One of the most exciting new shows of the Fall 2024 season has got to be CBS‘s Matlock. Instead of being a simple reboot of Andy Griffith‘s cozy ’80s and ’90s procedural, showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman has crafted a puzzle box show full of sharp surprises and challenging themes. Oscar-winner Kathy Bates stars as Madeline “Matty” Matlock, a sweet grandma with a Southern drawl determined to restart her career as an attorney at a major New York corporate law firm Jacobson & Moore. She carries Werthers originals in her coat pocket and cracks jokes about her last name. However, as the end of Matlock’s very first episode reveals, Matty Matlock is a shrewdly constructed act.
**Spoilers for Matlock Episode 1, which aired as a “Sneak Peak” on CBS on Sunday, September 22, and will air as an encore tonight, Thursday, October 10; you can also stream it on Paramount+**
In the final moments of Matlock Episode 1, we learn Matty Matlock is actually Madeline Kingston. She is pretending to be a doddering widow in order to infiltrate Jacobson & Moore. Matty believes that one of three lawyers there — Senior (Beau Bridges), Julian (Jason Ritter), or Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) — is solely responsible for burying incriminating documents that should have taken opioids off the streets years ago. Madeline’s daughter died of an opioid overdose and she blames the mystery villain at Jacobson & Moore for her child’s death.
When Decider caught up with Matlock stars Jason Ritter and Skye P. Marshall after the show’s panel at Summer 2024 TCA, they revealed that even they didn’t know if either of their characters was guilty.
“Well, that’s the that’s the fun part about working with Jennie Snyder Urman. She won’t tell us anything. So, yeah, I don’t know it’s like not wanting to play it or not wanting us to anticipate anything or just not wanting us to leak anything, but she won’t tell us anything,” Skye P. Marshall said, joking that the situation had made her “like a journalist going around set” hunting for clues.
“But I will say, as the episodes go on, there’s progress made,” Jason Ritter said. “You know, it’s not like one of these things where you’ll get one clue at the end of Season 1. We definitely know more now in this episode that we are shooting than we did.”
At the time of our conversation — July 2024 — Marshall and Ritter were in the middle of shooting Matlock Season 1 Episode 12. They had already banked the show’s upcoming Christmas episode, but didn’t seem to know if either of them had been revealed as the shady attorney in question.
“I think that’s what makes Matlock so fun is that only the audience is in on Matlock’s secrets,” Marshall said, teasing it would be a “rollercoaster ride.”
“Trust me, it’s not always going in her favor. So that raises the stakes and keeps you at the end of your seat. And we are oblivious to all of it,” she said. “So I’ll be hanging off the edge of my couch with the rest of the audience, figuring out: What is she up to?”
As Matty masquerades as Matlock to gain access to Jacobson & Moore’s secrets, she has to endure the dismissive behavior of her new boss, Olympia, and the other partners, like Julian. The irony on set, of course, is the fact that a legend like Kathy Bates is probably the last person another actor would want to belittle.
“Even though for us, she is this iconic leader of our show, she only sees herself as one of the team players,” Marshall said. “And so with that energy, it completely disarms all that B.S. that comes with working with an icon.”
“Of course, we’re also like, ‘My God, it’s Kathy Bates.’ That took like four episodes for me to get [rid of] that voice in my head, the ‘OMG.’ And then I got to play it cool.”
“The hardest part for me is not even when I have to be dismissive, but if I ever have to be like short with her,” Ritter said. “You know, there’s always a part of me after a scene that wants to come back, you’re like, ‘I just — I’m not — I would never — just say that,‘ you know?”
Another aspect that defines this new Matlock is how the characters’ personal lives bleed naturally into their professional ones. We know from the very first episode that Julian and Olympia are going through a divorce. While they do nag at each other, there’s also an impressive amount of maturity on display in how these two co-workers attempt to co-parent, hinting at how they could have easily been attracted to each other in the first place.
“One of the great things about Jennie’s writing is that all the characters are so fleshed out,” Ritter said, revealing that audiences will slowly get to learn more and more about Julian and Olympia’s history. “So there’s there’s a lot going on and I’m excited for people to sort of peel back the layers of all these characters and to get to know us better.”
Marshall then jumped in to express how refreshing she found the couple. “If you think about relationships where both husband and wife are really focused, ambitious individuals, like how do you balance that relationship when you have such strong goals and dreams and ambitions?”
“You know, we’re used to the woman having to tap out to go and stay home to raise the kids,” she said. “But one of the characteristics of Julian that made Olympia love him so much is that he always provided space for both of them to work and be a family. But you can only do that for so long.”
In real life, both Matlock stars are partnered off with two fellow high-profile television actors. Marshall recently wed FBI: Most Wanted star Edwin Hodge, while Ritter has been married to Yellowjackets star Melanie Lynskey since 2020. When Decider floated the idea of their spouses guest-starring on Matlock in a potential crossover, Marshall lit up.
“I would absolutely love that!” Marshall said. “If [FBI: Most Wanted showrunner] Dick Wolf wants to let us into his universe or loan one of his members into ours? Because we’re both based in New York City. You know, I don’t know.”
Decider joked that Lynskey’s Yellowjackets character probably needs a lawyer after, spoiler, actually committing murder and Ritter laughed. “She might need a lawyer.”
And Kathy Bates and [FBI: Most Wanted star] Dylan McDermott know each other from their American Horror Story universe!” Marshall continued. “Like you never know.”
“That’s true,” Ritter said.
“I think feds need lawyers, too,” Marshall said. “Yeah.”
“And murderers need lawyers sometimes,” Ritter said.
Of course, we could learn by the end of Matlock Season 1 that both Olympia and Julian need lawyers, too. Everyone needs a lawyer!
Matlock Season 1 Episode 1 “Pilot” encores tonight at 9 PM ET in the show’s official timeslot. Matlock Season 1 Episode 2 “Rome, In a Day” will premiere at 9 PM ET on Thursday, October 17.