With Rhys entering into the title position initially performed by Raymond Burr, the prequel finds the long run lawyer as a grumpy, booze-soaked non-public eye in 1930s Los Angeles. Slumped in a mustard-stained tie, this Perry Mason is morally ambivalent, psychologically haunted and cynical to a fault. (“Everyone’s acquired an angle, all people’s hiding one thing and all people’s responsible,” he grumbles at one level.) Rhys employs the identical hangdog scowl right here that he had as conflicted Soviet spy Philip Jennings on The Individuals, and that melancholy, world-weary demeanor units the tone for all the sequence. Casting Rhys as Mason was a masterstroke; he makes the entire thing work.
The noir-flavored homicide thriller that follows fuses collectively the darkish, twisty procedural components of True Detective and The Night time Of with the retro status drama of Boardwalk Empire and The Knick. The jazz rating is moody and mournful, and the visible palette leaves everybody drenched in dramatic shadows, even on a sunny L.A. day. A palpable disappointment hangs over each scene: The nation is deep within the throes of the Nice Melancholy, and we are able to see the determined starvation lurking in individuals’s eyes.
I do really feel I ought to supply a warning: It is a heavy, intense watch. It does include a vein of darkish humor, principally because of Shea Whigham (who’s by no means been higher) as sleazy investigator Pete Strickland, nevertheless it’s not precisely lighthearted escapism. It’s impeccably crafted and surprisingly involving, although, balancing out the crime components by delving deep into Mason’s troubled psyche. And for die-hard followers, it does ultimately evolve into the courtroom drama we anticipate from the model. It nearly performs like a superhero’s origin story, with Mason exhibiting hints of the crusading protection lawyer he’d turn into. I’m not in any hurry to leap forward to Mason’s glory days, although. His early years are fairly nice, too, because it seems.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: HBO’s Perry Mason reboot is a recent tackle the famed TV lawyer, with a juicy thriller and a ridiculously good forged.