Jennie Snyder Urman & Matlock CBS Season 2 Cast on Writing Complex Legal Dramas for Network Television

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Matlock, created by showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman, reinvented the classic legal drama by following Madeline “Matty” Matlock (Kathy Bates), a wealthy widowed attorney who infiltrated the prestigious Manhattan law firm Jacobson Moore under a false identity — appearing as a folksy, septuagenarian associate. Her real mission? To uncover a buried Wellbrexa pharmaceutical document that could have prevented her daughter Ellie’s opioid overdose.

Over two seasons, audiences watched as Matty built an unlikely friendship with idealistic partner-track attorney Olympia Lawrence (Skye P. Marshall) while manipulating her way through the firm, aided by her husband Edwin (Sam Anderson) and grandson Alfie ((Aaron Harris).

Season 1’s two-part finale exploded the central premise when Olympia discovered Matty’s true identity and realized she’d been betrayed on every level, only to stumble upon the Wellbrexa documents implicating her ex-husband Julian and firm patriarch Howard “Senior” Markston in the legal cover-up.

Season 2 picks up with both women at a crisis point: Matty hoping Olympia can forgive her “necessary” lies, and Olympia now holding the power to take down the firm as its newest partner. The question driving Season 2 isn’t so much whether they’ll solve the opioid case — it’s what happens when the most important relationship in the show fractures under the weight of moral compromise, collateral damage, and the morally ambiguous choices between justice and loyalty.

Showrunner & Executive Producer Jennie Snyder Urman, Executive Producer Eric Christian Olsen and the main cast share their thoughts as their successful conclusion to Season 2 and their excitement for Season 3.

Paying off Matty’s hidden identity while maintaining character arc development

Jennie Snyder Urman: It was really hard to get the finale to feel emotionally right and to get the emotional architecture and story structure. We knew how to get the plot, but the biggest challenge for the Matlock writers’ room was how do we keep Matty in a way that feels satisfying emotionally?

When we realized that the character got something from being Matty Matlock, that changed her. She liked who she was and it opened up this whole other world for her. She is no longer invisible and felt heard. That became the emotional center of who she is as Matlock, how she sees the world, and how the world sees her.

Once we figured out that coming out of the closet as Madeline Kingston, it propelled us into Season 3. We felt really confident that we could land the plane in Season 2, and the two years of storytelling, and have a fresh place to go into the next season.

At the end of Season 2, we knew Matty would reveal her true identity, but we didn’t know how it would happen. The big sword hanging over my head was the question of how can we keep her as Matty Matlock in a way that makes sense emotionally, but only let certain people in on the secret.

The challenge in the third season is why does Matty’s identity have to remain a secret? The writers’ room is cooking and I feel like we have a great reason. It was a lot because it was a two-part finale. And when it clicked, it just came together. This is a two year journey for the characters, but also for the audience. It has to be satisfying. That was the pressure, but also the privilege.

Skye P. Marshall as Olympia Lawrence & Kathy Bates as Matty Matlock in Matlock CBS

Olympia Lawrence (Skye P. Marshall) & Matty Matlock (Kathy Bates) Photo by Sonja Flemming/ CBS

How Matty wrapped up the WellBrexa case, her grief, and her emotional journey?

Kathy Bates: Matty knew what she wanted, she was in control, she planned everything out, and she thought she knew how it was going to work out. At the end of Season 1, somebody new comes to her door and changes everything

That was the fulcrum on which everything turned, when Joey (Niko Nicotera), Alfie’s (Aaron Harris) biological father arrives unannounced.

Every episode was its own to solve in terms of what was going on with Matty and how beat up she was. She didn’t know quite where she was at any point. At any given moment, she was trying to figure it out, flailing and frustrated, especially with Julian.

I think she misplaced a lot of her anger on Julian (Jason Ritter) and on Senior (Beau Bridges) and she was hanging on to all of it. That’s what I think was so brilliant about the writing. Looking back on it, not as an actor playing the character, but seeing how Jennie crafted it, there was a woman who was really hanging by her nails and didn’t know who she was.

I had to figure out what was going on in each scene, moment by moment.

On Julian’s moral ambiguity & family loyalty

Jason Ritter: I think that there have been a lot of times in my past where I’ve been very concerned about people liking my character. It was nice to be a complicated person and not be a guy who has some gray areas, has done some bad things, but is trying to be better,

Jennie Snyder Urman: Julian wants to be a good person so badly, but he has this enormous pressure from his father [Senior] to follow him. He was too weak to stand on his values and then he did. He internalized what he did until he had a really heroic moment.

He comes into the world in Season 3 having faced consequences for the things he did. Everything relied on him telling us why he did what he did and how desperate he was, but he still feels bad for it. So, he’s not just a villain.

Sarah’s growing awareness and maturity

Leah Lewis as Sarah Franklin on Matlock CBS Season 2

Sarah Franklin (Leah Lewis) Photoby Bill Inoshita/ CBS

Leah Lewis: When I look at Sarah in Season 1, she was one-track minded and her ambitions led her. I guess it was about her impressing the people around her, trying to prove herself, and become like a carbon copy of Olympia.

And in Season 2, I feel like Sarah, really embodies the mid to late 20 experience. Just when you think she knows something about herself, you will see in one scene or in an episode right after, something happens to her that completely throws her world upside down.

I do think that it was interesting playing a softer, more perceptive version of her this season. She started to get sensitive too. She really starts to slow down and really see the people around her. And for once, they matter to her.

I think Season 1, Sarah’s in the boat trying to wear all the hats and row by herself. And Season 2 was about family and finding her place in Jacobson Moore.

You also saw a lot of what happened with her family, her parents, and the huge discovery at the very end when it comes to her adoption.

I think Sarah is tapping into something much larger in Season 2. We as humans, do things for a myriad of reasons, but they serve purposes. In Season 2, Sarah starts to realize that what she is doing is no longer working for the situations she’s in.

I’m actually really excited to see what happens in Season 3, because there’s a part of Sarah that is so morally not okay with all of the lies and the deceit. But there’s also a part of Sarah that’s like, ‘I want to belong so badly, and I want to be loved so deeply by the people, that I think she even was afraid to admit she really started to love.’

Throughout this whole season, the loss of her coworker leaving the firm as well affected her. Sarah was very lonely for the second half of the season. This really hurts. On the outside I’m buzzing, but on the inside I’m lonely.

I have to heal through so many things in my life by being able to play those moments, but also, I was okay when does Sarah gets her bearings when does she get to smile or find out that Matty’s who she is.

How did you run the Matlock Writers’ room?

Jennie Snyder Urman: The characters are always there and it’s all consuming in a lot of ways. I do a pass of each script from each character’s point of view. They’re not a cog in someone else’s story or something so somebody else turns. I’m rigorous about the attention to detail of everyone’s character and make sure everyone is not supporting someone else’s journey. Each character should feel dimensionalized. I know what they want, what they’re running from, and what they don’t want found out.

I look at everyone’s journeys and then find the ways that they all intersect.

I love the discovery of the relationship between Sarah and Julian. It was unexpected. And then when Olympia couldn’t be with Sarah because she felt betrayed by her, Julian was able to forgive Sarah.

In finding those connections between people, suddenly they have this really interesting, rich relationship. And then, I want to write more towards that and see how they’re funny together and see how they show up for each other.

How did you set up Matlock at CBS?

Eric Christian Olsen: I came to CBS and I said, ‘I wanna bring back Matlock.’ And they said, ‘Why?’ And I said, ‘Cause I used to watch this show at my grandmother’s house.’

I remember watching Matlock and having this vision of watching someone come into the room. Now we have this superhero that’s smarter than I am to solve complex problems for me in 44 minutes. It gives me this sense of control that justice is possible.

I watched my mom who was a non-denominational chaplain and has the highest emotional IQ of anybody I’ve ever seen. As she aged, she did become invisible in certain ways. To find a character that’s underestimated and give them that superpower to find justice was great.

Then I tracked down Jennie Snyder Urman.

She pitched me out Matlock in 15 minutes. I called the head of CBS studios, and said, ‘I have to re-evaluate everything we have in development because this was the greatest pitch I’ve ever heard.’ Jennie pitched this show to the network nonstop, talking for 44 minutes and my jaw is on the floor.

Kathy Bates: Jennie and I had a three-hour lunch about the show.

We just talked about the character. I had so many questions and we just got to it. And that’s been our love language.

What’s in store for Season 3?

Kathy Bates: One of the boldest things about the finale is that it truly changes the foundation of the series moving forward. How exciting is it to enter a new chapter where neither the characters nor the audience can rely on the same status quo anymore? I’m excited for Lawrence and Matlock.

It’s set almost a year later.

I am excited because we have fresh storytelling. We have so much. It feels like you’re like looking at the mountain and there is fresh snow and you get to carve down the mountain and it reinvigorates the storytelling. It reinvigorates expectations. Matlock likes to have a good trick up its sleeve. We have so many great ones in this new season because of the shift of the structure of the show.

It feels like I’m pitching a pilot of really familiar people who you love, but they’re in a different place. I think that it’s just going to infuse a really energetic, electric Season 3.