Get to Matlock! Maaaaattt-loooock!

Plus, 'Nobody Wants This,' 'Colin from Accounts,' a 'West Wing' reunion outside the West Wing, and more

This week’s What’s Alan Watching? newsletter coming up just as soon as I wear a seersucker suit to court…

A Matlock by any other name?

I would not have thought, going into this fall TV season, that among the first shows I reviewed would be CBS’ Matlock reboot, starring Kathy Bates. But between the creative pedigree of Jane the Virgin’s Jennie Snyder Urman, and the fact that Urman makes the show into both a Matlock remake and very much not a Matlock remake, I couldn’t resist writing something. Of the CBS procedurals that aspire to put in more than the minimum effort, I prefer Elsbeth, and even that’s a show I struggle to make time for. But Urman’s very smart, and I’m curious to check in down the road and see what the heck she’s doing with this unexpected take on Abe Simpson’s favorite show.

Everybody wants some Bell and Brody?

New on Netflix this week is Nobody Wants This, a rom-com starring Adam Brody as a rabbi who falls for a messy, decidedly non-Jewish podcaster played by Kristen Bell. I enjoyed it, a bit for the humor — particularly whenever Tim Simons and/or Justin Lupe are around as Brody and Bell’s respective siblings — but mainly for the abundant chemistry between the two stars. So rather than pen a review, I interviewed the duo, speaking about their shared history as teen drama stars in the mid-2000s, but mostly delving into the mechanics of how to make a good romantic comedy. Bell has done a whole lot of those over her career, so as you might expect, she has thoughts. It’s a good conversation, and a show I enjoyed.

They’re the worst?

I came a bit late to Colin from Accounts, the funny, charming, and at times surprisingly poignant Australian rom-com whose second season arrived on Paramount+ this week. But I very much enjoyed the first season, and enjoyed the new one even more in some ways, particularly in how it’s able to balance the absurdity with some more serious material. My review is partly about the show, partly about a more general thesis of TV romantic comedy and why some shows — like Cheers, You’re the Worst, and Catastrophe — remain funny even after the central couple gets together, while others struggle.

Odds and/or ends

• As soon as I got home from SerlingFest, I immediately had to hit the road again for a trip to Los Angeles, which I’ll tell you about in a few weeks, followed by a trip to Washington, DC, which I’ll tell you about at the end of this newsletter. As a result, I neglected to plug a couple of extracurricular appearances. The first of these is in Joe Posnanski’s fun new book Why We Love Football. Joe recruited me to write an essay about the horrifying, then thrilling, opening game of the Dillon Panthers’ 2006 football season, where third-string QB Matt Saracen had to get off the bench after star Jason Street was badly injured trying to make a tackle following an interception. Clear eyes, full hearts, and a chance for me to play fake sportswriter for a few hundred words.

• Meanwhile, I made another appearance on the Screen Drafts podcast, where Dan Fienberg, Linda Holmes, Jen Yamato, and I took turns drafting 13 sports movies from the 1990s. It is four and a half hours long, because Screen Drafts is, like El Duderino, not into the whole brevity thing. But it was an entertaining conversation/argument, and the discussion of the number three pick includes Dan expressing the worst TV opinion I have ever heard him give. Truly shocking stuff.

Jed Barlet rides again

Finally, that Washington detour was the result of an unexpected invitation to the White House, for an event on the South Lawn celebrating the 25th anniversary of The West Wing. I have mixed feelings about the series and its legacy, but I can’t lie: when Martin Sheen began speaking and reciting poetry in full Jed Bartlet mode, a part of me wanted to make like Josh Lyman and yell out, “I serve at the pleasure of the president!”

This has been a big month for TV anniversaries: Lost at 20, West Wing at 25, ER and Friends at 30, among many others. As it becomes harder and harder for series to pull in mass audiences, I wonder if we’ll have similar celebrations for the best shows we’re watching now. But it was fun to go back, and to see a fictional president and his staff hanging out right behind the very real Oval Office.

That’s it for this week! What did everybody else think?