The best thing about watching HBO’s version of Perry Mason is that it got me to try out the books and the series from the 50s/60s with Raymond Burr. From what I’ve read so far, the books are very engaging with Perry Mason being a classic 30s smart/tough hero and solid thriller writing. And while the earlier series falls into the formula of end of the show courtroom confessions, it’s still fun to watch these characters and the actors playing them.
The HBO version is a bad Perry Mason show. I mean that in the same way I would say Solo was a bad Star Wars movie. In both cases if you took away the names and trying to connect these characters to existing well-known previous stories, you have the potential for an enjoyable show. For Solo, if it was just a group of smugglers, no Han Solo, no Kessel Run, etc, more time could have been spent developing the story and characters rather than cramming the entire backstory of an existing character in one adventure. For Perry Mason there is the making of a decent noir, but the character’s core motivation/ beliefs/ integrity/ whatever are all missing. The most egregious bit is Perry Mason was always willing to bend the law a little bit to get at the truth, but never resort to breaking it to win. In this version he just gives up and pays off a juror (even though he doesn’t have to).
Another huge issue is that Erle Stanley Gardner was insistent that any portrayal of the character didn’t include his personal life. That always worked to the benefit of the character. It allowed him to appear larger than life even if he suffered the same daily problems as everyone else. When it comes to thrillers in general, delving into the character’s personal life usually just causes the story to drag and ends up feeling like filler. It also worked as a bonus when it came to the series from the 50s where a gay man is portraying the character and, if he wanted, he could think of the character as gay without any impact on the story or the viewer’s experience. In a way, the more a character’s life is defined, the less relatable that character becomes to a segment of the audience.
Minus the character names and extraneous story bits, the show itself is well crafted. The visuals: cinematography, directing, production design and the acting are all very well done and probably the thing that got me to watch the whole series.
