With ‘Matlock’ heading into a pivotal new chapter, showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman reflects on the challenges of sustaining surprise while deepening the show’s central relationships.
“It was incumbent on us to keep changing that pattern and to make sure that the show could still surprise,” Snyder Urman says about the challenge in keeping ‘Matlock’ unpredictable in Season 2.
Jennie Snyder Urman discussed the creative balancing act behind Season 2 of ‘Matlock,’ focusing on how the writers worked to preserve unpredictability while concluding a major long-form mystery in a satisfying way. She explains that the series is ultimately driven less by its central case than by the evolving relationship between Matty Matlock and Olympia, and that Season 2 required careful recalibration of their dynamic after shifting allegiances and revelations. Snyder Urman also reflects on the difficulty of structuring the season’s finale, particularly in preserving Matty’s dual identity while advancing character arcs like Julian’s redemption. Across the interview, she emphasizes the precision required to maintain Matty’s layered persona, the importance of audience attachment to character relationships, and the challenge of ending one narrative chapter while setting up the next.
‘Matlock’ centers on Madeline “Matty” Matlock (Kathy Bates), a highly capable septuagenarian who returns to work at a prestigious law firm after earlier career success, quietly concealing a deeper agenda while using her intelligence and understated style to help win cases. She is placed under the supervision of Olympia Lawrence (Skye P. Marshall), a top attorney and key rainmaker with a strong commitment to justice, while Olympia’s ex-husband Julian Markston (Jason Ritter)—son of the firm’s powerful head Howard “Senior” Markston (Beau Bridges)—becomes intrigued by Matty’s abilities and methods. As Matty navigates the firm’s competitive environment, she also works alongside ambitious younger associates, including Sarah Franklin (Leah Lewis), all while carefully advancing her own hidden objectives.
Inspired by the classic TV series and developed by Jennie Snyder Urman, ‘Matlock’ stars Kathy Bates, Skye P. Marshall, Jason Ritter, Leah Lewis, Aaron Harris, and Sam Anderson.
All episodes of ‘Matlock’ are currently streaming on Paramount+.
Awards Focus: It’s so nice to meet you today. How are you doing?
Jennie Snyder Urman: I’m great. Thank you. How are you?
AF: I’m doing well. After Season 1 of ‘Matlock’ revealed so much of Madeline’s plan and motivations, what was the biggest challenge in keeping the series unpredictable in Season 2?
Jennie Snyder Urman: I think just after a year of doing something, people get used to the pattern and the pattern of the surprises. It was incumbent on us to keep changing that pattern and to make sure that the show could still surprise. That was a big challenge. And then also, it was really challenging to take two years worth of storytelling and have it come to a satisfying conclusion. We were really wanting to do that this season, that the two years you went on this journey with our characters amounted to something exciting, conclusive, and yet still propulsive into the third season. While we were ending one big, big mystery, we were going to be launching our characters into a new atmosphere so that was a challenge as well.
AF: The original mystery that launched ‘Matlock’ could have been resolved and ended there. What convinced you there was enough story in these characters and this world to sustain a second season, and how did Season 2 prove that belief correct?
Jennie Snyder Urman: I think we just had to go in terms of seeing how deep the conspiracy ran and really what was behind it. We had to make sure that we had conclusive proof. We just felt like there was more that we couldn’t accomplish that all in the first season of storytelling. That season was going to be ending with us knowing who did it, but not all of the pieces of it and the personal stakes of the characters got in the way of that conclusion in the first season because Olympia had her own allegiances to her ex-husband and the father of her kids, and he was the one who had done it. Our show is really, even though the mystery is a big part of it, it’s not about that. It’s about the friendship between these two women.
We needed to go a certain amount of friendship piece into it and see how bringing Olympia into the know changed things for Matty. We had to realign them, and then we had to get them both working towards the same goals. We had to do that all in a way where the emotional math made sense. We were really taking our time with the characters even more than the mystery, so that each step made sense to them emotionally and psychologically.
AF: Was there a sequence or episode this past season that was especially difficult to break in the writers’ room?
Jennie Snyder Urman: I would say the finale was difficult to break because it’s two parts and because it had to resolve everything while maintaining the need for Matty to stay Matty Matlock and not Madeline Kingston. That was really hard math to do of why she would choose to keep that name and keep her secret. It couldn’t obviously come from the show wanting to keep that name and keep her secret. Figuring out how that hit her emotionally and where the idea came from, was what made it really difficult.
AF: The audience now understands much more about who Madeline really is. How did that change the way you wrote her dialogue and interactions?
Jennie Snyder Urman: Well, she’s got two characters. We’re writing Matty Matlock, which is in front of strangers and people that don’t know, and then we’re writing Madeline Kingston. Those two characters have really different ways that they approach and see the world so we’re always really mindful of that. But what we came to at the end of the season was that there was so much about Matty Matlock that Madeline Kingston liked, so much about the way she approached the world and the way the world reacted to her. A lot of the ending of it was finding places to merge those two characters.
We’re just always really precise on how much she’s putting on the Matty Matlock and how much she’s grounded in Madeline Kingston, who is a harder character and a more brittle character, and not as open and generous with her energy and spirit. Part of Madeline Kingston is realizing that a lot of the Madeline Matlock attributes were really unexpectedly beautiful in her life and wanting to incorporate some more of that.
AF: It feels like it’s getting harder and harder to keep her secret safe.
Jennie Snyder Urman: It’s harder and harder. She’s definitely told people at the end of the season finale. You understand that Sarah and Mrs. Belvin are going to know that secret so the people that she hurt and that she really cares about will know. There’s a whole host of reasons that it can’t come out further than that in the third season. There are going to be a few more people that know and then a lot of stakes around the fact that most people can’t know.
AF: Is there anyone in the cast that surprised you the most with what they’ve brought to the show?
Jennie Snyder Urman: I know how talented they are so I’m never surprised. But I will say that Jason Ritter’s breakdown, where it all just came to him, what he’d done and the cost and the compromises, that breakdown performance really stopped my heart in my chest when I watched it. I thought that was really beautiful.
I’m never surprised by what Kathy can do. I’m surprised by the precision of it. I’m surprised by how many choices I have that are always just pitch perfect in my eyes and how carefully she calibrates Madeline Kingston, Madeline Matlock, and the differences between those two.
AF: What lessons from Season 1 directly influenced the creative choices you made in Season 2?
Jennie Snyder Urman: I think it’s just really, really understanding that what we wanted to set out in season one, which was the friendship and the love story around Olympia and Matty resonated a lot for the audience. So part of that, and we had to keep them separated a lot at the beginning because they were on opposing sides. We wanted to really give the audience back what they wanted, which was these two having this beautiful, deep, unexpected friendship. Yet we had to keep them apart for the beginning. Finding moments to remind the audience of that was important because we knew from season one how much people loved them together.
AF: What are you proudest of accomplishing in Season 2 that the series couldn’t have accomplished in Season 1?
Jennie Snyder Urman: The finale. The finale was really—it was really challenging. It was really hard to understand why she would stay Madeline Matlock. Julian had a huge redemption arc that we weren’t anywhere near in the first season. I knew that this season wanted to do that for his character, have him accept the consequences and make the right choice. I don’t think we could have done any of that work in season one because we were still unfurling the story.
AF: With season two ending on a reset and ‘Matlock’ not returning until the mid-season for season three, when will filming be expected to begin on the new season?
Jennie Snyder Urman: It starts in September.
AF: Thank you so much. I cannot wait to see what’s in store in season three.
Jennie Snyder Urman: Oh, I can’t wait too. I’m very excited. Thank you for this interview.