Matlock: Season One (CBS/Paramount, 5 DVDs, NR, 113 hours 322 min.). Madeline “Matty” Matlock, 75, boldly barges into a major law firm’s board room, earns the firm an extra $4 million and lands a job as an associate, even though she has not practiced law in 30 years. However, mostly it is a lie, as she really is Mrs. Kingston, whose husband Edwin is not dead as she claims.

What Matlock really is after is to uncover which of three suspects at the New York City law firm of Jacobson Moore is the one who withheld evidence that would have taken dangerous opioids of the market years ago, saving lives, including that of her daughter. The case involved Wellbrexa and her suspects are the firm owner, Howard “Senior” Markston (Beau Bridges of “The Fabulous Baker Boys,” TV’s “The Millers,” “Masters of Sex”), or his son, Julian Markston (Jason Ritter of TV’s “Kevin (Probably) Saves the World,” “Gravity Falls”), or Julian’s soon-to-be-divorced wife, Olympia Lawrence (Skye P. Marshall of TV’s “Good Sam,” “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”).

Matlock is played by Kathy Bates (“Misery,” “Dolores Claiborne,” “Titanic”), an Oscar winner for “Misery,” plus three other Oscar nominations, and 15 nominations for Emmy Awards, including her latest for “Matlock,” with Emmy wins for “American Horror Story” and “Two and a Half Men.”

Matlock is assigned to Olympia’s team, which includes much younger associates Billy Martinez (David Del Rio of “Pitch Perfect,” TV’s “Grease Live!”) and the overly-ambitious Sarah Franklin (Leahy Lewis of “Fred 3: Camp Fred”). Someone Matlock has to watch out for is “human lie detector” Shae Banfield (Yael Grobglas of TV’s “Reign,” “Ha-E”), who helps the firm with jury selection.

At home, Matlock is supported by Edwin (Sam Anderson of “Forrest Gump,” “Airplane II: The Sequel”), her husband of 38 years, and her tech-savvy godson Alfie (Aaron Harris of “My Weird School”).

The 18-episode season begins with Matlock nailing down her new job. The first cases she works on are a man, wrongly imprisoned for26 years, who is seeking compensation; an 18-year-old accused of killing a 16-year-old friend; and a wrongful termination case by a woman who claims she was sexually harassed by her boss. Due to Olympia’s losing the sympathy of the jury, Matlock is thrust into actually trying the latter case, despite her decades of rust.

Matlock has several sayings to make her feel less threatening. One is that she is “Matlock, like the old TV show” (the series starred Andy Griffith and ran from 1986 through 1995 on NBS and then ABC). Another is “Nobody sees us coming” of those who reache an older age.

Bates fits her character like a glove and the supporting cast is strong as well. The show is a constant delight. There will be a second season. Extras include deleted scenes and a gag reel. Grade: season 3.75 stars; extras 1.25 stars

Rating guide: 5 stars = classic; 4 stars = excellent; 3 stars = good; 2 stars = fair; dog = skip it

Death Valley (United Kingdom, Warner Bros., BBC, 2 DVDs, NR, 270 min.). Timothy Spall (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” TV’s “Wolf Hall”) has a blast playing John Chapel, who earned fame as TV police detective Charles Caesar, but now is retired (and grieving his late wife). Chapel gets drawn into the police investigations of DS Janie Mallowan (Gwyneth Keyworth of TV’s “Hidden,” “Doctor Thorne”), when his neighbor Carwyn Rees (Kristian Arthur) is murdered. The show is set in South Wales.

The police believe Rees’ death was a suicide, but, while being interviewed as a potential witness, Chapel tells Mallowan that the case was murder, because Rees would never be so cruel as to leave his body for the cleaning woman, whom he liked, to find. Soon, Chapel is helping Mallowan with other dead body cases in the six-episode first season, while Mallowan is failing to hide his help from her boss.

Mallowan, of course, is a big fan of Inspector Caesar and his TV show. Meanwhile, before Mallowan barged in, Chapel’s main company had been a stray cat that he took to feeding and talking to.

While Mallowan is interested in procedures and building a watertight case, Chapel relies on character and motives. The unlikely fit does work well and the show, especially Spall as Chapel, is delightful.

There will be a second season. Extras look at creating the show, the two main characters and creating the scripts. Grade: season 3.25 stars; extras 1.5 stars

NCIS: Sydney: Season Two (CBS/Paramount, 3 DVDs, NR, 424 min.). The United States NCIS agents and the Australian Federal Police are grafted into an international task force to keep naval crimes in check in the most-contested patch of ocean on the planet … and international tensions are rising in the Indo-Pacific. The team is led by NCIS Special Agent Michelle Mackey (Olivia Swann of TV’s “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”) and her 2IC AFP counterpart, Sgt. Jim “JD” Dempsey (Todd Lasance of TV’s “Spartacus”).

Other regulars are Sean Sagar (TV’s “Our Girl”) as DeShawn Jackson, Tuuli Narkle (TV’s “Mystery Road: Origin”) as Evie Cooper, Mavournee Hazel (TV’s “Neighbours”) as Bluebird “Blue” Gleeson and William McInnes (TV’s “Blue Heelers,” “SeaChange”) as Doc Roy “Rosie” Penrose.

Cases include a rogue assassin, a pirate-themed wedding on an old ship, online conspiracies leading to a car bomb, a frozen petty officer, the death of a U.S. Navy chorister, modern-day “vampires,” a fatal training exercise and a missing Stinger missile. There are 10 episodes in all. Grade: season 3 stars

Shinobi No Mono: Siege, Return of Mist Saizo, The Last Iga Spy (Japan, 1964-65, Radiance, 2 Blu-rays, NR, 267 min.). This limited edition of 3,000 copies contains the second “Shinobi” trilogy produced by Daiei Film Co. “Shinobi” is Japanese for “ninja.,” these three films are related by characters and plot. In fact, the second film is a direct continuation of the first film, even though the directors are different. Raizô Ichikawa plays ninja Kirigakure “Mist” Saizo in the first two films and then plays Saizo’s grown-up son Saisuke in the third.

All three films tie into real historic events. “Siege” is set in 1614-1615, with Tokugawa Ieyonsu (Ganjiro Nakamura) of the Shogunate attacking the castle at Mount Chausu with 300,000 men. The Isaka Castle has only 80,000 defenders. Swordsman Sanada Yukimura leads the outnumbered forces, which mainly consist of the Toyotami clan.

Despite an agreement ending the conflict, Ieyonsu orders all the Osaka Castle moats filled in and its turrets dismantled. Ieyonsu also has ordered weapons from the Dutch. Yukimura orders Ieyonsu’s death, but Saizo’s efforts fail.

The best part of the film is the closing destruction of Osaka Castle and the warfare invading it.

“Return of Mist Saizo” continues the story, even repeating some of the last film’s closing battle. Saizo has escaped in a small boat with Yukimura and his son. After they reach safety, Saizo checks out a rifle-making factory, run by the Shogunate. In the film, two women Saizo tries to help turn out to be female ninjas, who then are ordered to kill him.

The third film jumps forward a few years, with Saizo saying goodbye to his son Saisuke and Princess Yuri, Yukimura’s daughter, whom he had been guarding. The film then jumps forward 14 years. In between, Yuri has been raised by Izo no Kasui, who has his own plans of taking over the government. And while Saisuke does finally get his revenge, it leaves a very unsatisfying taste, as the 75-year -old Ieyonsu was dying anyways.

There is some repetition in the films – lots of dust and dirt are thrown up to obscure views, for example – but generally they flow well.

Extras include scene-specific commentary on “Siege” by Tom Mes, who also does a visual essay on star Raizô Ichikawa (4:21). Taichi Kasuga discusses Taiei’s historical films (24:10); film scholar Mance Thompson discusses the series (18:12); and film critic Hayley Scannon does a visual essay on “The Tragedy of Mist Saizo” (11:34). There also is a 56-page booklet with cast and crew lists, and new writing by Jonathan Clements and Stephen Trunbull Finally, there are six lobby card reproductions. Grade: Siege 3 stars; Return of Mist Saizo 2.5 stars, The Last Iga Spy 2.5 stars; extras 2.75 stars