MATLOCK – Season 1 Key art | ©2024 CBS

MATLOCK is now in its second season Thursday nights on CBS, with episodes thereafter streaming on Paramount+. Developed by Jennie Snyder Urman (based very, very loosely on the series starring Andy Griffith), MATLOCK stars Kathy Bates as seemingly harmless “Matty” Matlock who is really wealthy Madeline Kingston.

Getting a job as assistant to attorney Olympia Lawrence (Skye P. Marshall) at the prestigious law firm of Jacobson/Moore, Madeline is determined to find out who is responsible for hiding a drug study that, had it come out ten years earlier, might have saved her daughter from a fatal overdose.

By now, Olympia and her ex -husband, fellow lawyer Julian Markston (Jason Ritter), know Matty’s secret. Still in the dark is ambitious junior associate Sarah Franklin, played by Leah Lewis. Sarah started out as one of Olympia’s assistants, who was extremely jealous when Matty joined the team. Now, Sarah relies on Matty but has just started as Julian’s aide. (Olympia doesn’t trust Sarah after Sarah confessed to some skullduggery on behalf of the firm’s managing partner Senior, played by Beau Bridges.)

Lewis, who grew up in Florida and Los Angeles, was previously a regular on four seasons of NANCY DREW. Her other previous credits include the animated feature ELEMENTAL, SING IT!, GUIDANCE, THE GIFTED, STATION 19, and The CW’s CHARMED reboot.

CBS has a MATLOCK Q&A session for members of the Television Critics Association (TCA) and later has a party where Lewis is in attendance. This interview combines her remarks from the panel and from a one-on-one conversation at the party.

What did Lewis know about Sarah when she first auditioned?

“We didn’t get too much in the pilot, but the details that were provided for us were clear as day as to where we stood in the law firm. Sarah is definitely one of the more blunt characters that is very forward when it comes to trying to get ahead and move up in the law firm. She is whip-smart, she is super-quick on her toes, but also doesn’t really enjoy when Matty comes in, so you can kind of see she is a bit territorial over the workspace that she’s been in as well, but that’s kind of what I loved about her in the pilot.”

Lewis had actually worked for Urman previously, although they did not interact. “Interestingly enough, I was on a couple episodes of a show she did called CHARMED, but I was up in Vancouver, and she was stationed in L.A., so I didn’t really get to meet her, but it was really cool being on that show.”

To get into character as Sarah, Lewis relates, “Sometimes I have to journal. But at the same time, I think a lot of research is done on the fly. I think each new case, I am also learning certain things about law. We’re always asking questions on set, too, just to make sure that we are tip-top on it. But I didn’t have to learn anything [about the law] before this to dive into the emotions of the character.”

Sarah starts off as being very curt to Matty which, Lewis acknowledges with a laugh, was difficult. “It is actually so, so hard to be mean to Kathy Bates. She is the nicest person in the world, and then on top of that, too, Matlock is written in such a way that she’s just so sweet, I think anyone would want to be her friend. So, to be kind of rude to her, it definitely hurt my soul a little bit.”

As far as what Sarah wants, “I definitely think what’s interesting is, everyone does have their own agenda. None of it being malicious at first glance, but things start to change as a result of these characters interacting with each other, and then maybe true natures get a little bit muddied, intentions get blurred, different things like that, because of all of us growing closer or growing apart, things like that.”

MATLOCK is set in New York but is mostly shot in Los Angeles, with its standing sets at Paramount Studios.

“Our set dec is really amazing. It’s really easy to slip into character, because the setting around us is so well done.”

Has Urman clued Lewis in on when Sarah may learn Matty’s true identity?

“No. I wish that she did. But at the same time, too, I think that is what’s so moving about this script and has been a really exciting thing for us – each new table read is really a gift, to get it all for the first time.”

On the panel, someone asks if one of the messages of MATLOCK is that people can accomplish anything at any age.

Bates throws the question to the younger cast members. Lewis says, “When I first read this script, I actually auditioned for this with my father [reading the scene opposite her], who is eighty-six years old. I remember getting so excited that something like this existed for someone like him to look at. He is very similar to Matlock in the way that he is very fiery. He has a lot going on. And, as he struggles with age, we’ve had a lot of conversations about quality over quantity, and who he is at eighty-six as he’s coming to terms with his age as well.

“I look at a series like this and, again, the quality of person really keeps ringing louder and louder to me. I look at my father and I look at Matty in this show as well, who obviously is a different [younger] age than my father, but seeing the ability to constantly learn new things.

“My character in the show doesn’t take a liking to Matty right away, but I also think that is a really big defining factor for her also coming to terms with her own age and understanding the strengths in other people with older age as well, so I think it’s a really important message.

“Something [else] that is amazing about this particular project, it’s not just centered around one woman. There are three different aspects of womanhood that range from me, Skye, Kathy, and many other women who are involved in this as well. I think when you see a show that ends up talking about heritage or race, it can be very, ‘Okay, this is the diversity card.’

“But I think what’s incredible about this story and the way that Jennie weaved our personal stories into this – Skye is Black and I am Chinese. These things get brought up in a very natural way just by these characters existing and living their lives and having certain conversations on the show that really is authentic.”

And what does Lewis most want people to know about MATLOCK?

“When people watch MATLOCK, I hope they expect to feel. There are so many different aspects of the human experience that this show covers for many, many different kinds of people of all ages. Even though it is set in the legal world, there’s a lot of real-world human experience that these characters go through that I think a lot of people can relate to and really use right now.”

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