In BritBox’s “Riot Women,” they’re forming a rock band. In Peacock’s “The ’Burbs” and Netflix’s “How to Get to Heaven From Belfast,” they’re meddling in criminal investigations and uncovering dark secrets. In Netflix’s “The Hunting Wives,” they’re the ones causing crimes and trying to keep them hidden. Meanwhile, the titular heroine of “Matlock” on CBS may very well spearhead an operation that brings down Big Pharma.
They say women get ignored as they grow older. But turn on the TV and just try to take your eyes off them. This year’s crop of Emmy contenders is loaded with shows about middle-aged and senior women having a good deal of fun as they risk getting themselves into a heck of a lot of trouble.
“The thing that’s so hard as you get older, is that people stop looking at you a certain way or thinking that you have interesting opinions that are relevant, and so she used that to her advantage,” “Matlock” creator and showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman says of her lead character, played by Kathy Bates. In this show’s world, cutthroat litigator Madeline Kingston is double-crossing just about everyone as she poses as the more demur old Southern grandma known as Madeline “Matty” Matlock. Her aim? Infiltrate a swanky New York law firm that may be duplicitous in the opioid crisis, an epidemic that also happens to have taken the life of her daughter.
