extent of utter artistic stagnation, Episode 17, “I Was That, Too,” delivered the payoff viewers had been ready for by bringing Madeline to the cusp of attaining justice and having Olympia uncover Madeline’s elaborate deception. Furthermore, the episode set the stage for a supposedly bombshell-laden season finale, which promised to settle household enterprise, figuratively and actually, by unleashing large adjustments to the present and the lives of its most important characters.
Nevertheless, the two-hour season finale promised rather more than it delivered. As an alternative of fully upending viewer expectations, the season finale offered underwhelming revelations and pointless subplots. The general impression is of a present that’s misplaced its unique supply of inspiration, as if the creators of Matlock did not chart an attention-grabbing artistic route for the present past its first season. Certainly, as an alternative of serving as a tantalizing precursor to the present’s upcoming second season, the first-season finale felt like the start of the tip.
The ‘Matlock’ Season Finale Options Three Weak Cliffhangers
Matlock
- Launch Date
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September 22, 2024
- Community
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CBS
Matlock started as a whodunit revenge thriller with collection protagonist Madeline Matlock, performed by Kathy Bates, going undercover on the company regulation agency Jacobson Moore to find which of the agency’s three companions — Julian, Olympia, and massive boss Senior — withheld paperwork associated to the opioid epidemic that took the lifetime of Madeline’s daughter. This extended cat-and-mouse dynamic between Madeline and her seemingly unknowing targets involves a head in Episode 17, when Madeline reveals to Olympia the existence of proof that supposedly implicates Julian, Olympia’s former husband and the daddy of her kids, because the responsible associate who withheld the paperwork.
By establishing Julian because the prime suspect in Episode 17, Matlock gave the impression to be establishing viewers for a grand train in misdirection within the season finale. It in any other case appeared too easy. As an alternative, Julian is certainly revealed to be the responsible associate within the season finale, after Olympia discovers the all-important Wellbrexa paperwork in Julian’s financial institution secure deposit field. Whereas this discovery results in a dramatically efficient scene by which Julian tearfully confesses his guilt to Olympia whereas pleading for her secrecy, this long-awaited reveal feels decidedly anti-climactic and arbitrary, as if Julian was chosen over the opposite suspects at random and out of comfort.
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In what looks as if the clearest proof of the present’s lack of conviction relating to resolving this central battle, the season finale additionally options two different cliffhangers of negligible artistic worth. Within the finale’s second cliffhanger, Jacobson Moore affiliate Billy discovers that his former girlfriend is pregnant together with his child. Nevertheless, whereas David and fellow affiliate Sarah have shaped a mildly agreeable comedic dynamic duo on Matlock, their outstanding look within the finale, by which Sarah tries her first prison case, highlights how purely symbolic the present’s case-of-the-week format has change into, to the purpose of being a distraction.
The finale’s third cliffhanger entails the looks of a mysterious stranger who claims to be the organic father of Madeline’s orphaned grandson, the precocious Alfie, who has lived with Madeline and her husband Edwin since Alfie’s mom’s overdose dying. The choice to finish the season finale with this subplot, which was scarcely referenced in earlier episodes and was greatest forgotten, appears emblematic of the overall sense of artistic desperation that permeates the season finale.
‘Matlock’ Has Turn out to be A lot Too Predictable
The pilot episode of Matlock elicited real pleasure with its stunning plot twist, exactly due to the thrilling prospects that had been subsequently left open to the present all through its first season and past. When Matlock was renewed by CBS for a second season after the airing of simply two episodes, this created the impression that the present’s creators had a transparent artistic imaginative and prescient for the present’s future over a number of seasons. Nevertheless, the first-season finale gives compelling proof that Matlock has fairly probably run out of surprises.
Waiting for the second season, the largest query is whether or not Julian’s emotional confession will persuade Olympia to destroy or cover the essential Wellbrexa paperwork to save lots of him from private {and professional} smash. Nevertheless, given Olympia’s anguished response to Julian’s seemingly heartfelt confession, the reply appears pretty apparent. With Julian claiming to have hidden the paperwork on the behest of his father, Senior, the season finale has laid the inspiration for a second-season dynamic by which Julian, Olympia, and ostensibly Madeline conspire with each other to carry down Senior, who’s now firmly established because the present’s main villain.
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Simply because the interpersonal relationships in Matlock present the simplest scenes within the season finale, this ought to be the main target of the second season. The most important change to the collection revealed within the season finale doesn’t contain the now wearisome Wellbrexa conspiracy however Madeline’s evolving relationship together with her law-firm colleagues and her authorized work. As an alternative of retiring to San Francisco together with her grandson and husband as initially deliberate after finishing her investigation, Madeline has found that she loves practising regulation a lot that she will be able to’t give up. In fact, practising regulation at Jacobson Moore might be difficult for Madeline if she intends to destroy the agency’s managing associate.
‘Matlock’ Faces an Unsure Future
Ever for the reason that pilot episode of Matlock attracted the most important collection premiere viewers for CBS in 5 years, with 7.74 million viewers for the unique airing, the present’s rankings have fallen constantly and sharply. The 2-hour season finale, consisting of the episodes “Methods of the Commerce — Half One” and “Methods of the Commerce — Half Two,” attracted 6.15 million viewers, solely the third time a Matlock episode has attracted greater than six million viewers in 2025.
Whereas Matlock continues to function a powerful showcase for the 76-year-old Kathy Bates’ spectacular appearing vary, the septuagenarian-themed collection has defied the legal guidelines of gravity in a tv universe ruled by the important thing 18-to-49 promoting demographic. With the glow of the present’s early second-season renewal now fading, it is onerous to say whether or not Matlock could have a 3rd season except the present can present a recent artistic spark that’s sorely missing from the season finale, which takes viewers on a round journey all through the short-lived Matlock universe solely to depart them in a spot that’s not very far faraway from the place the present started. Matlock is streaming on Paramount+.