The pilot episode of the CBS legal drama Matlock completely upended audience expectations with a truly shocking plot twist in which Madeline Matlock, played by Kathy Bates, is revealed to be Madeline Kingston, a wealthy retired lawyer who infiltrated the prestigious New York law firm Jacobson Moore to discover which of the firm’s three partners withheld information about Wellbrexa, the pharmaceutical company whom Madeline holds responsible for her daughter’s drug-related death.
Following the pilot episode, Matlock, which has maintained a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating, continued to generate excitement and interest through the sheer audacity and breadth of Madeline’s continually evolving web of deception. In the “Belly of the Beast” episode, Madeline takes the extreme step of recording the voice of the firm’s managing partner, Senior, to create an AI voice simulator that she used to obtain Senior’s e-mail password. However, while Madeline’s bold acts of espionage have yielded tantalizing clues thus far, the smoking-gun evidence she seeks remains elusive.
Indeed, Matlock has sent Madeline down so many proverbial blind alleys over the course of 15 episodes that the emotional context of her increasingly convoluted quest for revenge has been lost. While Matlock initially engaged audiences with the intriguing question of how and when Madeline’s true identity will be uncovered, it remains to be seen whether viewers will have stopped caring altogether by the time Madeline and the firm’s partners finally discover one another’s big secret.
‘Matlock’ Is All Set-up and No Payoff
Matlock
- Release Date
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September 22, 2024
- Network
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CBS
The pilot episode of Matlock establishes Madeline as a vengeful woman who will seemingly go to any lengths to expose and punish the law firm Jacobson Moore for the drug-related death of her daughter. However, after identifying three prime suspects, in terms of law firm partners Julian, Olympia, and Senior, Madeline’s subsequent investigation has become so broad and murky that her initial spark of rage has given way to confusion. Through 15 episodes, the solution to the show’s mystery, in terms of Madeline’s search for the guilty figure among the three partners, seems destined to be anticlimactic, especially as none of the suspects have registered strongly enough for audiences to hate them.
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A typical episode of Matlock features Madeline risking detection to find a seemingly crucial piece of evidence, which invariably turns out to be a red herring, and then barely avoiding exposure through sheer determination and luck, along with the invaluable assistance of husband Edwin and tech-savvy grandson Alfie. While this cat-and-mouse dynamic was initially entertaining, it’s since become annoying, as seen in the episode “A Traitor in Thine Own House,” in which Madeline is threatened by obnoxious and suspicious jury consultant Shae, who travels to Georgia to supposedly meet with a figure from Madeline’s past who is actually Edwin in disguise.
Kathy Bates Can’t Carry ‘Matlock’ Alone
While Matlock continues to serve as an effective showcase for Kathy Bates’ impressive acting range, the darkly fascinating psychological aspects of Bates’ performance as Madeline in the pilot episode have subsequently been minimized in favor of portraying Madeline as a conflicted grandmother and wife whose pursuit of revenge has been complicated by her personal feelings for her unwitting law colleagues. What began as one of the most exciting characterizations in recent television history has become increasingly less interesting over time.
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Matlock began as a psychological thriller disguised as a legal drama, as a twisted character study of a grieving mother and a master manipulator with the ability to bend others to her will and seemingly read minds. The obsessive nature of Madeline’s quest for revenge resembles Bates’ unforgettable performance as Annie Wilkes in the 1990 thriller Misery in terms of Bates’ and Madeline’s uncanny ability to conceal their deceptiveness and obsessive behavior within an outwardly folksy, smiling form. However, unlike the continually haunting Annie, Madeline simply isn’t frightening anymore.
‘Matlock’ Has Falling Ratings
The pilot episode of Matlock attracted the largest series premiere audience for CBS in more than five years. Following the airing of the pilot episode, which drew 7.74 million viewers, the ensuing three episodes attracted between 6.38 and 6.54 million viewers. Based on this performance, Matlock was renewed for a second season after the initial airing of the second episode. However, while the fall 2024 finale episode “No, No Monsters” attracted a healthy 6.2 million viewers, the ratings for Matlock have steadily declined in 2025, beginning with the January 30, 2025, episode “Friends,” which drew 5.78 million viewers.
Viewers have become impatient with the direction and pace at which Matlock is proceeding in terms of arriving at the big reveal with Madeline and the unraveling of her deception with her law firm colleagues. This reflects the growing, overarching perception that Matlock has become a disappointment after its promising opening, which created high expectations that the show has so far been unable to fulfill. Indeed, just as the second-season renewal of Matlock led many viewers to believe that the show’s creators had a clear plan for Madeline’s development, the show’s creative downturn has raised the possibility that Matlock is simply making things up as it goes along. Matlock is streaming on Paramount+ and will air the final three episodes on Thursdays, beginning April 3.
