User Reviews

They don't have the pilot movie streaming so this is episode one where I am watching.

The great Dick Van Dyke guest stars as a killer judge. Pretty good opener. It appears he planned it for a while. Ironically, Matlock may not have figured out he was the killer if the judge himself did make himself suspicious by asking Ben to give the case to someone else.

I just finished watching the entire series and am rewatching again anew. So I notice here how much slimmer Ben is here, and I don't think he is all silver-haired yet. I think his funny crankiness picks up a bit more next season.

Ben got his client off. What he presented in court was enough to get the DA to ask for the charges to be dismissed. I'm guessing now that the judge has been outed more evidence will turn up such as proof he was renting that apartment across the street. How he met the woman(probably at a party). And even more forensic evidence.

A little confusing, or should I say, not shown, the mother part. So the judge paid her off. Yet at the time when Ben was questioning her, it didn't seem like a setup because Ben seemed to figure out what happened while he was questioning her. Yet, later on somehow Ben got the woman to admit(not shown). But how did he get to admit the truth? I mean, the woman got up on the stand and perjured herself, so if she was willing to do that... Just seems like an important scene is missing. Maybe they should have done a flashback. Such as maybe Tyler asking Ben and Charlene how they got the woman to admit what happened and then they explained.

Anyway, pretty good opener. 8/10.

After having only seen the last season of this show, it was quite a jolt to see a 10 year younger, thinner, darker haired Griffith. By the end of the series it was the almost retired, totally white haired 60 something lawyer working a lot from home with a different daughter, then later a female detective who could sing. In the last episodes he was.a "kindly" older lawyer, brilliant, cheap (but with a $100K fee) and approaching the end of a career. This is a good episode, weird to see Van Dyke as a bad guy, especially after watching Diagnosis Murder episodes. Anyway, it was a different era and today, it is so difficult to write stories like these...what with cell phones and more importantly cameras EVERYWHERE. In this episode, Van Dyke would certainly be on camera entering either the building where the murder took place or where he was watching with binoculars. But, that's the way it goes.