Perry Mason heads into, what was originally supposed to be its series finale, this Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO (re-airing Monday on HBO Max).
The series has quite the circuitous path to the finale. It was originally develop as a vehicle for Robert Downey Jr. with True Detective‘s Nic Pizzolato running the show. Yet, after numerous permutations the property was converted from film to limited/mini-series with Boardwalk Empire showrunner Timothy Van Patten at the helm and Matthew Rhys of The Americans donning the mantle of the famed attorney.
Yet, the whole idea of Perry Mason being a limited, eight-episode series was kind of a weird concept. The series is a procedural, and we all know American television audiences love a good procedural. Don’t believe me? If you still have cable television go look up how many channels the numerous iterations of Law & Order are currently running in marathon form … literally right now.
To compound the weirdness in the premiere episode, Perry Mason was a whiskey sozzled cheap detective more akin Jack Nicholson’s character (Jake Gittes) in Chinatown than the iconic character Raymond Burr brought to the small screen in the ’50s and ’60s. The premiere was all about recalibrating expectations, but it was more style over substance, sizzle than steak. It felt like a second attempt at Boardwalk with a little too many aesthetic similarities to Penny Dreadful: City of Angels than it should’ve been.
Yet, the infusion of a wildly talented cast in the second episode (Tatiana Maslany, Lilli Taylor, Stephen Root, Chris Chalk) as well as shifting the focus from Perry to the characters and case changed the tone of this series. It got grittier, it got tense, it got you more invested in the characters than you probably normally do in a procedural, and then … it took a complete left turn.
It was a very bold move to not only kill of John Lithgow’s wonderfully broken and blustery E.B. Jonathan, but have Perry take his place in the court room. It’s a move that is such a sharp turn that it in no way should work. If anyone remembers the short-lived Law & Order: Los Angeles, they did a similar thing where Alfred Molina’s district attorney resigned from the court room to head back to being a cop in order to solve the murder of a cop. It was a move so many people threw there hands up at and the move was short-lived as the series was canceled shortly thereafter.
Yet, the move not only allowed Rhys to take Perry from a fairly one-note and tired character into a much more interesting character — but it also allowed for Juliet Rylance’s Della Street to get way more screen time and absolutely command the screen (even outshining Rhys at times). Her chemistry with Rhys is some of the best material in the series, hands down. The series is also benefitting from Tatiana Maslany utterly stealing the entire series as the evangelical Sister Alice.
The audiences have been there for the series as the premiere has been viewed by 8 million viewers so far and HBO decided to take this from a limited series and convert it to a full-time series with a second season already ordered. This is a very, very rare move. TNT definitely tried doing this with the Frank Darabont gangster epic Mob City, but those tonal and narrative shifts did not pay off…at all. Renewing, however, Perry Mason is definitely a smart move as the procedural formula works for American audiences and the Rhys and Rylance team definitely deserve more television time as Perry and Della respectively. Oh, and we definitely need more of Chris Chalk as Mason staple Paul Street in our lives.
While there are a lot of positives about Perry Mason and it should be an HBO staple for years to come — there is some trepidation heading into the finale. The whole vast-conspiracy behind the murder is just way too expected. You just knew the kidnapping had to be tied into some sort of “rich dudes who want land” sort of scheme. Also, you have to worry that the trial will extend into Season 2 and that never works. Look at AMC’s The Killing — extending that mystery over multiple seasons was a bad idea. At the same token, you can’t make this ending too predictable for Perry to win the case easily.
Perry Mason is not a perfect series (that was Watchmen), but it’s good to see that a talented cast will be able to return to this very gorgeous and fleshed out world at least one more time.
