Just watched the first two episodes. To say pleasantly surprised and eagerly awaiting the next new episodes would be an understatement

Since I watched them as a kid, I’m surprised they got it right. I will check it out.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: pedropcola,

I don't know why, but the way it started really annoyed me. I watched the first scene and *click* flipped the channel. I don't think I'll be going back. Just a weird vibe to it.

For someone like me who never read the 80-something novels/novellas featuring the character, was the tv show version true to the written version? The previews I saw seemed to show Mason as a more gritty version than the old vanilla tv version.

Likewise had to get past the first couple scenes. So far seems to be about finding the Angel Flight killer.

I also could not watch the show. Tried to watch and turned it off. Went back a few days later and gave it another try and couldn't watch.
Recorded the second show and same thing couldn't watch it.

It seems to me- from the tiny bit I saw and from the similar experience of some of you- they are trying too hard.

I watched it because the time frame it is set in interests me and I became a fan of Matthew Rhys after I watched The Americans. I will stay with it to see how it goes. I am guessing that Raymond Burr is rotating in his grave.
Did anyone else catch the Happy Bottom Riding Club in the background shot of Masons home?

I made it about 40 minutes in the first episode and stopped and deleted it and episode 2. For whatever reason I just couldn't get into it, I just didn't care about anything going on.

Sounds like I'm not missing much. I'm a fan of the original series, own it all on DVD, and I don't have HBO.

I watched the first two episodes, and have yet to figure out why they called it Perry Mason as it seems to have nothing to do with Perry Mason. Some claim that it’s an origin story, but even if the TV series was too vanilla for the Perry Mason in the books, it’s hard to picture this character eventually evolving into the courtroom lawyer that everyone knows. Even as a retcon it doesn’t work since it’s so far from what people who are even minimally familiar with the TV show expect. They could have given characters different names unrelated to Perry Mason, and it would have been exactly the same. I imagine that the only reason they used the name was to sucker in viewers.

The show looks great, and has the nudity, sex, and violence you’d expect from a show on HBO, although there’s some disturbing imagery in the first episode (dead baby, multiple times in close up) that put me off. I intend to keep watching it. My advice is to watch the show if you like hard boiled film noir, not because it has anything to do with Perry Mason.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dwill104,

The show itself isn't bad but why call it Perry Mason?
No resemblance except the gravy-training off some of the same names.

No, it does not seem "true" to the '60s era TV show. This Perry Mason seems quite different than Burr's character, although they could have some turn that explains that. However, this is a new work of fiction, and there is no real requirement that the two are entirely (or even mostly) consistent. Take this show on its own merits.

I have enjoyed it so far, but it hasn't been great. It is a bit much at times.

The dude's acting won me over throughout The Americans, enough that I'll check this out. It's HBO, after all.

I barely remember the old Television show and never read any of the books. I can picture Burr in character, and a few still images of the show, but that's about all I recall.

I finished it. Like most Hollywood today it was quite woke:
Della Street is gay.
Hamilton Burger is gay.
Paul Drake is black.
Interesting aside to Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club.
I enjoyed the early 30s setting. Rhys was good.
Overall, it was watchable. I look for a second season.

I watched the first couple of episodes then gave up on it.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
I finished it. Like most Hollywood today it was quite woke:
Della Street is gay.
Hamilton Burger is gay.
Paul Drake is black.
Interesting aside to Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club.
I enjoyed the early 30s setting. Rhys was good.
Overall, it was watchable. I look for a second season.

My wife an I have a standing bet regarding how many episodes are needed until the obligatory gay, I gotta kiss/sleep with someone the same sex as I, character comes out. (Netflix is the second, third episode, HBO is the third/fourth (prostitutes sleeping with each other excluded), movies are around the 20 - 30 minute mark.

The best part is the when, where, and who is suddenly being portrayed.

Della gay; why?
Hamilton, gay; why?

Neither one of these add anything to the context or the story.

Drake black, but no racial discrimination/overtones when he's interacting with white cops who he just scorned? LOL but - no.

Now the storyline, I am definitely looking forward to season 2 also.

Oh yeah, guys, that certainly sounds worthwhile. You should contact HBO and let them know you want more of the same PC bullshit. Damn

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
I finished it. Like most Hollywood today it was quite woke:
Della Street is gay.
Hamilton Burger is gay.
Paul Drake is black.
Interesting aside to Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club.
I enjoyed the early 30s setting. Rhys was good.
Overall, it was watchable. I look for a second season.

Glad I bailed after 30 or 4 episodes.

Nuff with the token woke shit but I was having a hard time keeping interested and following it.

I thought that overall it was watchable and will watch the next season. It did have its pros and cons, though. I thought a lot of the acting was very good, especially Stephan Root as the DA (give that man an Emmy now). Also though they did a very good job of replicating the look of 1931 LA. Overall interesting story, but very much R rated film noir, and not a courtroom story like you would expect.

One of the things I didn’t like were that some of the things that were teased went absolutely nowhere, like the blue thread, and Mason’s blue ticket discharge from the military. They were mentioned, and then just forgotten. Also, never really got the Sister Alice storyline. They were building up potential all season, and then just dropped it in the last episodes. Also, thought what happened to Ennis was very Deus Ex Machina and unlikely from a character that had barely any screen time all season (although if it was made clear that the DA ordered it as payback for embarrassing him, it might have come across as being a slight bit more believable).

They really went overboard with the PC stuff, I thought, making it seem more like being deliberately stuffed down people’s throats than organic. Della’s gay, and by far the most competent legal mind on the show. Nothing wrong with a smart, competent woman who also happens to be gay, but then they pile it on with other characters. Berger is gay, for no obvious reason, except maybe that one gay person isn’t enough? And Paul Drake is black, just because, I guess? Again, the actors for the characters were great, but it seems like the characters were written a certain way not for the story, but to make a modern PC statement.