The inaugural season of the revamped Matlock, starring Kathy Bates, grew increasingly intricate as it progressed. Matty’s pursuit of justice against her employer, Jacobson Moore, drew her ever nearer to uncovering the truth. Meanwhile, her relationship with her superior, Olympia, became ever more complex. Season 2 promises even more entanglements, with recent off-screen developments necessitating a change in the cast.

MATLOCK SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Scene: Picking up directly from the Season 1 finale, Madeline Kingston, also known as Matlock (portrayed by Kathy Bates), faces an unexpected visitor—a man claiming to be the biological father of her grandson, Alfie (Aaron Harris). She hurriedly sends a message to her husband, Edwin (Sam Anderson), urging him to take Alfie to safety.

The Essentials: The man introduces himself as Joey (Nico Nikotera). He shares a history with Matty’s daughter, Ellie (Marnee Carpenter), revealing they were once in a relationship marked by addiction. Joey asserts he has been clean for four years now. Matty demands a hair follicle test for DNA confirmation before allowing him any contact with Alfie. Despite some hazy timelines, Joey recounts details about Ellie that confirm his past connection with her.

Matty is simultaneously navigating Olympia’s (Skye P. Marshall) attempts to implicate Senior (Beau Bridges) in the missing Wellbrexa study. Unbeknownst to Matty, Olympia has possession of the study, having discovered it in a safe deposit box belonging to her ex-husband, Julian (Jason Ritter), who is also Senior’s son. Olympia discreetly installs a safe in her home to secure the document until she determines her next move. Her strategy involves convincing Matty to target Senior, while Matty seeks to outmaneuver Julian and protect Olympia and her children from the fallout once the story breaks to the press.

Amid these unfolding dramas, a new case demands the team’s focus. After Julian’s departure following his failure to secure a partnership, Senior assigns Olympia and her crew—Matty, Billy (David Del Rio), and Sarah (Leah Lewis)—to handle his son’s plea deal case. This involves two teenagers involved in a theater production fire, initially deemed accidental. However, the discovery of an accelerant elevates the charges to felony arson. With one of the teens turning against Olympia’s client, the team must work diligently to prove their client did not intentionally set the theater afire.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Matlock Season 1. Of course, Matty gave herself the fake last name Matlock because she was a fan of Andy Griffith original series.

Our Take: Showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman and her writing staff have created quite the tangled web going into Season 2 of Matlock. At the center of it is Matty and Olympia trying to figure out if they can trust each other again and bring their friendship back to the way it was during “the before times.” As both Matty and Olympia said numerous times towards the end of Season 1, “two things can be true,” meaning that their friendship was real and meaningful to both of them, even though they both had (and have) things to hide from each other.

As the Wellbrexa story gets more complicated, though, it feels like the case-of-the-week gets in the way. We get why they’re there; it’s a way for Matty to show her skills and her desire to be a good lawyer and investigator at her age, and it’s a way for the entire team to interact. Without the case of the week, we don’t get to dive into Billy’s and Sarah’s characters at all, and at least one of them has rounded into a character we want to get to know more about in Season 2.

Speaking of Billy and Sarah, Del Rio’s recent dismissal following Lewis’ accusations of sexual assault won’t impact the show as much as one may think. Sarah is definitely the more interesting character of the two, and it seems that the writers inadvertently gave themselves an out with Billy, who can just quit to spend more time with his pregnant ex, with whom he’s now getting back together. Either Urman is going to bring in a new young associate to join the team or her staff will just shrink the team down, which might tighten the case-of-the-week stories a bit, especially given how the storyline involving Alfie’s father will also squeeze down the time devoted to the weekly cases.

We have faith that Urman and her staff can keep the Wellbrexa story going through the second season, given how complex Urman’s previous series, Jane The Virgin, could get at times. And while we know that Bates can handle everything that’s thrown at her with seeming ease, it’ll be fun to see if Matty starts to slip keeping her countryfied “Matty Matlock” persona intact, especially as she and Olympia get deeper into the weeds with Wellbrexa.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Matty, with Edwin at her side, writes an email to The New York Times about Wellbrexa.

Sleeper Star: Beau Bridges only occasionally shows up as Senior during the course of a season, but he’s so good at playing him as pure molten evil that we want to see more of him making everyone’s lives miserable.

Most Pilot-y Line: We’re not sure if the actor playing arson expert that testified at the trial Olympia and her team were working on was directed to make like he’s the Dude from The Big Lewbowski or that was the actor’s choice. Either way, it was distracting as hell.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While the cases of the week are a necessary evil on a show like Matlock, we wish there was more room to play out the complexities of Matty and Olympia’ trying to get’s relationship and the Wellbrexa case.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.