Perry Mason Chapter One Review

Based on the original 1957 series, the Perry Mason reboot has all the pieces of a great summer series, including a stacked cast featuring the likes of Matthew Rhys, Tatiana Maslany, and John Lithgow among others and the freedom of HBO. It’s going to be a fun 8 weeks.

Synopsis: Los Angeles, 1931. On the heels of an unsavory investigation involving a famous comedian, Perry Mason , a PI struggling to make ends meet , and his right-hand man Pete Strickland are hired by attorney E.B. Jonathan, Perry’s mentor, to solve a perplexing case: the brutal kidnapping of one-year-old Charlie Dodson, whose parents Matthew and Emily were targeted for a $100,000 ransom. After meeting with Herman Baggerly, a millionaire elder at the Dodsons’ church, Perry, E.B., and E.B.’s legal secretary Della Street ponder why a family of unmistakably modest means would be extorted for such a steep price. (HBO)

On first glance, it would seem that Perry Mason shares a few similarities to the recent Penny Dreadful: City of Angels in terms of its setting and time period but unlike the latter, this miniseries is a gritty re-imagining of the series based on the way it was shot, a seemingly darker character study of a dishevelled PI named Perry Mason (Rhys), a tortured everyman with a troubled past involving divorce and a dishonorable discharge during WWI (which clearly affected him) who suffered from the impact of his choices at its center who looks to undoubtedly rise up through the many obstacles both personally and professionally that are sure to come his way.

This first episode, Chapter One, saw Mason at a crossroads, trying to make ends meet while dealing with an unsavoury movie studio for whom he caught their leading lady in an uncompromising position and finding himself in the middle of an increasingly complex case, one involving the kidnapping and subsequent murder of a one-year-old baby that saw its parents, Matthew (Nate Corddry) and Ella Dodson (Gayle Rankin), put under the microscope, being a family with modest means that were still able to come up with the $100,000 ransom, while the truth seemed to be that the case was an inside job with deep ties. However, the entity that seemingly looms over the story was the Dodsons’ church who appear to have their fingers in everything. Meanwhile, Mason and his wisecracking right-hand man Pete Strickland (Shea Whigham) are hired by Mason’s mentor, an attorney named E.B. Jonathan (Lithgow) to investigate.

Working simultaneously with the police investigation would involve some unfriendly encounters which were not easy but nevertheless, Mason still did his thing. Though he may be hardened, cold, and hard to read for anyone not close to him, he still showed signs of caring among other things within that gruff exterior of his. Rhys’ understated performance, specifically his eyes made that clear as Mason looked at the dead baby after it was pulled out of a drawer at the local morgue. According to the coroner, and his friend, Virgil (Jefferson Mays), this was the worst thing he ever saw though Mason would beg to differ. Meanwhile, the camera would continue the symbolism of the eyes, not missing anything, immersing us by allowing us to feel along with Mason and connect with his process in a compelling way. The episode literally ended with him putting it all on the floor.

This episode was a good start but will only go as far as Matthew Rhys takes it, he just fits the character so well.

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.