Matlock Anchors a TV Preview for Fall
A cozy courtroom procedural with loads of humor and charm, and starring Kathy Bates? I’m all in. Add intergenerational dynamics and an underpinning quest for goodness and justice, and you have a show well worth watching. Millions of viewers and critics agree—Matlock is one of the most-watched and critically acclaimed shows on network TV.
When Madeline “Matty” Matlock (Bates) walks into the august halls of the Jacobson &Moore law firm, viewers are already on to her. She has to be more than the sweet old woman whose husband left her penniless. Right?
As viewers discover at the end of the first episode, there is more to Matty than meets the eye. The retired attorney has a secret agenda for working at the law firm, which I won't give away here, but it fuels the show for the entire season.
As Matty infiltrates the firm using her folksy Southern charm and brilliant legal mind, she gets to know her coworkers, including the hard-driving boss Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) and Olympia’s affable ex-husband, Julian (Jason Ritter). Those two waver between love for each other and their children and their competition to score the firm’s next partnership.
At first, Matty and Olympia’s dynamic is lopsided, with Olympia barely tolerating the “junior” attorney she never wanted to hire, but she begins to respect Matty’s clever mind and imaginative ways of unlocking clues and getting suspects and witnesses to talk. The two begin to form a bond, which is inconvenient for Matty. Their friendship is the heartbeat of the show, and the two actresses give riveting performances.
Half case-of-the-week procedural and half ongoing mystery, Matlock tackles complex legal issues, including the opioid crisis, environmental causes, and human trafficking. Because Olympia’s team takes on pro bono cases, mercy for the most marginalized in society is a theme throughout. Christian viewers will appreciate the way the show explores justice for the least of these.
Rounding out the cast are Matty’s truly junior office mates, Billy (David Del Rio) and Sarah (Leah Lewis). Billy is aw-shucks engaging, and Sarah, though she has a spiky shell, is likable once you get to know her. Throughout the season, Billy and Sarah rely on Matty’s winsome wisdom, and the three become a solid team.
Though there are plenty of humorous hijinks that make it a reliable comfort watch, Matlock invites some serious questions about the nature of justice, loyalty, and friendship. Is it OK to lie to people to expose their wrongdoing? In other words, do the ends justify the means? That’s the big question at the core of Matlock, and I for one can’t wait to find out how this endearing cast figures out all of its layers in season two. (TV-14, CBS, Paramount +, Prime Video)
Gold & Greed: The Hunt for Fenn’s Treasure
Reviewed by Sam Gutierrez
In 2010, Forest Fenn, an 80-year-old eccentric millionaire, hid a chest full of treasure worth over $1 million somewhere in the Rocky Mountains north of Santa Fe, N.M. In his memoir The Thrill of the Chase, Fenn published a 24-line poem containing nine clues to the treasure’s location.
This fascinating three-episode show on Netflix tells the stories of four different people who got caught up in “the thrill of the chase.” These treasure hunters describe how they deciphered the clues in Fenn’s poem and went searching for what they believed was an “X marks the spot” location. It’s a gripping look at our human lust for gold and the greed that drives it. (Netflix; rated TV-MA for language.)
Reviewed by Lorilee Craker
Based on mystery novels by Canadian author L.R. Wright, Murder in a Small Town portrays the quaint but strangely homicide-ridden harbor town of Gibsons, B.C., and its stoic and offbeat chief of police, Karl Alberg (Rossif Sutherland).
Alberg has fled the big city for the supposedly slower pace of Gibsons. Unfortunately for him and the victims, people regularly turn up dead. Often it's Alberg’s uncanny eye for a detail missed by 99% of other detectives that solves the case.
Though it has been compared to Murder, She Wrote and Sullivan’s Crossing, Murder in a Small Town is not as cozy as the first and not as romantic as the second. Because it appears on network TV, things don’t devolve into total depravity, but it’s still not as charming as I wanted it to be. Maybe next season. (Fox, Hulu, StackTV, and other streaming platforms; rated TV-14 for violence, mild language.)
Titanic: The Digital Resurrection
Reviewed by Sam Gutierrez
In Titanic: The Digital Resurrection, a team of explorers uses high-resolution cameras attached to remote-controlled submarines to take 715,000 sonar images of the sunken Titanic to create a high-resolution 3D digital recreation of the ship.
As the three expert hosts survey the entire site, projected on gigantic screens, they find evidence that either backs up or disproves eyewitness accounts of what happened the night of April 15, 1912, when the unsinkable Titanic sank.
For Christian audiences, the greatest takeaway might be that every day is a precious gift that can be lived with the full assurance in God’s love while never knowing what tomorrow holds. (Disney+; rated TV-14)
Reviewed by Lorilee Craker
Medical dramas are a dime a dozen, but Doc hooked me from the first episode and never let up over its 10-episode first season.
The premise is based on a true story: Dr. Amy Larsen (played by a marvelous Molly Parker) loses eight years of her life when a car crash results in her having retrograde amnesia.
As Larsen rebuilds her life and career, now shadowing the very lowlings she once belittled, she grows in humility and begins to pick up the pieces one by one.
With grief, grace, and forgiveness as themes of this artfully acted and written drama, Doc is a worthy exploration of healing in the halls of medicine. (Fox, Hulu, GlobalTV, and StackTV; rated TV-14 for blood, trauma, and preludes to sexual situations.)
The Lowdown
Raspberry Wars: Born into a family in a small Dutch Michigan town in the early 1950s and raised by his religious grandmother, Sherwood De Visser navigates bullying and learns what it means to choose a life of faith, love, and joy amid chaos in this memoir with connections to the Christian Reformed Church. (Yopi Press)
The Senior: Thirty-five years after getting kicked off his college football team, 59-year-old Mike Flynt decides to return to the gridiron for his senior year of eligibility and prove to his family, former teammates, and himself that it’s never too late to tackle your dreams. Based on a true story. (PG; Angel Studios; in theaters Sept. 19)
Based on the Bestselling Book: In the series Chicken Sisters, sisters Amanda and Mae are reunited when reality show Kitchen Clash comes to their town, and the competition between their two feuding chicken restaurants heats up. (Hallmark)
The Story of a Giant Teenager: Set in a small town in Wisconsin, Ron Rindo’s book Life, and Death, and Giants tells the tale of Gabriel, a 17-year-old boy who is nearly eight feet tall, and the people who are transformed by their encounters with him. (St. Martin’s)
