This HBO series is set to debut on June 21 and will star Matthew Rhys. Time period: 1931 Los Angeles -- the time of the Great Depression, but also including an LA oil boom, the Olympic Games, and the growing film industry.
Can't wait until June? Catch up on the original series. Available on several different streaming services and YouTube.
Here's the Trailer for the new Series.
This sounds to me that the series of films are more closely associated with the early books by ESG. Those books were more noir and more action-oriented. The early stories were written for pulp and were a little grittier. I suspect that this version may put off Raymond Burr fans. Gardner said that Burr was his view of Perry Mason, but that was 20 years after he started writing him.
ReplyDeleteI wish they would have called it something else. It's probably good but for me, there is only one Perry Mason (Barbara what'shername and Paul Drake)...
ReplyDeleteI loved M Rhys in The Americans. I'll bet he'll be great in this also.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about Perry Mason is that he sat behind a desk and then only appeared in the courtroom. The ‘leg” work was supplied by Paul Drake and Della Street. That made for a rich tableaux of characters and not a just a mono-character plot (in which I would characterize, say Harry Bosch, or some other fictional character of that ilk). I find that compelling as well, but I think it’s hard to sustain because you have a character that can only grow so much before it becomes stale or the writer needs to get more outlandish to keep the characterization moving. If you have several characters that feature in the plot, then you have much farther to “go” before it eventually becomes stale. IMO. :)
ReplyDeleteI watched the trailer for "Perry Mason". It looks really exciting for PI, Police Proc, and especially Noir lovers. But it doesn't appear to be anything like the original w/ Burr as Mason. It looks like a combination of Dashiell Hammett, James Ellroy, and ??? I am really looking forward to watching it. If you want background on the era in LA, read/watch "L.A. Confidential" by James Ellroy. Or almost any Ellroy works about LA.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy watching Perry Mason the series and movies with Raymond Burr. This sounds interesting. I'll have to check it out.
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