Welcome to this week’s installment of Geek Girl Authority Crush of the Week, wherein we spotlight strong women and nonbinary folks who inspire us. This includes fictional characters and creators in geeky media. They are a prime example of empowerment and how crucial it is for youth to have said example to follow.
DISCLAIMER: The following contains mild spoilers for the new CBS series Matlock. If you are not caught up with the series, you may not want to read on, but if you don’t care about spoilers, continue.
Madeline “Matty” Matlock (aka Madeline Kingston)
Fast Facts
CBS’s new Matlock series isn’t actually a reboot of the classic Andy Griffith series in the sense that they’ve recast Ben Matlock as a woman. Kathy Bates‘s character co-opts the Matlock surname when she goes undercover at the Jacobson Moore law firm to build the folksy trustworthiness and legal prowess of the Ben Matlock persona into the partners’ perception of her. To them, she presents as Madeline “Matty” Matlock, a destitute widow in her seventies raising her grandson on her own, desperate to return to a legal career she left behind to make enough money to pay her dead husband’s debts.
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The character’s real name is Madeline Kingston. She’s happily married to Edwin Kingston (Sam Anderson), and they are quite wealthy. A grain of truth in her cover story is that she and Edwin are raising their grandson, Alfie (Aaron D. Harris), as their daughter, Ellie, died of an opioid overdose. Her true purpose in working at Jacobson Moore is to discover which of the firm’s partners buried documents that could’ve gotten the opioids that killed Ellie off the streets a decade ago.
Meanwhile, she bides her time doing some dang good lawyering and helping partner Olympia Lawrence (Skye P. Marshall) win cases alongside associates Billy (David Del Rio) and Sarah (Leah Lewis).
The Real Deal
Madeline Kingston may be lying to the people at Jacobson Moore, but she doesn’t do so lightly. Her conscience and anxiety about getting caught give her away. She’d rather be honest and can only get away with the Matty Matlock guise because, most of the time, she’s just being herself.
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Sure, she plays the “old lady” card with clients and co-workers alike, but they respond to her intelligence, empathy, and resourcefulness. Beyond that, she’s observant and gets an excellent read on people. On multiple occasions — including the day she walked into Jacobson Moore’s board room — she’s positioned herself to learn important intel by simply being an invisible elderly woman in a crowd or at a coffee shop.
However, as strategic as she is, her actions are led by her emotions. She sees uncovering the corporate conspiracy that protects Big Pharma as her last chance to parent her daughter. The feelings entwined with that purpose are deep and powerful.
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There’s guilt that she couldn’t save Ellie from her addiction, concern for Alfie and the closure he needs around his mother’s death, and the grief she hasn’t fully processed yet. The cases she helps Olympia with so far this season have tapped into her sense of social justice. Episode 5, “Claws,” was particularly triggering as she had to venture into an addicts’ hideout to find a witness, reminding both her and Edwin of the times they had to go into similar buildings to bring Ellie out.
Why She Matters
Matty tells it like it is. “There’s this funny thing that happens when women age,” she says in the premiere episode, “We become damn near invisible…. It’s useful ’cause nobody sees us coming.” Matty defies society’s expectations for retirees. She shows that human connection still matters when trying to improve people’s lives. Her humor, intuition, and ability to take unusual perspectives prove her worth over and over again.
What Matty’s set out to do isn’t easy. It probably isn’t even smart. But to her and her family, it matters. There are setbacks, both emotional and physical. She worries about the relationships she’s making at the law firm. There are technological conundrums. Thank goodness for Alfie, who’d totally go Dark Side if it wasn’t for his grandparents. The truth is a powerful thing. It can be a salve, or it might cauterize a wound. Either way, nothing will ever be the same once Madeline Matlock/Kingston is done.
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“The world wants to make some people invisible … but I can be useful.” Be like Matty. Hold your loved ones close often. Share your experiences to help others through challenging times. Be open to changing your plans but never your purpose. Stay sharp, and never let them see you coming.
Matlock airs on Thursdays (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on CBS and is available to stream live and on-demand on Paramount+. Its next new episode, “Belly of the Beast,” airs on December 5.
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