{"id":2135,"date":"2026-06-14T19:38:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T19:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2135"},"modified":"2026-06-14T19:38:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T19:38:28","slug":"walk-on-the-wild-side-comedy-series-like-matlock-and-the-burbs-star-funny-women-in-dark-situations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2135","title":{"rendered":"Walk on the Wild Side: Comedy Series Like \u2018Matlock\u2019 and \u2018The \u2019Burbs\u2019 Star Funny Women in Dark Situations"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tIn BritBox\u2019s \u201cRiot Women,\u201d they\u2019re forming a rock band. In Peacock\u2019s \u201cThe \u2019Burbs\u201d and Netflix\u2019s \u201cHow to Get to Heaven From Belfast,\u201d they\u2019re meddling in criminal investigations and uncovering dark secrets. In Netflix\u2019s \u201cThe Hunting Wives,\u201d they\u2019re the ones causing crimes and trying to keep them hidden. Meanwhile, the titular heroine of \u201cMatlock\u201d on CBS may very well spearhead an operation that brings down Big Pharma.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2133\">Audi Celebrates Launch of Nuvolari Supercar With Star-Studded Affair in the South of France<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tThey say women get ignored as they grow older. But turn on the TV and just try to take your eyes off them. This year\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cThe thing that\u2019s 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,\u201d \u201cMatlock\u201d creator and showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman says of her lead character, played by Kathy Bates. In this show\u2019s world, cutthroat litigator Madeline Kingston is double-crossing just about everyone as she poses as the more demur old Southern grandma known as Madeline \u201cMatty\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSnyder Urman says that, as her drama finished out its second season with the suggestion that this takedown may work, Matty also realized \u201chow much there is out there that\u2019s still for her. And that\u2019s the exciting optimism of the character.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI want the show ultimately to be optimistic and fun to watch,\u201d and that even though \u201cit has a real underbelly, the show is not dark in its real DNA,\u201d Snyder Urman says.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tBut the creator says she also must be pragmatic. She cannot ignore the fact that Matty\u2019s in her late 70s or that this double life and its conflicting stories would be a hard con for anyone to pull off for the long-term. The writers will play into obvious physical limitations, like what the character would feel like after she pulled an all-nighter, but for the most part Snyder Urman says, \u201ceveryone ages differently,\u201d and \u201cshe is a very sharp person now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cMortality and the reality of age circle around her, but I don\u2019t want to play that much of that, because that\u2019s not where this character is at 77,\u201d Snyder Urman says. \u201cI think showing someone who\u2019s still so present in the world \u2026 is important for us to see \u2014 especially as life expectancy gets longer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2131\">Oliver Tree, \u2018Alien Boy\u2019 and \u2018Life Goes On\u2019 Musician, Dies at 32 in Helicopter Crash<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tMatty also benefits from the support of her actual family, like her devoted husband Edwin (Sam Anderson) and grandson Alfie (Aaron Harris). She also has a chosen family of younger co-workers like Skye P. Marshall\u2019s tenacious attorney Olympia Lawrence who, as the series has progressed, has helped fill part of the hole that formed in her heart after her daughter\u2019s death.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tOn the opposite side of this coin is Peacock\u2019s \u201cThe \u2019Burbs.\u201d Creator Celeste Hughey\u2019s adaptation of the Tom Hanks movie stars Keke Palmer as Samira Fisher, an attorney and new mother who recently relocated to her husband\u2019s suburban childhood home. Even if those two things weren\u2019t enough to make her a little paranoid \u2014 Samira describes herself at one point as \u201cbasically feral\u201d \u2014 she begins to sense that her partner, Rob (Jack Whitehall), isn\u2019t telling her everything about his teen years, nor are the townspeople who were around back then. Her only hope at uncovering the truth appears to be a trio of Xoomers with enough time to kill that they can gather in the afternoon to drink wine and gossip.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cThey\u2019re all outsiders; they\u2019re all dealing with their own kind of shame and secrets, and I felt that you don\u2019t often see a group of friends who have diversity in age as well as backgrounds and race,\u201d says Hughey of what draws Samira to Julia Duffy\u2019s widow Lynn, Paula Pell\u2019s Marine veteran Dana and Mark Proksch\u2019s perfectly named eccentric loner, Tod Mann.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cIt wasn\u2019t extremely intentional to me to make sure that there was older ages represented as well,\u201d she adds. \u201cI wanted to create the most ragtag team of weirdos that I could possibly find.\u201d Hughey has now come to think of this foursome as a modern-day Dorothy Gale and her friends from Oz.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tEspecially because this is a murder-mystery comedy, Hughey also aims to surprise the audience. She says it would have been easy to make Lynn a busybody or a \u201cKaren\u201d suspicious of Samira, a person of color coming into a largely white space. But instead, she says that Samira quickly learns that Lynn is the \u201cneighbor who, I hope, we all have \u2014 the neighbor who\u2019s always looking out for the block and making sure you\u2019re OK; keeping eyes on the street.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tShe also didn\u2019t want to make them into a Greek chorus.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cEach character comes to me musically, like hearing their cadence, hearing their speech,\u201d Hughey says. \u201cIn writing, if you remove all the character names and you can\u2019t tell them apart by dialogue, then you have a problem. So, to me, it was really tapping into a specific tone and way of speaking, which automatically makes them feel like just a real person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2129\">\u2018Disclosure Day\u2019: John Williams Recorded Two Hours of Music Over a Six Month Period for his 30th Collaboration with Steven Spielberg (Exclusive)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From \u2018The \u2018Burbs\u2019 to \u2018Matlock,\u2019 this year\u2019s comedies shine a light on women in darker roles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[220,1814,1134],"class_list":["post-2135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv","tag-emmys","tag-matlock","tag-the-burbs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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