S01.E01: Pilot

[schnauzergirl]

2 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

sheesh they are really going all out to repeat this pilot and depriving us of a second episode. What an annoying strategy. I think they repeated it twice already. 

Second episode is October 17, 9:00 p.m., which will be the regular slot for the season.

[Yeah No]

I managed to catch the Oct. 8th repeat of this and have to admit I was a little disappointed. It would take a lot for me to give up on a show with Kathy Bates in it and I do love its general premise but somehow it's not doing it for me.  I don't expect every show to be completely realistic but this one is bordering on being a little too unbelievable. Also I didn't find some of the characters all that relatable, and I'm not a big fan of the revenge plot twist. Like at least one other person said, why do we need that kind of negative twist?

And not that I ever watched OG "Matlock" (my parents did of course, LOL) but I would have preferred something a little more like that. I see the parallels to "Elsbeth" but again like people have already said, that's a much better written show. I also see parallels to "High Potential" without the advanced age similarity. I guess after the success of "Elsbeth" everyone wants to have a show about an amazing mature woman that comes into a police dept. or law firm from seemingly out of the blue and wows everyone so much with her uncanny ability to solve cases that she gets hired on the spot.

Also as to when I knew it was NYC - In the very first frame the shot is from above looking down at what looks like Midtown-ish office buildings. Then the address she walks into is clearly marked 450 5th Avenue which would be just South of Bryant Park between 39th and 40th Streets.

I'll give it another week or so.

Edited October 10 by Yeah No
freaking laptop!!

[annzeepark914]

I found it a bit incredible that she just happened to overhear a big mouthed attorney yakking away on his cellphone in a coffee shop & used that info' to impress the lawyers at the mtg she barged into. I love Kathy Bates' acting, but this reminded me of a Hallmark movie.

[CrazyMoon]

Kathy Bates...the girl can do anything. This was well written, especially talking about the invisibility of older women. The  talk about old TV shows was funny...just plain funny. I'm in her age bracket so my kids & grandkids are the ages of her co-workers...I've been in those discussions. Hopefully she'll share more scenes with Beau Bridges, who is more her contemporary...

[Bastet]

17 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

I found it a bit incredible that she just happened to overhear a big mouthed attorney yakking away on his cellphone in a coffee shop

She didn't just happen to.  She told them she'd learned his routine (that he stopped in there each morning and used that time to call the client).  I guess she followed him?

(The fact he's yakking away on his cell phone in a public place right next to people, meaning the communication is not confidential and thus not privileged, every morning, is why I don't have to get too far into a legal show before thinking "Oh, boy, here we go.")

[Calvada]

I finally watched this.  I get similarly frustrated by shows' errors about how law enforcement and prosecutors work as the lawyers on this board are about how law firms and legal work operate.   

My only thing to add to all that has been said thus far is that I'm a bit discombobulated by Sam Anderson playing Matty's loving husband, only because over the years he so often has played the character who is kind of a jerk.  

[Babalu06]

8 hours ago, Calvada said:

My only thing to add to all that has been said thus far is that I'm a bit discombobulated by Sam Anderson playing Matty's loving husband, only because over the years he so often has played the character who is kind of a jerk.  

I only know (or at least remember) him as Bernard on Lost, so I feel well-disposed toward him.

[ljenkins782]

On 10/13/2024 at 9:52 AM, Calvada said:

   My only thing to add to all that has been said thus far is that I'm a bit discombobulated by Sam Anderson playing Matty's loving husband, only because over the years he so often has played the character who is kind of a jerk.  

Was he the principal on Growing Pains? I've only ever seen him playing jerks too, like minor roles but always with a negative slant. 

I love Kathy Bates so I really enjoyed this, when she leaned hard into the folksiness, it reminded me of her character in Fried Green Tomatoes.

I found the twist intriguing and I'm glad they didn't go for a straight up reboot format. 

[EtheltoTillie]

On 9/23/2024 at 7:32 PM, EtheltoTillie said:

That was Colleen Camp!?  She's the hippie mom in one of my fave movies:  Valley Girl.  Don't judge me. 

Quoting myself:  Remember this discussion of Colleen Camp?  I just watched theThey All Laughed by Peter Bogdanovich.  I had never seen it.  Colleen Camp has a role as a country singer and sings all her own songs.  It's the highlight of the movie.  She could have had a successful career as a country star.  You can stream it on Max.  I'll leave off discussion for another thread.  All I'll say is that it's a legendary flop, but partly because of Dorothy Stratten's murder just before release of the movie.  It's pretty good. 

 

Edited October 21 by EtheltoTillie

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 10/11/2024 at 9:51 PM, annzeepark914 said:

I found it a bit incredible that she just happened to overhear a big mouthed attorney yakking away on his cellphone in a coffee shop & used that info' to impress the lawyers at the mtg she barged into. I love Kathy Bates' acting, but this reminded me of a Hallmark movie.

In fairness to her, it would seem that she did some background research to determine:

A) The target firm has a big negotiation with Talkative Attorney's firm.

B) Talkative Attorney is talkative and will blurt out stuff while getting coffee.

C) Day X is the final day when the two firms are finalizing the negotiations.

D) She can run the ruse of confused li'l ol' lady and stall him while Talkative Attorney blabs about his client's business publicly.

E) She can scam her way into target firm with this information and try to use it to get a seat at the table.

What could go wrong with this plan?

[Lois Sandborne]

Finally got around to checking this out. It wasn't perfect, but I would like a legal drama in my rotation, so we'll see. Even with all the overwritten lines and silly legal blunders, the only thing that really bothered me was the ambitious lady associate calling Maddie "Perry Mason" but not knowing who Matlock was.

[Chicago Redshirt]

4 hours ago, Lois Sandborne said:

Finally got around to checking this out. It wasn't perfect, but I would like a legal drama in my rotation, so we'll see. Even with all the overwritten lines and silly legal blunders, the only thing that really bothered me was the ambitious lady associate calling Maddie "Perry Mason" but not knowing who Matlock was.

I would say Perry Mason has had a bigger grasp on pop culture than Matlock. 

Perry had a series of books, a TV show that ran 9 years in its original run and then was a series of TV movies, plus was widely syndicated. There was also the relatively recent revival. I daresay most anyone who'd gone to an American law school in the last 50 years would have at least heard of Perry Mason and the notion it popularized of getting a witness to break down and confess on the stand to their guilt.

Matlock, I think, was far less popular and more generational. I at least only had heard of Matlock because it was used as a joke on the Simpsons about old people loving it. .

[chessiegal]

Perry Mason is the reason my husband went to law school, but he spent his entire career as a federal prosecutor.

Both Perry Mason and Matlock are alive and well in reruns on several channels. MeTV airs them back-to-back on weekday mornings.

[PurpleTentacle]

It's a bit hard to believe that a law firm wouldn't have checked her references more thuroughly. Like the simplest thing. There would be no record of a Madeline Matlock passing the bar and there is no way her 12 year old grandson could fabricate that evidence.

Also the odds that a rich white lady dies from opiods is really slim. You can find some concierge doctor who will prescribe you high quality oxy forever. What would have stoped them from actually having a broke ex-lawyer who is now having to raise her grandson, because her daughter died? Did they think the insanely rich lady was more relatable?

But this was fun and Kathy Bates is a great actress. So I think I can let those things slide, to make the setup work.

[PurpleTentacle]

On 9/24/2024 at 10:21 PM, Johannah said:

Hmm.  Didn't watch that show.  I'll have to see if it's on Amazon Prime, the only extra channel I get.

All David E. Kelley lawyer shows are very much recommended. At the moment he has the Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix, which is quite a bit more serious than his usual fare, bit still very good.

There is even a show from him with Kathy Bates as a lawyer, called Harry's Law. Sadly it didn't last super long.

On 9/25/2024 at 12:57 AM, seacliffsal said:

Sigh.  I am firmly in that category now as I am watching shows that I did not watch when they first aired and I was younger.  Add Columbo and Diagnosis Murder to that list and this is one happy watcher of Old People Shows.

I personally loved Diagnosis Murder and Columbo as a kid. So it's not just for old people.

Also Columbo is just objectively great.

Edited Saturday at 04:36 AM by PurpleTentacle

[nicepebbles]

I don't usually watch legal shows, and I can be pretty nitpicky. For some reason, I’ve overlooked the problems with this show. I think it's the fact that I don't watch a lot of TV and miss this kind of comfort shows. 

CONS

I don't buy for a single second that Olympia and Julian are married. Olympia is out of Julian's league.

Making Olympia seem idiotic for potentially getting into a thing with Elijah.

Making the Asian woman the ambitious one and a bitch at that. Seems lazy.

PROS

I like the casting and think they have chemistry. Pilots are usually hit or miss with me. I think the chemistry between the cast is selling it.

NOT SO SURE ABOUT

I'm not sure her being a rich woman out for revenge is more interesting than the backstory she created. I know a lot of shows like to have these overarching themes and what not. I went into this thinking it was a remake of Matlock and was looking forward to COTW storylines. (Admittedly, though I initially didn’t want to watch because I thought it was just a remake and I’m kind of tired of those. Then someone whose judgment I trust, said they like it so I gave it a shot.)  Time will tell if the writers can really keep this up. I will say the plot twist did make me want to keep watching. 

Chicago Redshirt, mentioned Profit way back. Still mad to this day that the show was cancelled. It was a head of its time.

Edited Yest. at 01:48 AM by nicepebbles

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 11/15/2024 at 8:17 PM, PurpleTentacle said:

It's a bit hard to believe that a law firm wouldn't have checked her references more thuroughly. Like the simplest thing. There would be no record of a Madeline Matlock passing the bar and there is no way her 12 year old grandson could fabricate that evidence.

Also the odds that a rich white lady dies from opiods is really slim. You can find some concierge doctor who will prescribe you high quality oxy forever. What would have stoped them from actually having a broke ex-lawyer who is now having to raise her grandson, because her daughter died? Did they think the insanely rich lady was more relatable?

But this was fun and Kathy Bates is a great actress. So I think I can let those things slide, to make the setup work.

Madeline Kingston apparently did pass the bar at some point and is rich. Between those two things, I can suspend disbelief that she could construct a "Madeline Matlock" persona/paper trail enough to fool a superficial background check. She would have to get currently registered for the bar in NY or elsewhere. I can also buy that her hiring was fast-tracked/unconventional because she fed info that allowed the sale that the firm was brokering to go for as many as $4 million more than they would have settled for and she was key in getting a $20 million verdict.

I think the twist that she's really rich and out for vengeance/justice is something that differentiates the show from your run-of-the-mill legal drama and also gives a potential showcase for Kathy Bates. Unfortunately, the premise is not sustainable long-term IMO.

We'll see more about the relationship between Matty and her daughter. But just because Matty's now rich doesn't mean the daughter had access to that wealth. Matty could have cut her off precisely because of her addiction, or the daughter could have wanted to avoid tapping the wealth because she wanted to hide her addiction. It's even possible that Matty wasn't rich when daughter was still alive, say, because she and hubby received an inheritance, won a lawsuit, or something else in the interim.