Legal Drama

• Title: Matlock – The Judge
• IMDb: link

Matlock Monday takes us back to the legal practice of the folksy defense attorney Benjamin Leighton Matlock (Andy Griffith). Dick Van Dyke guest-stars as Judge Carter Addison, and old associate of Matlock from law school days, who plans the perfect crime in murdering his mistress (Bobbie Eakes) and framing her new lover (Brian Lane Green). Then he becomes the presiding judge of the murder trial and steers the case towards a guilty verdict after failing to get Matlock to give up the case to another lawyer (which is the first moment to raise Matlock’s suspicion and tie circumstantial evidence back to the judge).

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• Title: Matlock – Tricks of the Trade Part 1 & Part 2
• IMDb: link | link

Although we won’t know the answer until the Fall, the question that I thought about over the course of the two-part season finale was whether or not Matlock has already jumped the shark. Having Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) discover Matty‘s (Kathy Bates) secret in the previous episode, the two form a temporary mistrustful partnership with Olympia willing to work together but determined to prove Julian‘s (Jason Ritter) innocence. The episode will close with a false ending seeing Olympia proved right and then the first of multiple cliffhangers where the show reveals Julian’s complicity, just as Matty predicted. This leaves Olympia in a no-win situation (but, I’m guessing from the mention of all of the skills Olympia has learned from Matty’s lies, she’ll attempt to hide the truth from Matty while pretending to help search for the “real culprit”).

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• Title: Matlock – I Was That, Too
• IMDb: link

While attempting to get the truth out of Matty (Kathy Bates), who she sequesters in an unused room in the office, Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) must also deal with a very pregnant client in desperate need of immediate legal help to get away from her controlling husband before the birth of her child. Both stories have a bit of a ticking-clock element as Olympia can only keep Matty hidden for so long to grill her, eventually Sarah (Leah Lewis) and Billy (David Del Rio) do find her pulling her into the case, and their client going into labor forces even more immediate action.

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• Title: Matlock – The Johnson Case
• IMDb: link

A law friend of Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) brings a difficult case to the firm involving a juror who felt pressured to convict a man (Del Zamora) two decades ago despite the rather weak evidence against  him. Having to get create to have a judge look into the case, they use the harassment the juror received to crack the door just small enough to find a way to prove their client innocent such as uncovering a witness overhearing the victim arguing with her grandson before she died (which the cops and prosecution conveniently didn’t investigate). Although he isn’t the killer, there’s enough for Olympia to get a reluctant Andrew Park (Andrew Ghai) involved and find the real killer.

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