Kathy Bates, Showrunner Talk Generational Bias Episode

(This story contains spoilers from the October 24 episode.) matlock.)

Tackling sexual harassment in television and film is no longer taboo.#Me too. However matlockIts third episode, “A Guy Named Greg,” added even greater nuance to the conversation.

Kathy Bates portrays Madeline “Matty” Matlock inside CBS hit the series as the cunning septuagenarian lawyer who shares the same surname as the iconic TV show hero. In the final episode, which aired Thursday night, creator/showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman and her team went beyond convincing the audience of the accuser and instead highlighted the generational divides and biases that still persist about how sexual harassment harms women.

Olympia (Skye Marshall), Alex (Danielle Larracuente, Bosch: Old), a young, attractive lawyer who has just joined her firm, makes allegations of sexual harassment against her more senior colleague, Jeremy Brooks (Chad Coe). To win back the jury, Jacobson recruits Moore’s jury consultant, a.k.a. “Human Lie Detector” Shae Banfield (a new recurring role). virgin jane favorite Yael Grobglas) recommends that Matty take over. Olympia and her colleagues — soon-to-be ex-husband Julian (Jason Ritter), whose father Senior (Beau Bridges) founded the company, and potential love interest Elijah (Eme Ikwuakor) — flounder in a mock trial room with a mock jury on a case 30 years later when preparation Matty hasn’t tried. continues. As Shae continues to question him, Matty responds with an emotional truth bomb.

“You’re not being honest, Matty, why?” Shae roars, walking toward Bates’ character and repeatedly downplaying his prodding.

“Because I’m faking it,” Matty blurted. “The truth is, I don’t think we should take this case. In my day, we endured such comments all the time. And if things got worse, we’d avoid that guy. “We didn’t get drunk and be alone with him at a holiday party.”

A loud gasp from behind causes Matty and Olympia to turn their heads as Shae continues to look straight ahead to reveal a very hurt Alex – viewers watch Matty wear a court outfit that accentuates her breasts before her first court appearance He saw that he was convinced. – before leaving the room. In the next scene, with the New York City skyline in the background, Matty apologizes to Olympia. “I’m so sorry; it’s generational; we put up with different things then,” she says. But Olympia tearfully tells Alex passionately and convincingly that he doesn’t need to be perfect, and shares that she took the case because of the world she wants for her own little girl.

As he prepares for the trial, arguing in court for the first time, Matty remembers his own Jeremy, whom he calls Greg, who “crossed the line” and was “reformed” with him. She and her husband even joked about him. But he later explained to the jury that Greg’s decision to stay out of his way kept him off the case. Instead he hid and turned to contracts. “You know it’s funny,” he tells the jury. “It seemed like a small thing at the time,” he shook his head, “it completely ruined my dreams, which isn’t a small thing at all, right?”

Admitting to the jury her bias about Alex based on her younger days as a working woman, Matty challenges the jurors to correct their own thinking from the age-old attack of “why Alex waited so long to report what Jeremy Brooks said.” “How bad was it that Alex risked everything and finally reported it?”

Urman tells Hollywood Reporter He said this episode was one of his favorites, especially because it accomplished so many things at once. “Matty isn’t always right, and we wanted to dramatize some of his blind spots,” he says. “The really hopeful part is how it changes.”

“If you had asked her if she had ever experienced sexual harassment, she would have said ‘no,’” Urman explains. Later, he realizes this event that happened in his life. He thought he had it figured out, (but) he just turned around. And through this young woman’s story, he realized that yes, he had changed direction, but it had cost him something. It changed the entire course of his life and the type of law he practiced. These are things you can’t measure.”

Urman explains more about Matty’s emotional state, saying, “This is one of my favorite episodes because of how he learns and how emotional it is for him to realize what things like sexual harassment can cost you.” It is not always clear then, and it becomes clear later. In this case, after 30, 40 years, the situation becomes clear and it really changes the way of thinking. “It also makes him realize that he loves being in the courtroom and opens up a new path for him.”

Bates also praised the important Matty episode, saying: TR“I really liked this episode, not just because I get to argue a case in court that Matty has wanted to do so badly for all these years and didn’t realize until it came out, and then he remembers this event, this groundbreaking event in his life that set him on a path to leave his dreams of being a litigator behind.” .”

She reveals that the theme of sexual harassment affected her greatly. “It’s something I identify with because I grew up sexually in the ’60s and ’70s. It was a different time, and it was just before AIDS curtailed the explosion of sexual freedom that had begun in the ’60s,” Bates shares. “In those days, if you decided to go to a man’s hotel room, you knew why you were going. “So when the #MeToo movement emerged, my reaction was very immediate, based on my intergenerational experience,” she admits.

“When I saw what young women were going through right now, what kind of sexual harassment they were dealing with on a daily basis, not just going to the hotel room, but in offices as well, and how it affected their careers, I think that was what Matty came to identify with, that this wasn’t a one-off; it was something they had to go through.” And I think her eyes were opened to that, just as mine were opened, and it was a very powerful way for me to delve into and understand what young women go through, that they want to show off their bodies, be sexy, have fun, and date, but they don’t have to be harassed for it. “It was the episode.”

“This always affects you in ways you don’t know because you protect yourself in different ways,” Urman emphasizes again. “Unfortunately, I don’t know many women who haven’t experienced this. There were many frank and honest discussions in the writers’ room. One of our writers paraphrased Matty later: “The question isn’t why it took him so long to report it, it’s how bad it was for him to come forward.”

Urman continues: “Most of the time we don’t wallow in it, we turn around and build boundaries that we don’t realize affect us, too. Why should you have to avoid someone because of their bad behavior? And what situations and places of power are you removing yourself from because you have to avoid those bad situations? This case wasn’t something Matty was dealing with, and (he) realized: ‘Oh, this changed the course of my life.’ And that’s no small thing.”

Urman notes that it is still not easy for women to come forward, and other factors also play a role. “I think there is still a level of exclusivity in who gets to report and how they are viewed and valued because it costs money; “It’s risky and it probably depends on where you are in this country, how seriously these things are taken or not,” she elaborates. “It’s hopeful and aspirational for women to say something and be believed, but I think every day it’s ‘if I do this then I’m not going to get that job.’ or ‘I can’t support my family and I can’t pay my bills.’

“It’s devastating for me to think about this,” he continues. “The privilege of being listened to is very real. “That’s why we want to put more examples on screen to say ‘this isn’t right’, so people realize they’re in a similar situation and feel seen.”

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matlock New episodes air on Thursdays at 21:00 on CBS.