Matlock, It: Welcome to Derry, and The Audacity Face the Accountability Question
Three very different TV dramas — a legal thriller, a Stephen King horror prequel, and a tech-world satire — converged at Variety's FYC TV Fest on May 6, 2026, to wrestle with one shared problem: what does it mean to hold power accountable on screen? The answers were more complicated, and more revealing, than you'd expect.
What does it actually take to make a villain answer for what they've done — and why are so many TV writers scared to let it happen?
That question sat at the center of a fascinating panel discussion at Variety's FYC TV Fest on May 6, 2026, where the creative teams behind three structurally distinct dramas — CBS's Matlock, HBO/WBTV's It: Welcome to Derry, and AMC's The Audacity — gathered to talk craft, timing, and the peculiar freedom that comes when a character finally stops running from consequences. Three shows. Three completely different flavors of evil. One surprisingly urgent shared theme.
What the Variety FYC Panel Actually Revealed About These Three Shows
The panel, reported by Variety on May 11, 2026, brought together cast and creatives from shows that occupy wildly different genre real estate. Matlock is a CBS legal procedural reboot. It: Welcome to Derry is a prestige horror prequel series for HBO. The Audacity is AMC's sharp-elbowed drama about the tech industry's most dangerous personalities. What they share — and what the panel made explicit — is an interest in depicting evil that feels earned, specific, and structurally embedded rather than cartoonishly isolated.
Key panel participants included:
- Jason Ritter and Skye P. Marshall (Matlock, CBS)
- Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti, executive producers (It: Welcome to Derry, HBO/WBTV)
- Jonathan Glatzer (showrunner/writer/EP), Gina Mingacci (EP), Billy Magnussen, and Simon Helberg (The Audacity, AMC)
Release and renewal details to know:
- Matlock (CBS) premiered September 22, 2024, with regular episodes from October 17, 2024; renewed for Season 3 as of January 2026
- It: Welcome to Derry streams on Max (HBO/WBTV)
- The Audacity airs on AMC and streams on AMC+
Movie OTT tracks current streaming availability for all three titles across regions, which is genuinely useful given how differently these shows land depending on where you're watching from.
Why Matlock's Season 2 Finale Broke the Show's Own Rules — in a Good Way
Matlock is, on paper, a fairly conventional legal drama reboot. The original ran on NBC from 1986 to 1995 with Andy Griffith in the lead role — according to Wikipedia's entry on the original series, it was one of the defining procedurals of its era. The 2024 reboot, developed by Jennie Snyder Urman and starring Kathy Bates as septuagenarian attorney Madeline "Matty" Matlock, flips the formula considerably. Matty isn't just solving cases — she's embedded herself inside prestigious firm Jacobson Moore to secretly investigate her daughter's death and the firm's complicity in the opioid crisis.
That's a darker engine than the original ever had. And Season 2 pushed it further.
At the FYC panel, Skye P. Marshall — who plays Olympia Lawrence, junior partner and ex-wife of Jason Ritter's Julian — admitted she'd been actively rooting for her own co-star's character to face real consequences. "I was trying to figure out some way where there was maybe some accountability for Julian, but maybe not so much accountability that he's in jail for six seasons," she said. "I do hope that he pays for it, because I am sick of seeing people get away with stuff and not being held accountable. I'm exhausted. If he could at least do a few months in jail in the beginning of Season 3."
That's not typical award-season promotional language. That's an actor genuinely invested in moral consequence — which tells you something about how the writers have constructed this world.
Ritter, for his part, saw it differently. Not as punishment but as release. "Maybe his professional life is ending, but in a way, he's finally free of all of this," he said. "Sometimes when your biggest, worst secret comes out, you can actually begin a new, humble life." The idea that exposure might function as liberation — not just destruction — is one of the more interesting character frameworks the show has built.
The Muschiettis on Why the Stephen King Book Is Still Untranslatable
For It: Welcome to Derry, executive producers Andy and Barbara Muschietti — who also produced the 2017 and 2019 It films — were candid about why they keep returning to King's source material. "We read the book when we were 14 and 15," Barbara said. "We had read other Stephen King books, but this one did a number on us."
What's striking is how honestly Andy acknowledged the films' limitations. The book, he said, functions as something close to a bible for the production — and the HBO series finally allows them to explore material the theatrical format simply couldn't contain. Specifically, he mentioned the "interludes" — chapters structured around Mike Hanlon's writings and investigations, the Loser who stayed behind in Derry while the others left. That thread is foundational to King's novel and was largely absent from both films.
Bill Skarsgård returning as Pennywise was, Barbara confirmed, always the plan. Getting him back — along with much of the original film crew — came down to demonstrable passion. "I think our passion for it and people seeing that we were going to be there for the length of it, allowed us to get Bill and the rest of the team," she said.
Hard to argue with that. Skarsgård's Pennywise is one of the genuinely iconic horror performances of the past decade, and recasting would have been a significant risk.
The Audacity and the Problem With Humanizing Tech Titans
The Audacity arrives at a moment when tech-industry power is impossible to separate from political reality — a point showrunner Jonathan Glatzer made directly at the panel. "Tech has never been so much integrated into politics as it is today," he said.
What's interesting about the show's approach (and what Glatzer seemed almost nervous to articulate fully) is the decision to make its characters aspirational rather than already-arrived. Billy Magnussen's character isn't Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos — he's someone desperate to become that. That desperation, Glatzer argued, makes him more relatable than the actual figures dominating headlines. "He has a want, he has a need," Glatzer said — before catching himself and adding, "I'm going to take that back, actually, because they have enormous wants and needs and we're all paying the price for it."
That self-correction, live on a panel, says more about the show's tonal tightrope than any press release could. Comparing The Audacity to something like Succession isn't unfair — both shows are interested in proximity to power as a form of moral contamination. But where Succession was elegiac, The Audacity sounds angrier and more immediate.
Movie OTT's streaming tracker currently lists The Audacity as available on AMC+ in the US — worth checking for updated availability in the UK and India, where AMC content sometimes surfaces on partner platforms.
How These Shows Land for Indian Audiences
Indian audiences have a complicated relationship with American legal dramas, but Matlock's core hook — a woman in her seventies outsmarting a corrupt institution that underestimated her — translates powerfully across markets. The opioid crisis backdrop is US-specific, but the theme of institutional rot covering up individual tragedy is anything but.
Current Indian streaming availability:
- Matlock (CBS) — available via Paramount+ content partnerships; check Movie OTT for the most current Indian platform listing, as CBS titles have historically surfaced on Sony LIV or through JioCinema in certain windows
- It: Welcome to Derry — HBO content in India typically streams on JioCinema Premium, which holds the HBO licensing deal for the Indian market
- The Audacity (AMC) — AMC originals have limited direct distribution in India; availability through Prime Video Channels or international VPN access is the most common route currently
Kathy Bates has genuine name recognition in India from Misery, American Horror Story, and Titanic — her presence in Matlock gives the show an immediate hook for Indian viewers who follow American prestige television. According to Rotten Tomatoes, Matlock Season 1 holds solid audience scores, suggesting word-of-mouth has done meaningful work for the show beyond its core CBS demographic.
The Franchise History Behind Each Show
A quick orientation for readers coming in cold:
Matlock — The original ran 195 episodes on NBC (1986–1992) before moving to ABC (1992–1995). The 2024 reboot shares the name and the legal-drama DNA but is otherwise an original story. Kathy Bates leads; Jason Ritter (son of the late John Ritter) plays Julian; Skye P. Marshall plays Olympia; Leah Lewis plays Sarah and David Del Rio plays Billy. Developed by Jennie Snyder Urman (Jane the Virgin).
It: Welcome to Derry — Prequel to the It film duology (2017, 2019), both directed by Andy Muschietti. The series is set before the events of the films and expands the Derry mythology using King's novel as its structural foundation. Bill Skarsgård reprises Pennywise.
The Audacity — AMC original series, created and written by Jonathan Glatzer. Stars Billy Magnussen (No Time to Die, Made for Love) and Simon Helberg (The Big Bang Theory). Gina Mingacci serves as executive producer alongside Glatzer.
What's Next for All Three Shows — and Why the Accountability Theme Isn't Going Anywhere
Matlock Season 3 is confirmed. The central question heading into it — whether Julian actually faces prison time or finds some other form of reckoning — is now the show's most compelling dramatic thread. Marshall wants consequences. Ritter wants transformation. The writers have to find a path that satisfies both impulses without deflating the tension that's made Season 2 so watchable.
It: Welcome to Derry continues on Max, with the Muschiettis committed to the full run of the story they've wanted to tell since they were teenagers reading King in the '80s.
The Audacity, meanwhile, may be the most timely of the three — and timeliness is a double-edged thing for a drama. It can make a show feel essential. It can also make it feel dated in three years. Hard to say which way this one breaks.
For the most current streaming availability across all three titles — and across the US, UK, India, and Spain — Movie OTT has the updated picture as distribution deals shift.
