S01.E01: Chapter One

[shapeshifter]

7 hours ago, Sir RaiderDuck OMS said:

Gardner actually hand-picked Burr for the role: he hadn't liked any of the actors that the network had brought in to play PM, but Fred McMurray was leading. Burr, who had played the bad guy in several films, was brought in to read for the role of District Attorney Hamilton Burger. When watching Burr's screen test, Gardner stood up, pointed at the screen, and said "That's him! That's Perry Mason!" His PM novels during and after the TV show were obviously written with Burr in mind, as Mason's physical description and speech patterns were changed to more closely match Burr's.

On 6/23/2020 at 12:30 AM, J-Man said:

(There were also PM radio shows, but I've never heard them.) 

You're thinking of the radio soap opera Edge of Night, which included Perry, Della, and Paul as regular characters. When they made the transition to television in the 1950s, the series was split in two, with Perry, Della and Paul going to the Perry Mason series which was strictly episodic with no soap opera elements, and Edge of Night having those three characters renamed.

I just replied to this in the Compare and Contrast thread here: https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/110111-compare-contrast-hbo-with-books-raymond-burr-and-other-versions/?do=findComment&comment=6215740

[Jextella]

On 6/24/2020 at 10:25 AM, Ellaria Sand said:

I will watch a few more episodes to see if the show finds some momentum but, overall, I was disappointed. 

I love Matthew Rhys but the "down on his luck slob" characterization is a poor use of his talents. I'm not sure why I should be rooting for Perry at this point (other than the fact that Rhys is a brilliant actor). A lot of characters were thrown at us in this episode...perhaps too many. 

I like the look of the show and its 1930s noir feel but I worry about the tendency to make many scenes so dark. Of course, that is a problem with many shows.

My parents watched the old Perry Mason series and I have vague recollections about that show. I have never read any of Erle Stanley Gardner's novels. I assume that we will, at some point, get current Perry to the Perry of the old show/novels. Otherwise, I'm not sure why the character was resurrected.

And come on with Chubby Carmichael. Such an obvious reference to Fatty Arbuckle and I don't understand why.

 

I'll watch to the end (I think) but mostly becaue I need some background while working, but geeze.  The show is pretty bad....I'm no pro, but it seems to be in the script.  I feel that ALL the characters are struggling to find substance in their scenes and there just isn't any.

The quality of work coming out of HBO over the last few years seems to have gone down quite dramatically.  Its mini-series' and documentaries in particular just don't go that extra mile. 

 

 

 

 

[Kromm]

As I suspected, it's not even credibly the same character earlier on.  Sticking in a Della Street didn't make any real connection. 

He wouldn't have to come off like Raymond Burr. That was all just TV stuff.  But even in the books Perry Mason wasn't some fists first down on his luck Palooka. He's got to have some shrewdness and intellect and lead with his mouth as much as his ears, not his fists. 

Even 15 years or more earlier, this makes little sense.  With that timing he's got to go from broke and broken, to law school, to a fairly healthy practice during The Great Depression.  The previous incarnation of Perry Mason you could see doing it, because there was no reason to believe he didn't have the advantages to thrive through The Depression. Here?  Not seeing it. 

The atmosphere is good and the production values. For something so alternate universe it can't even be properly seen as a prequel. 

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by Kromm

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Kromm said:

For something so alternate universe it can't even be properly seen as a prequel. 

Henceforth I will refer to this show (at least in my mind) as Alternate Universe Perry Mason, 2020.
I'm not sure if it will be necessary to tack on "2020" since it seems likely that 2020 may go down in history as the beginning of the Alternate Universe of the planet.

[zoey1996]

On 6/28/2020 at 12:00 PM, shapeshifter said:

This article also mentions that one of the kidnappers resembled the baby's father --which makes me wonder if he was recruited for the crime because of his resemblance (so the father would be blamed), and the article also recaps the last scenes for those of us who didn't quite see everything, which were pretty dark, with the action so fast that it was a mental blur for me: menshealth.com/entertainment/a32908213/perry-mason-episode-1-ending-explained

Interesting observations in the article, but IMHO they blew it by referencing The Tortoise and the Hair (sic).  It's the Hare!

 

[Milburn Stone]

I'll give it another chance or two. But--having grown up on the CBS Perry Mason--I wish they had tried a little bit to make this Perry connect with that one. One of the biggest issues, for me, is that the timeline is impossible if you care about connecting the two shows. Rhys-Mason is a WW1 vet; that would make him at least 30 years old in the 1930 time frame of the show. So by the time Perry Mason debuted on CBS, Burr-Mason would be 57 years old! That character clearly is not. He appears to be no older than his low forties. (Which happens to have been Burr's age at the time, although that's not strictly relevant.) It seems to me they could have told an origin story with at least a little more respect for the timeline, by setting it in the mid-1940s and making Rhys-Mason a returning veteran of WW2. 

Edited July 29, 2020 by Milburn Stone

[shapeshifter]

5 minutes ago, Milburn Stone said:

I'll give it another chance or two. But--having grown up on the CBS Perry Mason--I wish they had tried a little bit to make this Perry connect with that one. One of the biggest issues, for me, is that the timeline is impossible if you care about connecting the two shows. Rhys-Mason is a WW1 vet; that would make him at least 30 years old in the 1930 time frame of the show. So by the time Perry Mason debuted on CBS, Burr-Mason would be 57 years old! That character clearly is not. He appears to be no older than his low forties. (Which happens to have been Burr's age at the time, although that's not strictly relevant.) It seems to me they could have told an origin story with at least a little more respect for the timeline, by setting it in the mid-1940s and making Rhys-Mason a returning veteran of WW2. 

I was put off a bit by the first episode, but I'm watching them as they air (so through "Chapter 6") and have been consistently more drawn into the show with each episode. 

[sistermagpie]

15 minutes ago, Milburn Stone said:

I'll give it another chance or two. But--having grown up on the CBS Perry Mason--I wish they had tried a little bit to make this Perry connect with that one. One of the biggest issues, for me, is that the timeline is impossible if you care about connecting the two shows. Rhys-Mason is a WW1 vet; that would make him at least 30 years old in the 1930 time frame of the show. So by the time Perry Mason debuted on CBS, Burr-Mason would be 57 years old! That character clearly is not. He appears to be no older than his low forties. (Which happens to have been Burr's age at the time, although that's not strictly relevant.) It seems to me they could have told an origin story with at least a little more respect for the timeline, by setting it in the mid-1940s and making Rhys-Mason a returning veteran of WW2. 

But why would they bother with that timeline? I mean, the TV show didn't try to keep with any timeline of the books, which started in the 30s.

I haven't read the books, but do they work like the Nero Wolfe books where the world gets older but Nero and Archie stay the same age?

[Milburn Stone]

4 minutes ago, sistermagpie said:

But why would they bother with that timeline? I mean, the TV show didn't try to keep with any timeline of the books, which started in the 30s.

That's valid. The HBO show is apparently truer to the books (which I haven't read).

I'm just saying that for me, if they had to choose between being faithful to the books (which I haven't read) or the CBS show (which I've seen just about every episode of), I'd have preferred the latter.

It does help me to know they have a reason to set it in the thirties. I will keep watching in the hope of sharing @shapeshifter's experience.

[sistermagpie]

Just now, Milburn Stone said:

I'm just saying that for me, if they had to choose between being faithful to the books (which I haven't read) or the CBS show (which I've seen just about every episode of), I'd have preferred the latter.

That makes sense. I haven't seen the show or read the books and when I first heard it I thought the same thing, that since they were an origin story they were supposed to link up to the 50s show, even if it was only in a sort of vague gesture sort of way. And then I thought, "Wait, isn't Matthew Rhys a bit long in the tooth to be playing young Perry Mason?" because it seemed like he would be a guy just out of college!

But since this version is so different I just think of it as being an alternate universe, like a good fanfic.

[S45apUSA]

There are two things that no since to me they are as follows: making Paul Drake a black man due provasive  racism of the the time period and two making Della Street lesbian.

[jokr1822]

I think it’s a much more interesting take on Perry Mason. I loved the old show on CBS when I was a kid, but the characters were very one dimensional. This is a much more interesting, nuanced, origin story. Even on the old show I thought either Paul Drake or Mason would have been boffing Della Street.