Matlock showrunner and executive producer Jennie Snyder Urman is teasing the conclusion of the first half of the second season and what’s ahead when the show returns early next year. The mid-season finale “Call It a Christmas Gift” airs Thursday at 9 p.m. on CBS.
Hot off the presses, there are two new additions to the recurring cast for Season 2. They are Sarah Wright Olsen (Parks and Recreation, American Made) and newcomer Henry Haber. Wright Olsen will play Gwen, an efficiency expert analyzing the firm, and Haber as Hunter, a younger associate from the floater pool who is a total bro. Their characters do not appear in tonight’s episode, but they have recently begun work on the series.
In conversation with Snyder Urman earlier this week, she confirmed Haber is not joining Matlock as a “replacement” for David Del Rio, who was fired from the series in October following an internal investigation by CBS Studios into sexual assault allegations lodged by a co-star. Del Rio has denied the allegations.
The show boss declined to talk about the matter. Still, she did confirm Del Rios’ final appearance has already happened, and his character Billy Martinez’s storyline will conclude off-camera in forthcoming episodes.
“I’m not going to discuss details, but what I can talk about is in terms of the show,” she said. “The last episode you see him is in 7, and then you find out how Billy’s story ends, which is in a very organic way that has to do with our whole office and how things are being shaped in this merger.”
Regarding the addition of the new office hire, she revealed, “We’re always bringing in new associates, new people, because we want to give our characters different energies to react to, and different obstacles to overcome. And one thing that we were talking about in the writers’ room that we’ve been wanting to bring in is a bro, like a real bro.”
Snyder Urman added about the new character Hunter, “What will it be like for Olympia [Skye P. Marshall] and Matty [Kathy Bates] to be around a bro? They’ve been with characters that really see them as the pinnacle and do things their way. But what happens when you have somebody who spreads a little bit and shoots a basketball when he wants to have ideas flowing? What is that like in our ladies’ world? And I’ll tell you, it’s funny.”
We don’t want to ruin the surprises that are ahead in the mid-season finale, but what we can tease is that this merger will have people acting all kinds of crazy. Snyder Urman and her team of talented writers lean in heavy into what they do best: creating drama. On the Olympia and Matty front, they have been terribly at odds in the first half of the season, and in tonight’s episode, the tone for the second half is set.
Pictured (L-R): Skye P. Marshall as Olympia Lawrence and Kathy Bates as Madeline Matlock in ‘Matlock’ Season 2 mid-season finale “Call It a Christmas Gift.”
Michael Yarish/CBS
Additionally, some secrets are going to be exposed at last, leaving viewers wondering just how all that is going to be worked out when the show returns on Thursday, February 26th. It’s also important to note that no one can escape the consequences of their actions. There are lessons to be learned, and they might hurt, but this is a high-stakes business that has implicated itself in a significant breach that benefited big pharma (and their lawyers), while people like Matty lost loved ones. People need to be held accountable, but who?
While Snyder Urman gave zero hints about the winding road we’ll travel toward the season’s end, she did confirm that they will conclude the Wellbrexa storyline by then. Oh, and fans who can’t get enough of Justina Machado’s Eva Muñoz, a character she was born to play, as well as James Lesure, and perhaps another Jane the Virgin alum that already exists in this universe, you have some fun stuff to look forward to, as always.
Season 2 premiered on October 12 with 13.4 million viewers in L+35 across platforms, making it a Top 3 series across all of broadcast, according to CBS. Also in recent news, both Bates and Marshall were nominated for Critics Choice Awards for their roles on Matlock for a second year in a row, with Bates also nominated again this year for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama TV Series from the Golden Globes.
More from my chat with Snyder Urman, full of spoilers, will drop after the mid-season finale.
