HBO updates ‘Perry Mason’ for the 21st century

Miniseries review: HBOs “Perry Mason,” directed by Timothy Van Patten and Deniz Gamze Ergüven, starring Matthew Rhys, Juliet Rylance, Chris Chalk, John Lithgow, Shea Whigham, Steven Root

In 1933, the California lawyer-turned-writer Earle Stanley Gardner saw publication of his first novel featuring the justice-seeking criminal defense attorney Perry Mason. No novice in either field, Gardner had already been a lawyer for more than 20 years and a professional writer for 10.

So he brought a wealth of experience in both realms to his novel. And it showed, not just with that first effort – titled “The Case of the Velvet Claws” – but in the series that followed, which would grow to 80 Mason novels published in his lifetime, two final ones posthumously. The series’ obvious success helped make Gardner, who died in 1970 at the age of 80, the most successful American author of his day.

And Mason as a character wasn’t confined merely to the page. A CBS radio series based on the character ran from 1943 to 1955 (voiced mainly by John Larkin) followed by the television series, starring Raymond Burr , that ran from 1957 to 1966.

Now HBO has produced its own version of the character, starring Welsh actor Matthew Rhys , co-star with Tom Hanks in last year’s Fred Rogers film “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and known to many from his role in the FX series “The Americans.” Titled simple “Perry Mason,” HBO’s eight-episode series premiered on June 21 and a second season has already been green-lighted.

One of the most interesting aspects to Gardner’s portrayal of Mason was how little information he provided regarding the character’s personal life. The television series starring Burr in particular was no better. Mason accepted cases, many of which seemed hopeless, consorted mostly with his clients, his secretary Della Street and his personal private eye Paul Drake as he searched for enough evidence to win in court against his ongoing legal foil Hamilton Burger.

But his background? Where he came from, where he lived, what he did in his free time? Of all this we know next to nothing.

Which, of course, made life easy – or at least easier – for series creators and co-writers Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald . The two both construct their version of Perry Mason as a classic origin story, creating the very background that novelist Gardner ignored, and they update the references to better fit a 21st-century audience.

Take the character of Della Street, for example. As played by Juliet Rylance , not only is she more of an associate than a mere secretary, she has ambitions to become a lawyer in her own right. And, by the way, she’s involved in a same-sex relationship. As for Paul Drake? No longer played by the smooth, classically Nordic type William Hopper , Mason’s private eye is now a dapper former cop played by the African-American actor Chris Chalk.

And Mason himself? His back story involves starting off as a World War I veteran, feeling the lingering effects of post-traumatic-stress-disorder, working for the now-past-his-prime lawyer E.B. Jonathan (played by John Lithgow) as a divorced, alcoholic, half-baked investigator who partners regularly with his old friend Pete Strickland (played by the dependable Shea Whigham ).

Besides setting all this up, the basic plot of Season One involves the kidnapping and subsequent death of a baby boy, the murders of the principal suspects, the prosecution of the baby’s mother by a scheming district attorney (played menacingly by Steven Root) and all of this revolving around ongoing police corruption and the evangelical church run by a bible-thumping soul-saver named Sister Alice (played by Tatiana Maslany ) and her mother (played by Lili Taylor).

Mason eventually does become something like the Mason portrayed both in Gardner’s novels and the radio and television series. But, to be frank, not all of it works. Told over the eight episodes, some of the series seems over-plotted, some plot points seem either random or inconsequential and Maslany – so good in the role that made her famous, the BBC America series “Orphan Black” – doesn’t resonate as well here as Sister Alice.

Still, the production is otherwise solid, from the feel that it achieves of 1930s L.A. to the acting of Rhys, Rylance, Chalk and Whigham in particular. If nothing else, this first season of HBO’s “Perry Mason” gives every indication that the best is yet to come.

Let’s hope the second season adheres closer to what Gardner himself told one of his editors: “It’s a damn good story,” he wrote. “If you have any comments, write them on the back of a check.”

This review was broadcast originally on Spokane Public Radio .