Appointment Viewing: The shows you’ll always want to pencil in on your calendar and unpack in your group chat.
Scrolling through 12 streaming platforms but still can’t find something to watch? You’re not alone. Our television columnist Michel Ghanem, a.k.a. @tvscholar, watches over 160 seasons of television each year, and he is here for you. Perhaps you’re in the mood for a hidden gem that’s sitting undiscovered on a streamer or a series with mysteries so tantalizing we can’t stop thinking about them. It’s all about carving out time for the shows that are actually worth it — your “Appointment Viewing.” Fire up that group chat, because we’ve got some unpacking to do.
We offered a few spooky-season recommendations as summer turned to fall with FX’s Alien: Earth and Netflix’s Wayward. This month, we take advantage of the return of the broadcast-television season to recommend a standout procedural on CBS. Matlock stars Kathy Bates as a cunning lawyer who goes undercover at a law firm to investigate a case related to her daughter’s overdose. It may be the best legal drama since The Good Wife, and it’s back for a strong second season.
Like any good broadcast network drama, it took me a few episodes to actually get hooked on Matlock. The CBS series, which aired its first season last year, begins with Kathy Bates hacking her way into the law firm Jacobson Moore as Madeline “Matty” Matlock. She wants you to believe she’s a helpless old lady with a cute southern accent who ironically shares a name with the 1986 series that starred Andy Griffith. She somehow convinces the firm’s managing partner Howard “Senior” Markston (Beau Bridges) to hire her as a junior lawyer by claiming she’s widowed and struggling financially. There’s much more to that story.
As we learn early on in the first season, Matty’s real name is Madeline Kingston, and she’s infiltrating the firm to find out more information about a case regarding Wellbrexa, a pharmaceutical company selling opioids. She holds the company responsible for the overdose of her late daughter and believes there was an evidence cover-up. Contrary to what her colleagues think, Matty is also well off (she lives in a mansion), and she’s definitely more cunning than the helpless grandmother act she puts on at work. Her husband and grandson are totally in on the plan, too, helping her by impersonating others and hacking into computers. Their primary target: Olympia Lawrence (Skye P. Marshall), a glamorous and perceptive partner at Jacobson Moore who worked on the Wellbrexa case.
Before Matlock came around, Bates told her agents she wanted to enter semi-retirement. Now in her late 70s, she wasn’t being offered the most fruitful roles. I mean, she’s done it all: won an Oscar for Misery, played multiple scary characters on American Horror Story, and smoked lots of pot on both Disjointed and Six Feet Under. Bates previously starred in another legal drama back in 2011, Harry’s Law, which was cancelled after two seasons. She was not pleased with either the reception or how NBC handled that series: “What I really should do is not look at the Internet at all ’cause it makes me want to put a bullet in my brain,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “All [they] talk about is the blessed [18–49] demo this, demo that, and how the cancellation bear is gonna eat us.” The good news is that it feels like that younger demo is actually catching up with Matlock, which was developed by Jane the Virgin showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman. We’re here to marvel at Bates’s range and enjoy the comforts of a case-of-the-week drama that airs weekly and for more than a measly eight episodes.
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Unfortunately, the show has been caught in a bit of controversy as of late. The second season starts off strong, but it’s hard to stomach watching David Del Rio onscreen after his co-star Leah Lewis accused him of sexual assault on Paramount property. Sharing most scenes together, Lewis and Del Rio play Matty’s junior-lawyer colleagues and typically provide more lighthearted B-plots to the central arc, but Del Rio was escorted off the set and fired shortly after the allegation. CBS’s swift action feels refreshingly reassuring, despite viewers having to see him on the show for another ten episodes.
As a massive fan of The Good Wife and the extended Robert and Michelle King Universe, I have to admit that the actual cases on Matlock are nothing to write home about at first. But once those few episodes fly by — and trust me, they will zoom past you if you’re not paying too close attention — the writers begin to hone in on what really makes Matlock click. Not only do the court scenes finally become intertwined with the overall arc and the Wellbrexa investigation, but we begin to focus more on Matty and Olympia’s relationship.
This slow-burn friendship evolves into something much more complex as Olympia catches on to Matty’s suspicious behavior. Olympia’s focus is pulled in different directions by a contentious divorce with her ex, Julian (Jason Ritter), his nepo-baby relationship to Senior, and the demands of being a high-performing lawyer at the firm, but eventually she begins to pick up on Matty’s skulking around and goes toe-to-toe with her by the end of the season in some of my favorite television episodes of the last year.
By the second season, these two are in an all-out war, and their sparring is absolutely delicious to watch. Bates was Emmy nominated for her performance in season one, but I would like to begin my grassroots campaign to ensure Marshall gets her flowers next year.
Part of the joy of Matlock is the satisfaction of watching Matty run circles around her co-workers. Most episodes end with a montage sequence of how various innocuous moments add up to a secret plan she’s concocted with her husband to get one step closer to avenging her daughter. She’s always playing an elaborate chess game — until Olympia catches up to her. All that to say: Bates has still got it.
More evidence for the record:
- I wish the show would invest a bit more quirk into the opposing lawyers and judges — that’s what really brought the court cases on The Good Wife to life. The judge in the second season who can recite lines from the original Matlock series is what I’m talking about! More of that, please.
- There haven’t been too many splashy guest stars so far in the series, but Justina Machado does join the second season in a recurring role. We love her.
- Somehow, Matty gets both drunk (with Olympia) and stoned (with Senior) in the first season. She’s having the time of her life.
- Can you clock how many Telfar bags Olympia owns? My editor and I spotted an oxblood, a navy, and a dark-green bag in the first season alone. The second season premiere features a gorgeous teal version that gets a nice close-up shot. Olympia’s suits are always spot-on and well tailored, too.
- Also returning to broadcast this fall: High Potential is another above-average procedural on ABC, and Elsbeth is a fun time, too. Grey’s Anatomy just aired its 450th episode. 9-1-1 is going to space. Rest in peace, Doctor Odyssey, we miss you.
New episodes of Matlock air Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
