Perry Mason
Many people, especially those of my Dad's generation, were very excited when they heard about the Perry Mason reboot. Perry Mason starring Raymond Burr was a television staple during their childhoods from 1957 to 1966. In fact Burr was so popular as Mason that they brought him back for TV movies throughout my childhood too! Now most reviews started by saying that "this isn't your father's Perry Mason" but I beg to differ, because by the end, after an initially rough pilot episode, the show found it's feet and got Parry into the courtroom defending a mother who most definitely didn't kill her child. Most people in fact were up in arms that Perry didn't start out as a lawyer and was a PI for the first few episodes. Well here's something that may shock you, yes, this series pays tribute to the original series, especially in the final episode's credits when a certain theme song is heard, but they weren't taking just from the series, they were pulling from the books. I know! Perry Mason started out in books! Erle Stanley Gardner wrote eighty books from the thirties to the sixties ranking him third in best selling book series of all time just below a certain boy wizard and Goosebumps! Also, what's fascinating about the series is that Perry as a person and in particular Perry's past isn't explored at all. We know more about his dining habits than about his personal habits. This, in my mind, made Perry perfect for a prequel if you will. And by no means is PI Perry dragged out. We learn about his family farm, his military service, his estranged wife, his child, and his struggles to make it, before becoming a lawyer. It's a good story for the early thirties and an America struggling to recover from The Great Depression. Though, as previously mentioned, the pilot is a little rocky, my guess is this is because it was written for Robert Downey Jr. to star in and it obviously had his acting quirks put into the script so when Matthew Rhys donned the mantel of Mason it took awhile to knock the Robert Downey Jr. out of the material. But I can honestly say, by the end of the first season I was grateful a second season was on the way, which I didn't initially think I would be.
