A confession (since this is the
review for them): I never had much use for Perry
Mason. The attorney whose clients are always innocent nearly killed the
courtroom drama in its infancy. The idea that it was the lawyer’s job to prove
his client innocent rather than the police set us up for more than three
decades pedestrian courtroom dramas that it took us until David E. Kelley and
Steven Bochco to spend half their careers overcorrecting. It didn’t help
matters that, despite Raymond Burr’s best effort, the title character was
absolute blank, with all his energy put through to his clients. His entire
character was through the MacGuffins of his clients, and not even the
relationships with his associates seemed real.
Which is why the fact that the
Perry Mason that debuted on HBO is
practically related to the 50s series in name only is just a blessed relief. In
the opening fifteen minutes we get more detail on Perry than we did in nearly a
decade on TV and God knows how many movies. This Perry is cynical, bitter, and
just interested in making a buck. Hell, he’s not even an attorney yet. His
official title is private investigator, but he calls that ‘a fancy name for a
professional busybody’. He lives in a farm in the middle of an airstrip, with a
Mexican aviatrix he has noisy sex with. He has no problem trying to blackmail
the people who hire him and less use for his so called associates he has to
bribe to business with. He’s a bitter veteran of the Great War, struggling to
survive the Depression, and is divorced with a child he can’t even get his wife
to put on the phone. Sam Spade wouldn’t give this Perry the time of day.
Matthew Rhys, whose doubt about
everything he did was one of the greatest things about The Americans, is absolutely exceptional as Perry. He doesn’t wear
the same kind of costumes that Philip Jennings was always in, but he doesn’t
have too – this Perry is uncomfortable in his own skin. He barely has any
patience to take on a case with a former boss (John Lithgow, in prime
scenery-chewing form) hires him to do some looking into a kidnapping that has
gone horribly wrong. In a way, 1930s LA
is the perfect setting for this Perry Mason – the cops are so corrupt they
don’t even bother to hide they consider everybody guilty and are more than
willing to put on ‘verdict first, proof afterwards’ approach. The only reason they try to step carefully is
because the suspect is the son-in-law of an important business man and the
member of powerful church, led by Sister Alice (Tatiana Maslany). In an
impromptu sermon, she reveals just how well certain clergy can raise a lynch
mob. Perry is convinced that everyone has a secret – but even when he finds one
of the suspects, he doesn’t think he’s begun to plumb the depths of the case.
If this is the next step HBO is
taking in drama series, I more than welcome it. It starts out with a franchise
and then goes out of its way to violate every rule of it. So far, the most
sympathetic characters on the show are E.B.’s secretary Della Street (Juliet Rylance) who is
clearly doing more to be the conscience, and Paul Drake (Chris Chalk) an LA
beat officer, who has to deal with his commanding officer’s corruption and
prejudice to try and make a dent in his world. (Anyone who knows even the
smallest bits about the world of Perry
Mason knows just how vital Drake and Street are to Perry’s future.) And it’s
incredibly well acted: Shea Whigham, as Perry’s sidekick, steals every scene
he’s in, and old hands Lili Taylor, Robert Patrick and Stephen Root continue to
demonstrate their gifts in smaller scenes.
I realize some people will complain
that the setup might as well just be a revision of True Detective: 1930S Edition. I wouldn’t necessarily complain
about that, but these characters are already more fully founded with more depth
to them than so many of the protagonists we got. And Rhys was always good as
raising the conscience of a character we should’ve been inclined to find
despicable on The Americans, and is
doing just as well her. Maybe it’ll falter, but for a change I’m looking
forward to seeing how this Perry gets to the truth of the mystery – in or out of
the courtroom.
My score: 4.5 stars.
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