Perry Mason Season 2 Is a Tad Predictable, But a Sizeable Improvement on Season 1: Review
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The post Perry Mason Season 2 Is a Tad Predictable, But a Sizeable Improvement on Season 1: Review appeared first on Consequence.
The Pitch: It’s Los Angeles in the year 1932, and while the Great Depression is continuing to make the common man’s life less-than-great, the city still feels full of potential for dreamers and capitalists alike. Of course, that doesn’t mean the city’s free of crime, the latest high-profile murder being that of Brooks McCutcheon (Tommy Dewey), the young heir to an oil dynasty. The police quickly find their prime suspects in a local Hooverville — two young Latino men (Fabrizio Guido, Peter Mendoza) — and they’re going to need a lawyer.
Unfortunately for the accused, though, Perry Mason (Matthew Rhys) is reluctant to take the case — six months after the end of Season 1 the end of the Emily Dodson case, Perry’s been getting into the swing of things as a lawyer, but his last high-profile trial left him reluctant to defend another murderer.
But of course, he’s not working alone, with loyal but ambitious Della Street (Juliet Rylance) pushing him forward while making sure she’s got more than an assistant-level role in their small upstart legal firm, and Paul Drake (Chris Chalk) proving himself to be a skilled investigator. Will that be enough to help their clients go free? Especially given that an entire city wants to see them hang?
No More Origin Story: It’s hard to imagine two TV shows with the same title being as different as the classic Perry Mason and HBO’s spin on the character, now entering its second season. Both are about lawyers named Perry Mason, sure, but while the Raymond Burr-starring legal drama featured cases of the week, tidily wrapped up by the end of the episode, Rhys faces a much more complicated season-long mystery where, just like Season 1, the guilty outnumber the innocent.
It’s actually impressive how similar Season 2 feels to Season 1 of the HBO series, because beyond executive producers Susan Downey and Robert Downey Jr., it’s almost a completely different creative team behind the scenes: New showrunners Jack Amiel and Michael Begler (The Knick) have taken over for Season 1’s Rolin Jones & Ron Fitzgerald, while Season 2 is directed by new-to-the-series Fernando Coimbra, Jessica Lowrey, Marialy Rivas, and Nina Lopez-Corrado (an impressively inclusive roster).
It helps that the show’s aesthetic persists, drenched in lovely rich tones: the Spanish-influenced architecture, the hazy sunlight, the dark wood touches found in the courtroom. Ugliness abounds in this Los Angeles, but it’s always in sharp contrast to the beautifully rendered details found on screen.
Perry Mason (HBO)
As For the Cast… Once you choose to focus on Rhys’s performance as a completely separate entity from what’s come before, he really does spark on screen, especially in contrast to Rylance’s take on the confident yet flawed Della — with their dynamic now well-established, it’s fun to see the mismatched pair in action in the courtroom. Paul also gets his own strong subplot, as the ex-cop attempts to find his own path in a society designed to oppress anyone who’s not a rich white man.
As this season’s accused, Guido and Mendoza get plenty of screen time to develop out their characters beyond tropes; also new this season is Katherine Waterston as Perry’s son’s teacher, delivering Abigail Spencer-on-Mad Men realness, though her dynamic with Perry leads to some unexpected yet intriguing moments. Justin Kirk also returns as ADA Hamilton Burger, whose own secrets find him making some tough choices as the season progresses.
The Verdict: The first season of Perry Mason had plenty of strong qualities, from the beautiful production details to the solid cast led by Rhys. But it was also at times pretty messy, especially when it came to the Radiant Assembly of God storyline, which featured strong performances from Tatiana Maslany, Lili Taylor, and Gayle Rankin but drew too much focus from the core characters. Also, frankly, in retrospect the idea of telling Perry Mason’s origin story proved not to be as interesting as advertised, especially given how unique Rhys and Burr’s interpretations of the character are.
Thus, by so many metrics, Season 2 is a far stronger season than the first, with the show never straying from its examination of how power and money corrupt the pursuit of pure and true justice. The only area where Season 1 has Season 2 beat is maybe in the storytelling, as the moments that feel like they’re meant to be twists instead feel a bit too obvious and predictable.
It’s enough to make you hope for a third season, though here’s a humble pitch: Instead of taking an entire season to resolve one murder case, what about trying to tackle a new case every week? A fresh mystery in each episode (though perhaps with some sort of overarching narrative to connect things)? It’s wild, I know. Perhaps impossible to imagine. But it might just be crazy enough to work, and it’d be exciting to see these characters moving at a slightly faster pace.
Where to Watch: Perry Mason Season 2 premieres Monday, March 6th on HBO and HBO Max. New episodes will roll out weekly.
Trailer:
Perry Mason Season 2 Is a Tad Predictable, But a Sizeable Improvement on Season 1: Review
Liz Shannon Miller
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